Review: ‘The Book of Mormon’ at the Tennessee Theatre – Still Outrageous Fun

These days, it’s practically impossible to discuss Broadway musicals without using the word “longevity” and throwing around hard-to-believe performance numbers. Following Chicago, The Lion King, and Wicked in number of performances of shows still running on Broadway comes The Book of Mormon with over 5400 performances at the Eugene O’Neill Theatre. Perhaps a surprising candidate for longevity, the deliciously edgy—but outrageously funny— The Book of Mormon is also now well-ensconced in a third U.S. tour—this one non-AEA— that took to the road in 2022. That tour is currently making a stop for eight performances at the Tennessee Theatre through November 16.

Thanks to some re-writing and updating during the Covid-induced hiatus in 2020, Trey Parker, Robert Lopez, and Matt Stone’s The Book of Mormon is still the equal-opportunity offender that it has always been. The cleverness behind this parody of that often lampooned religion succeeds because it simply includes everyone in its mockery and satire. And, that satire seesaws from gently placed barbs to in-your-face orifice humor, so much so that it often numbs the audience with its boldness. Of course, knowing that Parker and Stone are the pair behind TV’s South Park explains a lot about the journey through the sexual, scatological, and irreverent humor that the creators have carefully balanced out with boatloads of theatrical fun.

The storyline revolves around the mandatory missionary trip of two wildly different young Mormons, the efficient and confident Elder Price (taken in this performance by Clayton Lukens) and the personality-challenged Elder Cunningham (Jacob Aune). Despite Elder Price’s destination dream of Orlando, the mis-matched pair are assigned to a remote village in Uganda where poverty and famine are made even less tolerable by the rule of a local warlord who favors female genital mutilation: The General (Shafiq Hicks). Needless to say, the mission they are tasked with means converting locals to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, something that the already resident Mormons have failed at completely. After having their luggage stolen, the pair finds their job even harder as the locals sing “Hasa Diga Eebowai” in which God is heartily blamed in rather specific terms.

The roles of Elder Price and Elder Cunningham truly are the center of the story and so depend on Lukens and Aune for creating compelling comedic characters that are polar opposites. Lukens turns in a beautiful character arc, one that has succeeded at the Mormon way, only to abandon the upstanding facade when his character sees that his dream has been squashed. Aune has a field day with Cunningham, his pudgy, submissive character luxuriating in the physical comedy of the role, eventually discovering that lying—uh, stretching the truth—makes for a much more interesting story. 

Along with Jennifer Werner’s energetic direction, there’s a lot of clever musical fun in Robert Lopez’s score, handled nicely by conductor Braden Chudzik and a nine-member orchestral ensemble. Already mentioned was “Hasa Diga Eebowai” featuring Jarius Miquel Cliett as village leader Mafala Hatimbi and the ensemble of Ugandan villagers. The ensemble of Mormons have their special number and dance, “Turn It Off,” in which Elder McKinley (Craig Franke) explains to Price and Cunningham how to suppress “unholy” thoughts. Mafala’s daughter, Nabulungi (Charity Arianna), has a marvelously tongue-in-cheek number “Baptize Me” with Cunningham. And, Price’s “I Believe” is a guaranteed showstopper as is the big ensemble number “Spooky Mormon Hell Dream.”

As is often the case with touring musicals, orchestra volume seemed to take priority over voice enhancement clarity and diction, sadly taking a lot of enjoyment out of humor in lyrics. In the case of The Book of Mormon, one really needs to hear every delicious, naughty bit.

The Book of Mormon continues performances at the Tennessee Theatre through Sunday, November 16. Tickets