The Book of Mormon (musical)
The Book of Mormon is an American musical comedy with music, lyrics, and book by Trey Parker, Robert Lopez, and Matt Stone. The story follows two missionaries of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints as they attempt to preach the faith to the inhabitants of a remote Ugandan village. The earnest young men are challenged by the lack of interest from the locals, who are distracted by more pressing issues such as HIV/AIDS, famine, and oppression by the local warlord.
The show premiered on Broadway at the Eugene O'Neill Theatre in March 2011, starring Andrew Rannells and Josh Gad. It garnered critical acclaim and set records in ticket sales for the Eugene O'Neill Theatre. The Book of Mormon was awarded nine Tony Awards, including Best Musical, and a Grammy Award for Best Musical Theater Album. The success of the Broadway production has spawned many stagings worldwide, including a long-running West End replica and several US national tours.
The Book of Mormon has grossed over $800 million, making it one of the most successful musicals of all time. As of December 2025, it is the 10th longest-running Broadway show, having played more than 5,000 performances.
History
The Book of Mormon was conceived by Trey Parker, Matt Stone and Robert Lopez. Lopez was best known for co-creating the puppet musical Avenue Q. After the success of The Book of Mormon, he later became known for co-writing the songs featured in the Disney animated films Frozen, its sequel Frozen II, and Coco, with his wife Kristen Anderson-Lopez.Parker and Stone are best-known for their animated television series South Park for Comedy Central. A thread of fascination with Mormonism runs through their work, owing to their upbringing in Colorado. The two had first thought of a fictionalized Joseph Smith, religious leader and founder of the Latter Day Saint movement, while working on an aborted Fox series about historical characters. Additionally, the two had collaborated on several musicals, including their student film Cannibal! The Musical, as well as South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut. Other references to Mormonism in their work prior to the musical include their 1997 film Orgazmo. A 2003 episode of South Park, "All About Mormons", both gave comic treatment to the religion, and Joseph Smith was also included as one of the "Super Best Friends", a Justice League parody team of religious figures.
Development
During the summer of 2003, Parker and Stone flew to New York City to discuss the script of their new film, Team America: World Police, with friend and producer Scott Rudin. Rudin advised the duo to see the musical Avenue Q on Broadway, finding the cast of marionettes in Team America similar to the puppets of Avenue Q. Parker and Stone went to see the production during that summer and the writer-composers of Avenue Q, Robert Lopez and Jeff Marx, noticed them in the audience and introduced themselves. Lopez revealed that South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut was highly influential in the creation of Avenue Q. The quartet went for drinks afterwards and soon found that each camp wanted to write something involving Joseph Smith. The four began working out details nearly immediately, with the idea to create a modern story formulated early on. For research purposes, the quartet took a road trip to Salt Lake City, where they "interviewed a bunch of missionaries—or ex-missionaries." They had to work around Parker and Stone's South Park schedule.In 2006, Parker and Stone flew to London, where they spent three weeks with Lopez, who was working on the West End production of Avenue Q. There, the three wrote "four or five songs" and came up with the basic idea of the story. After an argument between Parker and Marx, who felt he was not getting enough creative control, Marx was separated from the project. For the next few years, the remaining trio met frequently to develop what they initially called The Book of Mormon: The Musical of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. "There was a lot of hopping back and forth between L.A. and New York," Parker recalled.
Song alterations
Numerous changes were disclosed between the original script and the final production. A song named "Family Home Evening", which was in early workshops of the show, was cut. The warlord in Uganda was called General Kony in previews but this was changed to General Butt Fucking Naked. The song "The Bible Is A Trilogy" went through a major rewrite to become "All-American Prophet". The earlier version was based on how the third movie in movie trilogies is always the best one and sums up everything, which led to a recurring Matrix joke where a Ugandan man said, "I thought the third Matrix was the worst one," which later changed to "I have maggots in my scrotum" in the rewritten version. The song "Spooky Mormon Hell Dream" was originally called "H-E Double Hockey Sticks".Workshops
Lopez pushed to workshop the project, which confused Parker and Stone, who were not familiar with the practice. The crew embarked on the first of a half-dozen workshops that would take place during the next four years, ranging from 30-minute mini-performances for family and friends to much larger-scale renderings of the embryonic show. Parker and Stone spent hundreds of thousands of dollars of their own money, still unconvinced they would take it any further. At an early workshop, a rudimentary animatic was displayed above the actors onstage, as Parker and Stone were unsure as to whether the project should be a stage show or animated film. These developmental workshops were directed by Jason Moore. The first fully staged reading took place at the Vineyard Theatre in February 2008, after which the decision was made to officially develop the project into a stage show. Further workshops were staged in Los Angeles.Several members of the original cast, including Josh Gad, Rory O’Malley, and Nikki James were involved from its earliest stages. The producers cycled through a series of actors in the search for the right Elder Price, including Benjamin Walker, Cheyenne Jackson, and Daniel Reichard. Three finalists included T. R. Knight, Nick Lachey, and Andrew Rannells, who won the part. There was briefly talk of celebrity stunt casting, including Jack Black as Cunningham. Moore was originally set to direct, but left the production in June 2010. Other directors, including James Lapine, were optioned to join the creative team, but the producers recruited Casey Nicholaw. A final five-week investor's workshop to secure funding took place in August 2010, when Nicholaw came on board as choreographer and co-director with Parker.
Broadway premiere
Producers Scott Rudin and Anne Garefino originally planned to stage The Book of Mormon off-Broadway at the New York Theatre Workshop in summer 2010, but opted to premiere it directly on Broadway, "ince the guys work best when the stakes are highest." Rudin and Garefino booked the Eugene O'Neill Theatre and hired key players while sets were designed and built. The producers expected the production to cost $11 million, but it came in under budget at $9 million. Hundreds of actors auditioned and 28 were cast. The crew did four weeks of rehearsals, with an additional two weeks of technical rehearsals, and then went directly into previews. The producers first watched the finished production six days before the first paying audience.2020 revisions
In 2020, in the aftermath of the murder of George Floyd, black actors from the original and current casts stated in a letter to the creative team that changes would be needed to reflect modern day perceptions and avoid tropes that were commonplace in the past. Script revisions were instigated to center the villagers rather than the missionaries and to show them as having more agency than the original script had suggested.Productions
Broadway (2011–present)
The Book of Mormon premiered on Broadway at the Eugene O'Neill Theatre on March 24, 2011, following previews since February 24. The production was choreographed by Casey Nicholaw and co-directed by Nicholaw and Parker. Set design was by Scott Pask, with costumes by Ann Roth, lighting by Brian MacDevitt, and sound by Brian Ronan. Orchestrations were co-created by Larry Hochman and the show's musical director and vocal arranger Stephen Oremus. The production was originally headlined by Josh Gad and Andrew Rannells in the two leading roles.The New York production of The Book of Mormon employed an innovative pricing strategy, similar to the ones used in the airline and hotel industries. The producers charged as much as $477 for the best seats for performances with particularly high demand. During its first year, the show was consistently one of the top five best-selling shows on Broadway and set 22 new weekly sales records for the Eugene O'Neill Theater. For the week of Thanksgiving 2011, the average paid admission was over $170, even though the highest-priced regular seat was listed at $155. High attendance coupled with aggressive pricing allowed the financial backers to recoup their investment of $11.4 million after just nine months of performances.
After Gad's departure in June 2012, standby Jared Gertner played the role until June 26, when Cale Krise permanently took over the role, as Gertner left to play Elder Cunningham in the First National Tour. Two days after Gad left, original star Rannells was replaced by his standby Nic Rouleau. The same day, Samantha Marie Ware played Nabulungi on Broadway as the start of a six-week engagement in preparation for her tour performance. Following Rouleau's departure in November 2012, the role of Elder Price was taken over by Matt Doyle. In December 2012, Jon Bass joined as Elder Cunningham. Original cast member Rory O'Malley was replaced by Matt Loehr in January 2013.
In April 2013, Stanley Wayne Mathis joined the cast as Mafala Hatimbi. In May 2013, Jon Bass left the role of Elder Cunningham and was replaced by Cody Jamison Strand. After Doyle and Strand's contracts finished in January 2014, Rouleau and Ben Platt joined the Broadway cast to reprise their roles as Elder Price and Elder Cunningham. On August 26, 2014, Grey Henson took over for Loehr as Elder McKinley. Henson had previously played the role on the first national tour. Rouleau and Platt left Broadway in January 2015. They were replaced by Gavin Creel and Christopher John O'Neill, who played the roles of Price and Cunningham on the first national tour. On January 3, 2016, Creel left the show after three and a half years. He was replaced by Kyle Selig, former Broadway and second national tour Elder Price standby, who was scheduled to play the role through February 21, 2016.
On January 25, 2016, Christopher John O'Neill was temporarily replaced by longtime Elder Cunningham standby Nyk Bielak. Bielak had been a standby for Elder Cunningham in all three North American companies before becoming the Broadway Elder Cunningham. On February 17, 2016, Nic Rouleau announced via Twitter that he would be taking over the role of Elder Price starting on February 23, 2016. This was Rouleau's third time playing the role on Broadway; he previously played the role in Chicago, the second national tour, and most recently, the West End. O'Neill and Rouleau's first performance together was on February 23, 2016. August 21, 2016, was Grey Henson's last performance as Elder McKinley. On August 23, 2016, Henson was replaced by Stephen Ashfield, who came over from the West End Production. On November 7, 2016, Nikki Renée Daniels announced that she was pregnant with her second child and would be going on maternity leave. Later that week, Kim Exum took over the role of Nabalungi.
On February 20, 2017, Chris O'Neill and Daniel Breaker had their final performances as Elder Cunningham and Mafala Hatimbi. O'Neill was replaced by Brian Sears, who came over from the London production. Breaker was replaced by Billy Eugene Jones. On February 18, 2018, after six and a half years with the show, original cast member Nic Rouleau played his final performance as Elder Price. Original cast member Brian Sears also left the production that day. Rouleau was replaced by Dave Thomas Brown. Sears was replaced by longtime Elder Cunningham Cody Jamison Strand. Other Broadway cast members include original Broadway cast member Lewis Cleale as Joseph Smith/Mission President and other roles, and Derrick Williams as the General.
On March 12, 2020, the show suspended production due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and on June 16, 2021, the show announced it would be returning to Broadway on November 5.