The Book of Mormon – Hull New Theatre

After watching The Book of Mormon for just 15 minutes at the Hull New Theatre on Wednesday evening, I wanted to stand up and shout STOP! to all on the stage.

The reason? I was in danger of dying of laughter. Seriously, I didn’t feel I could endure another minute. But duty called …

South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone are to blame, as they, in cahoots with Robert Lopez (who co-wrote Frozen), are responsible for the book, the music and the lyrics. Hailed as the “funniest musical of all time” it’s no surprise to me to read it has won nine Tony Awards and four Oliviers.

The Book of Mormon follows young male disciples of the Mormon church, who have been deemed ready to spread the church’s word around the world.

Venturing forth in pairs to such places as Norway, France and Japan, one hapless pair, born follower Elder Cunningham (Sam Glen) and born leader Elder Price (Adam Bailey), are sent to Uganda and that’s when my chuckle muscles took more than a beating.

Prior to this, a very clever scene showed 10 identically-dressed young men – black trousers, white shirt, black tie – all carrying the Book of Mormon while pressing imaginary doorbells in the, often vain, hope of interesting folk in their beliefs.

Singing along to the opening number, Hello, each missionary-to-be introduced themselves to whomever answered the imaginary doors – all at the same time but singing different words. Very difficult to do.

But as I alluded to above, the real fun started when the two totally mismatched Elders landed in Uganda, in a poverty-stricken village to the far north of the country. Very soon two “guards” had stolen their luggage and, when the two Elders protested, they were told in no uncertain terms to “shut the bleep up”.

The f-word ran through the production like in a stick of Blackpool rock, each time proving funnier than the time before, if that could be possible.

The stage setting throughout was amazing – a highlight being the Ugandan village with its wooden huts inhabited by colourfully, but poorly-dressed villagers, whose tattered washing hung on a line across the stage.

At other times, a huge backdrop showed a heavenly scene of clouds, while a jungle curtain dropped whenever the “General’s” lair was revealed.

The General (Rodney Earl Clarke) rules the village with a rod of iron. His mission? To have every female circumcised.

The young female in real danger is Nabalungi (Nyah Nish), hilariously called Nigel Farage, Nicki Minaj and Necrophelia to name just a few, by the love-struck Elder Cunningham.

As Cunningham and Price joined Mormon missionaries already serving their two-year term in the village (do they succeed?), we witnessed blasphemy on a grand scale, a Mormon Hell scene in which Hitler, OJ Simpson and Genghis Khan et al dwelled, plus “comical” mentions of cancer, AIDs and a villager (Daniel David Griffith) who kept shouting “I’ve got maggots in my scrotum”. When the Elders suggested he saw a doctor, he said: “I am the doctor”.

And on and on it went. All on stage were relentless in their quest for us to bust a gut though laughing.

All the while the Mormon Church – The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints – was being sent up in ways that made me feel guilty guffawing (every two minutes), knowing it was kind of wrong, yet irresistibly naughty.

In fact, at the interval, my theatre-buddy sister and I had a serious discussion about whether we could continue watching, so laughed out were we. Then we recalled Elder Cunningham singing how, when Jesus (adorned in a lit-up gown on stage) was about to climb on to the cross to be crucified, he told himself to “man up” and “grow a pair”. We took his advice and ventured back to our seats.

All the above was accompanied by glorious music emanating from the orchestra pit.

Whether the story of how The Book of Mormon came about (detailed in the centre pages of the programme), is true, we were too busy laughing to care.

After all that, we mustered up the strength to join in with audience members in the fairly full venue, to give a very well-deserved standing ovation. Truly a night to remember.

The Book of Mormon is at Hull New Theatre until 22nd March. Tickets are on sale from (01482) 300306 or www.hulltheatres.co.uk.   Under 16s must be accompanied by an adult.

Reviewer: Jackie Foottit

Reviewed: 5th March 2025

North West End UK Rating: