Six years into touring the U.S. and still going strong, The Book Of Mormon pays its third visit to the Segerstrom Center For Arts with an absolutely fabulous, almost entirely new cast, the 2011 Best Musical Tony winner continuing to entertain and delight audiences with its distinctive mix of raunch and romance, hilarity and heart.

 As anyone who knows Broadway can tell you, the Trey Parker-Robert Lopez-Matt Stone smash pokes (or makes, depending on your POV) fun of the “free book” touted in its title and of those whose faith in it takes them (or at least the male half of them) on two-year message-spreading missions to romantic destinations like Norway, France, Japan, and—in the case of Elders Price (Kevin Clay) and Cunningham (Conner Peirson)—Uganda, the land of famine, poverty, AIDS and female genital mutilation. (Oy vey!)

Missionaries Price and Cunningham couldn’t be a more mismatched pair, the former an all-American golden boy, the latter an inveterate expert at “making things up,” and neither one prepared to be greeted upon arrival in Africa by soldiers who rob them at gunpoint.

Fortunately for the two newbie Word-spreaders, most villagers couldn’t be lovelier (despite arguably the foulest mouths in Broadway history), and loveliest of all is the enchanting Nabulungi (Kayla Pecchioni), whose dreams of visiting faraway “Sal Tlay Ka Siti,” Utah, set Cunningham’s still virginal heart aflutter.

Already serving on the local missionary team is District Leader Elder McKinley (swing Eric Huffman, doubling as Moroni), whose Utah boy-next-door-ness masks a young man’s attempts to deal with same-sex longings in time-tested Mormon fashion, i.e. by simply “turning it off.” (As if.)

Also figuring prominently in Book Of Mormon are blood-thirsty village ruler General Butt-Fucking Naked (Corey Jones), Nabulungi’s father Mafala (understudy Kolby Kindle), and a few post-missionary-age Mormons (Ron Bohmer in multiple roles).

 Everything works to perfection in The Book Of Mormon, from Casey Nicholaw and Parker’s Tony-winning direction, as inspired a joint effort as Broadway has seen in decades, to book writers Parker, Lopez, and Stone’s Tony-winning coming-of-age-tale, one which gets us to caring about its cast of characters, both American and Ugandan, by allowing us little by little to see them not as stereotypes but as real human beings.

Lopez, and Stone’s Tony-winning songs are as original as they are intentionally derivative, from the echoes of Stephen Schwartz’s Wicked in “You And Me (But Mostly Me)” to the R-rated spoofing of “Hakuna Matata” in “Hasa Diga Eebowai” to a scatological “Joseph Smith American Moses” that takes an iconic “The King And I”ballet and runs wild-and-crazy with it.

And you can add to that about half a dozen tear-inducingly gorgeous songs that manage to be at once hilarious and moving, plus choreography that invokes 42nd Street taps, Saturday Night Fever disco, Lion King tribal moves, and just every fantasy dream sequence ever staged.

Clay’s Elder Price is Mormon-boy-next-door perfection, Peirson’s Elder Cunningham is not only a scene stealer par excellence but as limber a high-kicker as the lithest of chorus boys, Pecchioni’s Nabulungi (aka Neutrogena aka Nabiso aka Nancy Pelosi) is simply enchanting, and all three leads possess Broadway pipes.

 Huffman’s Elder McKinley is so baby-faced irresistible, he could easily go on at every performance to squeals of delight.

Kindle’s best-dad-in-Uganda Mafala Hatimbi, Jones’s you-do-not-want-to-mess-with-him General, and Bohmer’s I-can-play-any-part medley of adults provide top-notch support all the way.

Ensemble members Jaron Barney (Cunningham’s Dad), Christopher Brasfield, Jake Emmerling, Zach Erhardt, John Garry, Eric Geil, Keisha Gilles, Tyler Leahy (Mormon), Will Lee-Williams (Guard), Stoney B. Mootoo, Monica L. Patton (Mrs. Brown), swing Jamard Richardson, Tyrone L. Robinson (Guard), and Brinie Wallace sing and dance and play multiple roles to perfection, with special snaps to André-Chance Goddard’s smiling-despite-maggots-in-his-privates Doctor and YouTube sensation John Pinto Jr. hitting notes so high they could reach Mormon heaven.

 Scott Pask’s Tony-winning scenic design features quite possibly the most godforsaken African village to ever fill a Broadway stage and Ann Roth’s eclectic costumes couldn’t be more fabulous. Brian MacDevitt’s lighting design, Brian Ronan’s sound design, and Larry Hochman and Stephen Oremus’s orchestrations all won Tonys, and deservedly so.

Providing expert musical direction at the Segerstrom Center is Andrew Graham, displaying keyboard artistry while conducting from the pit.

Robert Colvin and Star-Making Performance Scenie winner Jacob Ben-Shmuel stand by for Elder’s Price and Cunningham. Swings Randy Aaron, dance captain Kenny Francoeur, assistant dance captain Kristen Jeter, J Nycole Ralph, and Leonard E. Sullivan, like Huffman and Richardson, are poised to go on at a moment’s notice.

Associate directors Steve Bebout and Jennifer Werner and associate choreographer John MacInnis ensure that Nicholaw and Parker’s original vision remains fresh and alive on tour.

Paige Grant is production stage manager, Jason J. Carroll is stage manager, and Derric Nolte is assistant stage manager.

Guaranteed to fill Segerstrom Center seats this week and next, this Broadway-caliber National Tour may not, like the book it is named after, “change your life,” but for two and a quarter hours The Book Of Mormon will make it a whole lot brighter.

Segerstrom Center For The Arts, 600 Town Center Drive, Costa Mesa.
www.scfta.org

–Steven Stanley
March 21, 2018
Photos: Julieta Cervantes

Tags: Matt Stone, Orange County Theater Review, Robert Lopez, Segerstrom Center For The Arts, Trey Parker