THE BOOK OF MORMON Creatives Will Convene to Address Concerns From Black Cast Members

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The Book of Mormon creators will convene with actors to discuss potentially problematic instances in the script, Baz Bamingboye of the Daily Mail reports.

This comes after twenty Black cast members from the original and current Broadway cast wrote a private letter to Matt Stone, Trey Parker, and Robert Lopez, expressing concerns. They said America was being forced to evaluate 'the systemic racism and racial inequality' in every industry, and theatre was no exception.

The group of creatives consulted producers Anne Garefino, Scott Rudin and Sonia Friedman, and have decided to invite principal actors from productions around the world to attend a workshop. During the reading, they will read through the show line-by-line, and sort out any problematic parts.

"What's great about Matt and Trey is they'd rather close the show than make it feel PC and not funny," said Lopez, before adding: "No one wants to close. We want to make it better."

Stone also spoke on the plans, saying, "I can't imagine trying to make a politically correct Book Of Mormon."

Two former cast members, Nikki M. James and Arbender Robinson, believe that subsequent productions have strayed from the core of what the show was originally supposed to be. "We can't expect our audience to fully understand it, if all of us aren't completely on the same page of understanding as well," Robinson said.

Potential changes could include "some tweaks to certain lines of dialogue, so things are more insulated against misreadings."

"No one is going back on stage until they feel great about it," Stone assured.

Read more on the Daily Mail.

From Trey Parker and Matt Stone, four-time Emmy Award-winning creators of South Park comes this hilarious Broadway musical about a pair of mismatched Mormon boys sent on a mission to a place that's about as far from Salt Lake City as you can get. The Book of Mormon is written in collaboration with Robert Lopez, the Tony Award-winning writer of Avenue Q, and co-directed by Mr. Parker and three-time Tony nominee Casey Nicholaw (Spamalot, The Drowsy Chaperone). Contains explicit language.

The show opened on Broadway in March 2011. The Book of Mormon garnered overwhelmingly positive critical response, and set records in ticket sales for the Eugene O'Neill Theatre. The show was awarded nine Tony Awards, one of which was for Best Musical, and a Grammy Award for the highest-charting Broadway cast album in over four decades, reaching number three on the Billboard charts. It premiered in the West End in 2013, and has staged two national tours.

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