REVIEW: The Book of Mormon at Newcastle Theatre Royal ★★★★

 After catching Covid in June, I was so happy to finally return to the theatre and see The Book of Mormon - one of the most outrageous musicals I've ever seen! I had seen the show in Sunderland in 2019, before the pandemic hit, but I couldn't really remember much of the show so I was excited to see it again.

The show was created by Trey Parker and Matt Stone, the creators of South Park, and Bobby Lopez, co-writer of Avenue Q and Frozen. It follows the misadventures of a mismatches pairs of missionaries, sent to Uganda to encourage individuals in a small village to join the Church of Jesus Christ of  Latter-day Saints. They are challenged by the lack of interest from the locals, who have more pressing issues to contend with, such as famine, female genital mutilation, HIV/AIDS, and local warlords. Despite discussion of these hard-hitting topics, it is ultimately a musical comedy, which is totally outrageous and very satirical. For some people, this will be offensive, but for the performance that I went to see, everyone was loving it!

The cast were very good for this touring production. Jordan Lee Davies, who played Elder McKinley, was outstanding. As soon as he came onto the stage with McKinley's flamboyance, everyone loved him (including me!). We also had the standby for Elder Cunningham, who was brilliant. We all know the importance of standbys/understudies/alternates within theatre following the ongoing issues that coronavirus have presented, and continue to present, and Jacob Yarlett was a brilliant Cunningham. Aviva Tulley had the most wonderful voice, it was a joy to listen to her singing 'Sal Tlay Ka Siti'. My only criticism was that Elder Price was not as strong as I thought he should be and was actually quite flat, so when the rest of the cast were as outstanding as they were, he didn't quite live up to the expectations I had of him.

I would fully recommend this show to everyone - but you should be aware that there is definitely a lot of adult themes and strong language (hello 'Hasa Diga Eebowai'!!!) so if you're easily offended, it might not be the one for you!

It's going to be on tour for quite a while longer, coming back to the North East in October when it comes to Sunderland. If you sign up to their early bird sale, there will be 10,000 tickets all for under £30!

Sunderland Early Bird Link: https://thebookofmormonmusical.com/sunderland/

Tour Tickets: Thttps://thebookofmormonmusical.com/