Book Of Mormon Review

Review by Callum Wallace

Hello! My Name is Elder Wallace and I would like to share with you the most amazing show..!

The Book Of Mormon (currently running at the Birmingham Hippodrome until the 28th of March) is hilarious and most certainly not for the faint hearted, packed full of dark humour, blasphemy and obscenities, the show simply does not care who is watching in the best way possible; nothing is off limits for Trey Parker and Matt Stone (writers of South Park). The show moves slickly through number after number about how “being gay is bad but lying is worse” and how an Elder is going to “Do it for the first time” (Baptism of course!) and most notably, a song in which the cast give god the finger for five minutes straight. Not what you’d expect from a show about Mormons? Me either. But the results are hilarious!

We open on Elder Price (Robert Colvin, who made an amazing return after being off ill for a week) an excited Mormon ready to go out on his mission. But it’s all downhill from there, he gets paired with Elder Cunningham (played to perfection by Connor Peirson) an overly excited goofball who lies a lot. They both get shipped off to Uganda to spread the Mormon faith.

Peirson is unstoppable as Cunningham; impossible to take your eyes off, even for a second. He gives his all and more in every dance number and it is an absolute joy to watch, while Colvin is his perfect counterpart. Who sang his songs beautifully and guided us through this mad journey.

It is in Uganda where we meet the rest of the cast, most notably Elder McKinley (Will Hawksworth) an obviously closeted Mormon who has failed to baptize any of the locals, which is not surprising, considering the song and dance they had about “Saying F you to Heavenly Father” They live in the worst of conditions and are terrorised by Warlord known as “The General”

Hawksworth is wonderful in this show, hilariously Tap dancing his way through life in a pink sparkly waistcoat in his number “Turn It Off” (The Choreography by Casey Nicholaw is brilliantly energetic and perfectly camp, a clear contrast to earlier songs sang by the villagers).

Another stand out member of the cast is Nicole-Lily Baisden, who played Nabalungi, her voice was incredible in songs such as Sal Tlay Ka Siti (Salt Lake City) and Baptize me, where her chemistry with Elder Cuningham was perfect. The dancing within this scene was hilarious.

There isn’t much else I could say without spoiling the jokes, but be prepared for anything. A Musical that prides itself on simply not caring. I cannot wait to come back again next Friday!