A Tale of Faith, Lies & Unlikely Heroes

Act One

At a Missionary Training Center, the devout Elder Kevin Price leads his classmates in a spirited demonstration of door-to-door evangelism. Price is certain that if he prays hard enough, he’ll be sent to Orlando, Florida for his two-year mission. Instead, he and his assigned companion, Elder Arnold Cunningham — an insecure, pop-culture-obsessed compulsive liar — are sent to Uganda.

Upon arriving in northern Uganda, the pair are immediately robbed by soldiers of General Butt Fucking Naked, a local warlord. They are welcomed by Mafala Hatimbi, whose village endures appalling conditions. The villagers cope with a recurring phrase that translates as a defiant curse against God. Price and Cunningham meet fellow missionaries who have been utterly unsuccessful in converting anyone — Elder McKinley, the district leader, teaches them to suppress upsetting thoughts.

Price, confident he can succeed where others have failed, launches into a tribute to Joseph Smith that inevitably becomes a tribute to himself. When the General announces a horrifying demand for the genital mutilation of all female villagers and murders a protester, the reality of their mission hits home. Nabulungi, Mafala’s daughter, dreams of the paradise the missionaries have promised — a new land where all their troubles will end.

Shocked by the violence, Price abandons his mission and requests a transfer to Orlando — dumping Cunningham in the process. But when Nabulungi seeks Cunningham out, eager to learn, he finds the courage to step up. Desperate to keep his audience engaged, Cunningham begins inventing stories — blending LDS doctrine with science fiction, fantasy, and pop culture. His conscience, personified by figures including Joseph Smith, Hobbits, Darth Vader, and Yoda, admonishes him — but Cunningham rationalises that if it helps people, it can’t be wrong.

Act Two

Price, meanwhile, dreams he’s arrived in Orlando — only to discover he’s actually in Hell, surrounded by Jesus, Satan, Adolf Hitler, Jeffrey Dahmer, and Johnnie Cochran. He wakes up with renewed resolve and re-commits to his mission. Cunningham’s invented teachings gain traction: the villagers are baptised in a joyful ceremony, and the missionaries celebrate their newfound bond with the people of Uganda.

The mission president arrives to inspect the Ugandan mission. Nabulungi and the villagers perform a pageant celebrating Joseph Smith — faithfully dramatising Cunningham’s wildly distorted stories, including the claim that having sex with a frog can cure AIDS. The mission president is appalled, orders all the missionaries home, and declares the villagers are not members of the Church.

In a moment of revelation, Price realises that Cunningham was right all along: the literal scripture matters less than the message itself. When the General returns to carry out his threats, Price and Cunningham reappear — the villagers, believing Cunningham to have been resurrected from the dead, frighten the General into fleeing. Price rallies the Ugandans and missionaries together to build their own paradise. The show closes with the newly converted Ugandan elders — including the General — going door to door with “The Book of Arnold.”

How a South Park Sketch Became a Broadway Phenomenon

The Book of Mormon was conceived by Trey Parker, Matt Stone, and Robert Lopez — a collaboration born from a chance encounter in 2003. Parker and Stone, best known for South Park, had long carried a fascination with Mormonism rooted in their upbringing in Colorado. They had explored the subject previously in their 1997 film Orgazmo and the 2003 South Park episode “All About Mormons.”

The fateful meeting happened when producer Scott Rudin advised Parker and Stone to see Avenue Q on Broadway. Lopez and co-writer Jeff Marx noticed the duo in the audience and introduced themselves. Over drinks afterwards, both camps discovered they each wanted to write something about Joseph Smith. The four began developing ideas almost immediately, even taking a research road trip to Salt Lake City to interview missionaries and ex-missionaries.

In 2006, Parker and Stone spent three weeks in London with Lopez — who was working on the West End production of Avenue Q — writing “four or five songs” and sketching the basic story. After an argument over creative control, Jeff Marx departed the project. The remaining trio developed what they initially called The Book of Mormon: The Musical of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, hopping back and forth between Los Angeles and New York for years.

Lopez pushed for a formal workshop process, which was foreign to Parker and Stone. Over the next four years, they ran through half a dozen workshops — from intimate 30-minute performances for friends to large-scale staged readings. Parker and Stone invested hundreds of thousands of their own dollars. At an early workshop, a rudimentary animatic played above the actors, as the creators were still undecided between a stage show and an animated film. The first fully staged reading took place at the Vineyard Theatre in February 2008, after which the decision was made: it would be a live musical.

Producers Scott Rudin and Anne Garefino originally planned an off-Broadway premiere at the New York Theatre Workshop, but ultimately decided to go straight to Broadway — reasoning that Parker and Stone “work best when the stakes are highest.” Casey Nicholaw came on board as choreographer and co-director. The production came in under budget at $9 million (against an expected $11 million), with 28 actors cast from hundreds of auditions. The producers first watched the finished show just six days before the first paying audience.

Numerous changes occurred between early drafts and the final production. A song called “Family Home Evening” was cut entirely. The warlord was originally named after the real-life Joseph Kony before being renamed. “The Bible Is A Trilogy” was rewritten to become “All-American Prophet,” and “Spooky Mormon Hell Dream” was originally titled “H-E Double Hockey Sticks.”

From Cocktail Napkin to Broadway Legend

The Song List

The score blends parodies of classic Broadway styles with genuinely catchy, original compositions. The cast recording became the fastest-selling Broadway cast album in iTunes history.

• 1Hello!
• 2Two by Two
• 3The Welcome Song† Not on cast album
• 4Hello! (Reprise)† Not on cast album
• 5Hasa Diga Eebowai
• 6Turn It Off
• 7I Am Here for You
• 8All-American ProphetOriginally “The Bible Is A Trilogy”
• 9Sal Tlay Ka Siti
• 10I Am Here for You (Reprise)† Not on cast album
• 11Man Up
• 12Making Things Up Again
• 13Spooky Mormon Hell DreamOriginally “H-E Double Hockey Sticks”
• 14I Believe
• 15Baptize Me
• 16I Am Africa

• 17Turn It Off (Reprise)† Not on cast album
• 18Spooky Mormon Hell Dream (Reprise)† Not on cast album
• 19Orlando
• 20Joseph Smith American Moses
• 21Hasa Diga Eebowai (Reprise)† Not on cast album
• 22You and Me (But Mostly Me) (Reprise)† Not on cast album
• 23Tomorrow Is a Latter DayIncludes Hello! (Reprise) & Encore

The Cast Album

The original Broadway cast recording was released on May 17, 2011, by Ghostlight Records. A free preview of the entire album was streamed on NPR starting May 9, before its official release.

During its first week on the iTunes Store, the recording became the fastest-selling Broadway cast album in iTunes history, reaching No. 2 on the iTunes Top 10 Chart on its day of release. After the show’s triumphant run at the 2011 Tony Awards, the album rapidly ascended the Billboard 200 to number three — making it the highest-charting Broadway cast album in over four decades.

The recording includes all songs performed on stage except for several reprises. “Hello!” (Reprise) and the Encore are appended to the final track, “Tomorrow Is a Latter Day.” In the West End production, additional characters join the offstage chorus on several tracks.

Awards & Recognition

Reviews, Debate & Legacy

The Book of Mormon received sweeping critical praise upon its debut. Vogue declared it possibly the funniest musical ever produced on Broadway. The New York Post reported that audiences were “sore from laughing so hard,” praising the score as tuneful and funny while noting that “the show has heart.” The New York Times compared it favourably to Rodgers and Hammerstein classics, writing that it achieved something close to a miracle by simultaneously satirising and celebrating the Broadway musical form — a feat not seen since Mel Brooks adapted The Producers for the stage.

The Washington Post called it “one of the most joyously acidic bundles Broadway has unwrapped in years,” while the Los Angeles Times praised the songs as “catchy as they are clever.” Not all reviews were glowing — The Wall Street Journal’s Terry Teachout called the score “jingly-jangly,” and a handful of critics dismissed it as derivative. But the commercial and cultural dominance of the show made dissenting voices rare.

Themes & Meaning

The Book of Mormon contains many religious themes, most notably faith and doubt. Although it satirises organised religion and the literal credibility of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the Mormons are portrayed as well-meaning and optimistic — naïve, perhaps, but never cruel. The show’s central argument is that religion does enormous good when taken metaphorically rather than literally. Matt Stone described it as “an atheist’s love letter to religion.” The opening scenes of both acts parody the Hill Cumorah Pageant, a real annual production staged by the Church near its sacred sites in New York.

Box Office & Financial Records

The Book of Mormon set records almost immediately. During its first year, it was consistently among the top five best-selling shows on Broadway and set 22 new weekly sales records for the Eugene O’Neill Theatre. The production employed an innovative dynamic pricing strategy — similar to airline and hotel pricing models — charging as much as $477 for premium seats during high-demand performances.

For the week of Thanksgiving 2011, the average paid admission exceeded $170, even though the highest regular listed price was $155. The show’s financial backers recouped their entire $11.4 million investment in just nine months — an extraordinarily fast return for a Broadway production. To date, the show has grossed over $800 million worldwide, cementing its place as one of the most financially successful musicals in history.