Review Roundup: West End's BOOK OF MORMON

The Book of Mormon opened last night at the Prince of Wales Theatre to mixed reviews with ticket sales of £9 million.

The full cast, which is led by Gavin Creel as Elder Price and Jared Gertner as Elder Cunningham includes: Mark Anderson, Stephen Ashfield, Benjamin Brook, Daniel Buckley, Daniel Clift, Ashley Day, Terry Doe, Candace Furbert, Patrick George, Nadine Higgin, Tyrone Huntley, Evan James, Chris Jarman, Michael Kent, Alexia Khadime, Matt Krzan, Oliver Lidert, Daniel McKinley, Luke Newton, Terel Nugent, Haydn Oakley, Olivia Phillip, Lucy St. Louis, Yemie Sonuga, Giles Terera, Kayi Ushe, Sharon Wattis, Tosh Wanogho-Maud and Liam Wrate.

Book, Music and Lyrics are by Trey Parker, Robert Lopez and Matt Stone. Directed by Casey Nicholaw and Trey Parker, The Book of Mormon has choreography by Casey Nicholaw, set design by Scott Pask, costume design by Ann Roth, lighting design by Brian MacDevitt, sound design by Brian Ronan, orchestrations by Larry Hochman and Stephen Oremus and music supervision and vocal arrangements by Stephen Oremus.

Let's see what the critics had to say:

Henry Hitchings in the Evening Standard writes: This savage romp is the brainchild of Trey Parker and Matt Stone, the creators of South Park. True to form, they have crafted a show that's packed with moments of startling profanity. The music, on which they've collaborated with Avenue Q's Robert Lopez, is generally jaunty and from time to time soars operatically, though only three or four of the tunes are really memorable.

Sarah Crompton of The Telegraph says: It's been a sell-out in America, where it originated, and now it's come to London and you can't get tickets for absolutely ages and I think that has something to do with the fact that although it is satirical, it is not unkind. (video duration: 1:55)

Paul Taylor of the Independent says: Here, it's a case of tits'n'tome - in an introductory book-brandishing rondelay of a number that would crowd your average Avon Lady off the face of the Western Hemisphere, Abs pressed tightly against his white short-sleeved shirt and with a dollop of quiff that anything with a pulse would want to muss, Gavin Creel is brilliantly engaging (and stout of voice) as Elder Price, whose ambitions for Latter-Day Sainthood go a trifle off-piste when he is despatched Uganda rather than Orlando, Florida by the mission. Inside leg-measurement roughly half the size of his waist and fully and inarguably friend-free, Jared Gertner is totally adorable as his gatheringly not-so-forlorn sidekick.

Andrzej Lukowski in Time Out London says: Brace yourself for a shock: 'South Park' creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone's Broadway-munching musical is not particularly shocking. Sure, there are 'f-cks' and 'cunts' and gags about baby rape - but beneath it all, this is a big-hearted affair that pays note-perfect homage to the spirit of Broadway's golden age as much as the sounds.

Alun Palmer in the Daily Mirror writes: The musical swept all before it on Broadway and now crashes into the West End like a drunken, lecherous potty mouthed yob at a Claridges high tea. Created by the people behind scatological TV show South Park, it pulls no punches in tearing down the foundations of the The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints brick by ridiculous brick and, by extension, all other religions too.

Julie Carpenter of the Daily Express says: There's probably nothing more extreme than you'd get in South Park, it's just that it seems so terribly incongruous because it's wrapped up as a conventional musical. And a particularly exuberant one at that, filled with catchy, sometimes soaring songs.

Peter Brown for LondonTheatre.co.uk says: Given that this is a satire directed against a particular religious group - who are still very much alive and preaching - this show might have attracted a whole string of legal actions, or at least a heated public exchange between the production team and the Mormons. But apparently not from what I can gather. The Mormons seem to have taken the show in their stride - which implies they see no threat and have, in avoiding a public row, preserved their dignity. But I don't really think they have much to worry about anyway.

Claire Allfree in Metro writes: Price has as much luck as the already in-situ Mormon missionaries - a tap-dancing group of closet homosexuals - in converting the villagers; rather, it's Cunningham who 'mans up' and wins them over with 'Mormon' stories featuring Star Wars and The Lord Of The Rings, and persuades them not to rape a baby in the hope it will cure Aids but to 'f*** a frog' instead.

Theo Bosanquet for WhatsOnStage.com says: Without wishing to ruin the many surprises of the score, I can say that you're likely to be tickled by numbers including "Turn It Off", in which the Mormon missionaries describe how they deal with life's traumas, and "Baptize Me", where Elder Cunningham flirts with love interest Nabalungi (Alexia Khadime) using more double entendres than a Benny Hill sketch. But the real show-stopper is "I Believe", where Creel - almost unrecognisable from his last appearance in the West End as Claude in Hair - bursts into a ballad of soaring Disney-fied magnificence as he decides to heal the genocidal warlord's ways with a faith founded on the premise that ancient Israelites travelled to America.

Mark Shenton in The Stage says: It's not your typical Broadway musical fare to be sure, but the joyful thing about the show is how it has digested a century of great Broadway musicals, reprocessed them and created a punishingly funny pastiche of many of them. Whereas Monty Python's Spamalot was a metamusical that was about musicals themselves, this is a comic musical of more subtle and ironic tributes, from Wicked and The Lion King to The King and I, The Sound of Music, The Music Man and more.

Michael Billington of the Guardian writes: Strip away all the hype surrounding this hit Broadway import and what do you find? A mildly amusing musical, with some knowingly parodic songs, that takes a few pot shots at religious credulity without ever questioning the need for belief. I had a perfectly pleasant time, but the idea that the show, which won nine Tony awards, is either daringly offensive or a Broadway breakthrough is pure codswallop.

Charles Spencer of the Daily Telegraph says: For a start, mocking the Mormons and their bizarre belief system is the softest of targets. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is unlikely to dispatch suicide bombers into the theatre, and indeed their response to the piece has been remarkably tolerant and good humoured.

Quentin Letts of the Daily Mail says: We are invited to split our sides because bad language is used. The youths encounter joke Africans who use the F-word a lot and break into a song with lines such as '**** you, God' and '**** you in the ****'. Noel Coward drollery, this ain't. Add gags about female genital mutilation and a song about how Jesus, at Calvary, 'manned up' and 'grew a pair'. That song about the crucified Christ is probably aping Monty Python's Always Look On The Bright Side Of Life but lacks its genial surrealism.

Warwick Thompson for Bloomberg/Businessweek UK writes: It confuses a thin romantic subplot between Cunningham (Gertner) and an African girl called Nabalungi (Alexia Khadime), even though it generates the most amusing number "Baptize Me," in which they describe a baptism in increasingly erotic terms. Casey Nicholaw's slick choreography is top-notch, and the kick-lines and Bob Fosse moves look great. Scott Pask's old- fashioned set has simple descending flats for scene changes and large trucks of scenery for the African village: Though hardly innovative, it does the job.