King’s Theatre, Glasgow
Four stars
The missionary position, as set down in the gospel according to Mormon, is to spread the word of the Lord as far and as peachy-keenly as possible. Such is the premise behind Trey Parker, Robert Lopez and Matt Stone’s now fourteen-year-old Broadway smash, which returns to Glasgow for a three-week run. For those not already keeping the faith, the show transforms the perfectly coiffed door stopping evangelists from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints into an all singing, all dancing, perma-smiling showbiz troupe.
In-between throwing shapes cheesy enough to have graced a 1950s family friendly variety show, like the animals in the Ark, our heroes go forth two by two as they are packed off to far-flung climes in need of salvation. In the case of goody-two-shoes himbo Elder Price and puppy-dog terminal liar Elder Cunningham, they are tasked to convert the masses in a seemingly godless Uganda. For the locals, alas, a few other things take priority over being saved; gun-toting warlords, disease, genital eating maggots, that sort of thing. Price and Cunningham sure ain’t in Salt Lake City anymore.
Through a mix of Bible study, sci-fi film references and out and out porkies, however, Elder Cunningham gradually wins the natives round. While a broken Elder Price wakes up from his personal Hell dream involving the likes of Jeffrey Dahmer and Ghengis Khan occupying a positively Freudian underground, Cunningham’s conversion results in a mass show and tell of such unintended phallic outrage that something has clearly been lost in translation.
As one might expect from the creators of South Park and Avenue Q, this is all pretty scurrilous stuff in Parker and choreographer Casey Nicholaw’s well-drilled production, in which satire and show-tunes co-exist in a heavenly manner. Adam Bailey as Cunningham and Sam Glen as Price lead a large cast through hell and back, with Nyah Nish in terrific voice as the comically mispronounced Nabulingi, with even a certain ex First Minister getting a tongue-tied mention.
For all its cheerfully potty-mouthed barbs, there is something very sweet going on here that offsets any desire to shock in a show that is both too slick and too wilfully ridiculous to upset even the most diehard of believers. Hallelujah to that.
The Herald, May 16th 2025
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