From the creators of South Park (Trey Parker, Matt Stone and Robert Lopez), comes this outrageously funny musical, which tells the story of a group of Mormons sent on a mission to spread the word of Joseph Smith to people around the world. Featuring several catchy numbers, and impressive choreography, this musical is a spectacle from start to finish, and is sure to have you tapping your feet throughout. Where the musical struggles is in its storyline, which feels light and fluffy on the surface, but leaves a sour taste in the mouth as soon as you dig a little deeper.
The story focuses on two young Mormons, Elder Price (Adam Bailey) and Elder Cunningham (Sam Glen) who are paired up together to educate others about the Mormon faith. Price and Cunningham could not be more different, and it is here where most of the comedy lies. Price has an air of self-importance about him (the fact that he sings a song entitled “You and Me (but mostly me)” should tell you all you need to know about him), but Bailey also makes him incredibly likeable, and we can forgive the character his faults knowing that the story will see him resolve these issues before the end of the show. Bailey’s reactions as things start to turn a bit weird perfectly mirrors the audience, providing an excellent contrast to the show’s wackier moments. Occasionally it is difficult to catch everything Bailey is saying as his voice becomes a little drowned out by the music, but on the whole he gives a stunning performance with some excellent comic highlights.
Glen’s Cunningham is your usual sweet-natured idiot, constantly making blunders whilst trying his best to succeed. He is as eager to admit to telling lies as he is to tell them in the first place, and this is what makes his character so enjoyable to watch. Glen’s reactions are spot-on – even when he is not the focus of the scene, he demands your attention, showing true dedication to the role. When he finally takes the spotlight in the Act One Finale “Man Up”, the result is as cringe-worthy and fabulous as you would expect.
The two Mormons are sent to Uganda, where they are greeted by Kirk Patterson’s Mafala Hatimbi and Nyah Nish’s Nabulungi. The stark realities of life in Uganda are contrasted with Price’s imagined Lion King-esque version, and to mirror this the show becomes a little more vulgar and adult. The music moves away from camp Disney-style songs to take on an African drum-beat as the Ugandans perform the sweary “Hasa Diga Eebowai”, which sees them all raise a middle finger towards God to thank him for cursing them with famines and diseases.
But this is where most of the problems with the story lie. Whilst the play has an opportunity to tell a nuanced tale of the clash of experiences between the Mormons and their African counterparts, the Ugandans are reduced to nothing more than stereotypes, and serious issues such as AIDs epidemics and female circumcision are mentioned in throwaway lines and treated as jokes. Nabulungi could be a multi-layered character, and Nish certainly shows that she is capable of hitting emotional high points during her solo “Sal Tlay Ka Siti”, but even here the joke is that she cannot say “Salt Lake City” properly, and throughout she is never even given the dignity of having her name pronounced correctly by the Mormons.
There is a lot to enjoy about the show, and it is easy to get carried away by the lovable characters and lively choreography (Casey Nicholaw). “Turn it off” is an excellent tap-dancing number that sees the Mormon ensemble don sparkly pink waistcoats in an incredibly quick-change (a special mention must go to Tom Bales as the super-camp Elder McKinley), whilst “Baptise Me” is one of the most impressive songs in terms of lyrics, providing an excellent double-entendre that gets funnier as the song goes on. Things take a strange turn in the second half during the “Spooky Mormon Hell Dream”, which sees Lucifer, Hitler and Genghis Khan begin tap-dancing, twirling canes and tipping their top hats. The cast boasts a huge ensemble which bring a huge amount of energy and enthusiasm throughout, making every number lively and memorable.
The set design (Scott Pask) brings to life a variety of different settings, but the choice to have the set raised about half a metre above the Theatre Royal stage is an odd one, which results in some masking for those sat in the stalls (as the characters arrive in Uganda, they see an old man dragging a dead donkey across the stage, but this curious staging choice meant that the prop was mostly obscured from our view in the stalls by the lip of the stage). There were also a few lighting mishaps (the end of the show saw a slightly misplaced spotlight on Price, Cunningham and Nabulungi), but this is the opening night in the Nottingham venue, and will surely be rectified for future performances. Little seems to have changed about this production since its previous tour, although Cunningham’s choreography seems to lean into TikTok and Fortnite-inspired dances a little more, whilst an unexpected reference to Nigel Farage makes for an incredibly funny joke, even if it feels a little misplaced.
Overall, “The Book of Mormon” is a celebration of religion and faith (the show might poke fun at the Mormons beliefs, but in the end demonstrates that having belief can make life better, and do more help than harm), but ultimately boils down to a group of ethnic minorities being saved by white men, which cannot help but feel a little bit off. It is a shame that, given this is one of the only mainstream musicals where 50% of the cast are African, their characters are little more than caricatures, treated as gullible morons for the most part. The actual Ugandan culture is not explored at all (I don’t know whether the writers ever did any proper research into life in Uganda, but it certainly doesn’t seem like it), whereas the Mormon faith is properly explained, if only in a tongue-in-cheek way. The numbers are catchy, and the show is immense fun to watch – just don’t question it too much.
Tom Morley, June 2025
For more information on how I decide on star ratings, see here: Star ratings – Broken Legs Blog
Review round-up:
Beyond the Curtain: The Book of Mormon – Nottingham 2025 – A 5 star review from ‘Beyond the Curtain’, who say the “cast bring absolute West-End quality to the nation, with no weak link and stellar performances from everyone involved”
Musical Theatre Review: The Book of Mormon – The Alexandra, Birmingham – A 4 star review from earlier in the tour, which points out that the humour “cuts so close to the bone (and even way past the bone if we’re honest) with such razor-sharp bite that some may well find it just too cutting”
Lisa In the Theatre: Review: The Book of Mormon UK Tour – A 5 star review from the Glasgow run which states that the musical is “bold, scandalous and thoroughly entertaining“
Broken Legs Blog 