Julieta Cervantes
The Book of Mormon has been a mainstay on Broadway since opening in 2011, now the 12th longest running Broadway show. The Best Musical Tony Award winner has spawned two North American tours, a West End production and a UK tour, and launched a third US tour in 2022. The show is the brainchild of the creative geniuses behind South Park and Avenue Q, so there is more than enough packed in to make you laugh and cringe and then laugh again. The show is not for the faint of heart especially if you’re deeply religious … and Mormon (and to this day some 13 years later, people still come to the show completely oblivious and leave at intermission).
So for the uninitiated, what’s the show about? Well, it focuses on two young Mormon men about to be sent out on their first missionary experience. Elder Price (Sam McLellan) has been praying to Heavenly Father to be sent to his dream location — Orlando — but his dream becomes a nightmare when he’s paired up with misfit Elder Cunningham (Sam Nackman) and sent to a location not quite what Price prayed for — Uganda. At first Price tries to make the best of it, but when they join the other elders and discover that they have failed to get even one of the locals baptized — and after witnessing the warlord General Butt Fucking Naked (Dewight Braxton Jr.) shoot one of the villagers in the head — Price decides he’s out and does everything he can to get back home … and request a transfer to Orlando.
Meanwhile Elder Cunningham has hit it off with Nabulungi (Keke Nesbitt), daughter of the villagers’ leader, who manages to convince the rest of the village to listen to what he has to say about Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon. Cunningham, always happy to be a follower, now finds himself in a position of leading others to the ‘promised land’ but when they all find his book boring, he begins to … lie a bit about the story, embellishing it with Star Wars and Star Trek references and other outrageous tales that he feels the villagers may relate to — and this includes everything from female genital mutilation to poverty to pedophilia to AIDS — to the point that they are all ready to be baptized. After suffering another ‘spooky Mormon Hell dream’ (undoubtedly the show’s musical highlight), Price returns, guilty he left his partner behind and discovers what Cunningham has done. And with the president of their mission on his way to see their success, and Nabulungi discovering she’s been lied to, the boys are in desperate need of a miracle.
The Book of Mormon is hilarious right out of the gate as it gives us a brief background on how Mormonism was born — and nothing in the show is made up when it comes to that subject but it’s presented in such a comical way you can’t believe it’s true — which leads into the classic opening number ‘Hello’ featuring the soon-to-be missionaries practicing ringing doorbells and introducing their book to unsuspecting home dwellers. Once the boys get to Uganda, they are welcomed to the village with a song highlighting their favorite phrase, ‘Hasa Diga Eebowai’, which feels like an exclamation of joy, sort of like ‘Hakuna Matata’. It’s not but I won’t spoil that for you. The show is packed with other big production numbers and several more quiet and sincere ones putting this cast through their paces.
Julieta Cervantes
McLellan really has the difficult role in Elder Price because he’s handsome and charming and intelligent but at the same time he’s a totally self-centered asshole, so McLellan has to be able to show us Price’s flaws while still making him endearing to the audience. He pulls that off with great skill because if he didn’t, Price would be as much of a villain as the general. We need to want Price to get his redemption, and no matter how badly he treats puppy dog Cunningham, McLellan lets us see just enough of Price’s vulnerability so that we do root for him. On top of the performance, McLellan’s got to sing and dance, vigorously, which he does with great skill (and this show’s music and lyrics are just as strenuous as the dancing, putting a lot of strain on the cast’s voices).
Nackman is delightful as Elder Cunningham, a character that’s just as difficult as Price because he’s that annoying little brother at first, or that one kid in school who somehow ends up with the cool kids but no one really wants him there. He is forced to go from a follower to a leader, but still retain the nerd factor and insecurities, getting caught up more and more in his web of lies while a bit of ‘romance’ develops between him and Nabulungi (‘consummated’ in the number ‘Baptize Me’), and then having to take the leadership role to guide Price back to his mission. It’s a lot and Nackman manages to tread a fine line of going just past over-the-top but he always reigns it in and always has the audience on his side. And again, lots of singing and dancing to perfection. This show is a real workout for its cast.
Keke Nesbitt is adorable as Nabulungi, sweet and innocent, but also a fierce, independent young woman who isn’t afraid to go to the market alone or face General Butt Fucking Naked. She has to work closely with Nackman, especially as their ‘relationship’ develops — which they both sell to the audience as a love connection with all of the entendres, double and triple, when she’s really falling for Mormonism. Through her performance, we feel all the more heartbroken for her when she discovers Cunningham’s lies and ‘betrayal’ (which is resolved in a very funny moment), and even though it’s not really their love story, Nesbitt makes us want to see Nabulungi and Cunningham end up together by the end. She also has a lovely voice which she gets to show off on the songs ‘Sal Tlay Ka Siti’ and ‘Baptize Me’.
The featured performers including Lamont J. Whitaker (Mafala Hatimbi), Sean Casey Flanagan (Elder McKinley), and Trevor Dorner (several roles including the Mission President) all do great work, and the ensemble is absolutely one of the hardest working group of performers on the stage today, singing, dancing, playing multiple characters, costume changes (once in the dark without missing the beat of a tap dance) … they should all be commended for their hard work. I’ve seen shows where the ensemble sometimes just feels like they’re sleepwalking through their big dance numbers, but this group turns it up to 11. Bravo to each and every one of them.
Julieta Cervantes
On the technical side of things, the production design is excellent. Mostly set in the African village, the setting can change just with the raising or lowering of a curtain, or the shift of the lighting, or everything working together like it does in the ‘Spooky Mormon Hell Dream’ number which requires a complete set change in seconds at the end in full view of the audience. Kudos to Scott Pask and Brian MacDevitt. Ann Roth’s costume design ranges from the simplicity of the traditional Mormon missionary garb — white shirt, black pants, tie and shoes, with a name plate on the pocket — to the villagers, the ‘ancient’ Mormons and Satan himself (plus a few historical cameos in the Hell Dream sequence) are perfectly reproduced here from the Broadway production. Jennifer Werner has tackled both the choreography and direction, giving the show life, staging the big numbers with perfection and precision, giving the smaller numbers a nice intimacy, never letting things get boring. Great job all around from cast and crew. The Book of Mormon is two-and-a-half hours of laughter and joy.
Now to address the elephant in the room — the original Broadway production and subsequent tours had come under fire for what many labeled as blatant racism when it came to the Ugandans. The creators were noted for trying too hard to get the Mormonism right that they ignored the Ugandan culture, seeing them more as ‘noble savages’ who needed the white men to save them. During the time of the country’s pandemic shutdown and the murder of George Floyd, the show’s Black cast members (Broadway and touring company) composed and signed a letter to the creators of the show that it would certainly be viewed through a different lens when it returned. The team collaborated with the Broadway cast in the Summer of 2021 to review the intent and staging of each scene, creating revisions to the script that put the villagers at the center of the story instead of the missionaries. So if you’ve seen the pre-pandemic productions in New York or on the road, you may notice these changes. Having seen the show in 2015, the alterations are seamless and may make it a more enjoyable experience for anyone who was offended or upset by the earlier version. That being said, the show is still bold and funny and not afraid to tackle any taboos, just as you’d expect from the guys who created South Park, and well worth seeing.
The Book of Mormon runs 2 hours 30 minutes with one intermission. This show contains explicit language.
The Book of Mormon runs through March 17 at Washington DC’s National Theatre. Other cities on the schedule include Baltimore, Tampa, Orlando, Portland OR, Atlanta, Sioux City, St. Louis, Rochester, Norfolk, Minneapolis, Salt Lake City and more. Visit the official website for more information. Use our Ticketmaster link to purchase tickets.
Check our Ticketmaster link for ticket availability.
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