The Book of Mormon – Leeds Grand Theatre

Book, Music and Lyrics: Trey Parker, Robert Lopez and Matt Stone

Directors: Trey Parker and Casey Nicholaw

The Mormons are back! The Book of Mormon is the globe conquering musical comedy poking fun at The Church of the Latter Day Saints. A trans-Atlantic Tony and Olivier Awards triumph, it returns to Leeds for the remainder of the month to complete its 2025 UK tour.  

Beginning life on Broadway in 2011, it has been resident in London’s West End since 2013. Creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone are best known as the brains behind South Park for over twenty-five years and Team America, whilst its musical inspiration, Robert Lopez, is a multi-award-winning creative genius behind Avenue Q and Frozen. With seven years in development The Book of Mormon has now been delighting audiences for twice that amount of time. It is a hugely entertaining, incredibly funny, massively satirical, taboo busting extravaganza. That said, it sparks much debate about the nature of offence, context, and what is and what is not fair game. 

Two young recruits into The Church of the Latter Day Saints, Elder Price (Adam Bailey) and Elder Cunningham (Sam Glen) are sent to Africa to spread the word. They are missionaries dispatched to a remote village in Uganda to preach the word of God, Jesus, and their religious founder – an American by the name of Joseph Smith who, according to the Mormons, received the word of God on golden plates in 1827 America. For anyone who knows Parker and Stone’s work, the ridicule is bound to be harsh and unforgiving. And it is. Price, much like the other recruits from his flock is pristine: perfect hair, bright straight teeth, fitted and pressed white shirt with black name badge – he is the model recruit. Cunningham, however, is anything but. Out of step in the first dance routine and struggling to keep up with his fresh, preppie, if not homo-erotic disciples come colleagues, he has slightly missed the bus on all things Mormon. The rest of the story almost writes itself: white American missionaries attempting to convert black Africans to their Americanised two-hundred-year-old branch of Christianity. The creative team behind The Book of Mormon delight in bulldozing over every taboo they find along the way. 

Upon arriving in Uganda an early number parodies Disney’s Hakuna Matata. However, the taste of this musical stall is set out early on discovering that this catchy ditty means anything other than “no worries.” Africa isn’t like The Lion King after all! The clan of young male Mormons already stationed in Uganda sing about suppressing homosexual thoughts while at the same time executing an intricate tap-dancing routine complete with surprise glittery pink waistcoats. The butt of the joke is very much this seemingly ridiculous branch of Christianity based in Salt Lake City, Utah. Where things become a little more uncomfortable for the traditional middle-class theatregoer are jokes referencing AIDs and female genital mutilation. Here context is everything. The joke becomes the absurdity that horrendous things exist in the world rather than the thing itself. It is a clever but very fine line to dance. 

Debates about taste aside, The Book of Mormon is quite simply stunning in every aspect. The lyrics are so detailed and witty that it is easy to miss a pearl of a joke while too busy laughing at the last one. Like Mel Brooks’ The Producers, it is an extravagant camp, joyous buddy story. It almost becomes an extended version of Springtime for Hitler in its indulgence of pushing the boundaries. There isn’t a single moment that loses energy as the cast of thirty performs inch perfectly, hitting every beat of Casey Nicholaw’s choreography and landing every joke. Highlights are too many to mention but the fun of Spooky Mormon Hell Dream (in which Elder Price’s insecurities of faith are played out by devils, Lucifer and blond hair and blue eyed Jesus) is of such theatrical genius and expertly executed stagecraft that it is impossible not to wonder how its concept was initially conceived. 

Bailey and Clay have endless fun and boundless energy in their lead roles. As an ensemble piece it is difficult to single out individual performances but special mention must also be made to Tom Bales as the uber-camp and homo-suppressed Elder McKinley as well as Nyah Nish as Nabulungi who dreams of a paradise life across the globe in Salt Lake City. It could be said that The Book of Mormon may be on the verge of being a victim of its own success as so many of the audience are returnees that the shock-factor it once thrived upon may have lost some of its novelty

If you have never seen it, try to get tickets for this incredible spectacle of jaw-dropping satire before another UK run finishes. If you are a returnee, sit back and enjoy! 

Runs until 29th November 2025