Review: THE BOOK OF MORMON Returns To Sydney Even Better Than Before

Trey Parker, Robert Lopez and Matt Stone’s (book, music and lyrics) multi Tony and Laurence Olivier Award winning musical, THE BOOK OF MORMON returns to Sydney with the 2020 revisions which makes for an even better story.  With a new cast featuring Australian’s (or soon to be) in the leading roles, this new production feels fresher and brighter than before.

Given THE BOOK OF MORMON’s creators were behind South Park (Parker and Stone) and Avenue Q (Lopez), it is natural that this work is a parody of organised religion and middle class, white America’s ignorance and arrogance towards anything outside of the United States. It uses the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (LDS Church) and their method of preaching by using ‘clean cut, wholesome, white, American boys’ to go door-to-door preaching around the world.  It drops the self-centred egotistical Elder Kevin Price (Sean Johnston) and the inept movie loving misfit Elder Arnold Cunningham (Nick Cox) in a remote northern Ugandan village to work with a team of Mormon Elders who have, to date, failed to convert anyone in a village more concerned with famine, drought, AIDS, and a tyrannical war-lord wanting to mutilate the women of the village. 

Following the 2020 re-write prompted by Black actors from the original and current cast stating that changes needed to be made to better reflect contemporary perceptions and avoid outdated tropes, the work feels stronger and better aimed at highlighting the conceit of the white missionaries while not undermining the strength of the African culture and community.  While it still does wash over some issues, providing a degree of misinformation in favour of quick comedy such as the complexity of the Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome, the final stage of HIV infection, it serves as a reminder that the do-gooders in Western society want a band-aid fix so they can pat themselves on the back and say didn’t we do a good job rather than providing meaningful solutions. 

While the original Australian tour which started in Melbourne in January 2017 and opened in Sydney in February 2018 had American performers in the leading roles, this new production has Queenslander Sean Johnston as Elder Price and Elder Cunningham is played by Nick Cox, who, while originally from Boston, has considered Australia home since 2019 and is listed as soon to hold dual citizenship.  As with the earlier tour, one third of the cast are international performers in the ensemble and swing roles to ensure the production retains authenticity in ethnicity. 

Aside from the aforementioned script updates, this production is the same as the Broadway production, still running since its premiere at the Eugene O’Neill Theatre  in 2011 and therefore the production the opened in Sydney in 2018 so the key difference for this season is the casting.   Sean Johnston delivers a suitably self-centred Elder Price, so caught up in the adoration he’s received from family, friends, and church leaders that he can’t see past his own ego and has therefore lost sight of the purpose of the message he is supposed to be preaching.  Nick Cox is delightful as the socially awkward compulsive liar Elder Cunningham who bumbles his way into providing hope for the locals they’ve been sent to “save” through a new set of made up stories designed to control the masses as all other religions have done before. 

Making her professional debut, Paris Leveque delivers a strong performance as Nabulungi, ensuring that the young woman is seen as having confidence and conviction in her desire to find a way out for herself and her community.  She has a bright energy that ensures that Nabulungi is seen as both innocent but also inquisitive, wanting to connect to a world outside of her village.  As Nabulungi’s father Mafala Hatimbi, Simbarashe Matshe presents a man that is weary and wary as he has seen the likes of the missionaries before and just wants to protect his daughter from any harm now that he is raising her as a single parent. 

In the supporting roles, Augie Tchantcho has the requisite gravitas and physical acting skills to deliver and imposing General whose character is captured in his subtle actions and facial expressions as much as his words.  Tom Struik delivers a clearly camp Elder McKinley despite the district leader’s efforts to suppress his sexuality while Matthew Hamilton covers multiple roles that serve as leaders and inspiration for the missionaries, from Elder Price’s father, LDS founder Joseph Smith, and the Mission President. 

The ensemble are all strong singers and dancers with the cast representing the Ugandan’s having a degree of individual expression while the cast representing the Mormon missionaries having more uniformity while also conveying an underlying queer element, taking another jab at the restrictions of the organised religions. 

Having seen THE BOOK OF MORMON in London and the 2018 Sydney season, for your BroadwayWorld Sydney Senior Editor, this production has been the best so far.  Whether it be the revised script, the updated cast or better seating, or a combination of all three, this production just seems to work better than before so even if you’ve seen THE BOOK OF MORMON before, see it again. 

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