BAZ BAMIGBOYE: The stormin' Mormons... Stars of forthcoming mega-musical set to blow the sockets in the West End

By Baz Bamigboye for the Daily Mail

Published: | Updated:

Casey Nicholaw, the director of forthcoming mega-musical The Book Of Mormon, says the show’s two leading men ‘have American in-your-face energy’.

It’s true. I watched Gavin Creel, from Ohio, and Jared Gertner, from New Jersey, rehearse a couple of numbers with The Book Of  Mormon company and, wow, they would have blown the sockets if they’d continued.

They lead the company in the show that has become like . . . well , a religion on Broadway. And everyone without a ticket there has to pray, and then some, that a few will be returned to the box office. 

'In your face energy': The American stars of The Book of Mormon, Gavin Creel, left, and Jared Gertner, right

Around £7.8 million worth have already been sold ahead of the February 25 opening at the Prince Of Wales Theatre in the West End.

It’s a show written by South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone with Robert Lopez about two missionaries who are sent out to spread the word of Mormonism (you don’t have to be schooled in the state religion of Utah to get it) in Uganda.

Gavin plays Elder Price, a square-jawed, self-assured Mormon. ‘He’s been raised perfectly and knows exactly how the world will work,’ said Gavin, who has starred in London productions of Hair and Mary Poppins.

At least, Elder Price thinks he knows what’s ahead until he’s sent to Uganda — though his heart was set on doing missionary work in Orlando.

Uganda calls, too, for Jared’s character, Elder Cunningham. But as Jared explained: ‘He couldn’t care less where he goes — he just wants a friend. He’s like a puppy who looks at you saying: “I need as much love as you can give me.” 

‘Cunningham’s like the runt of the litter. Everyone in the mission’s really Ken doll-like, while he’s such a mess. He doesn’t really know the Book Of Mormon. He doesn’t know what he’s doing at all.’

Reports from Broadway said The Book Of Mormon was hilarious and outrageous. And I agree: the first time I saw it  I laughed a lot, but I was also deeply shocked by the some of the song’s lyrics. I was shocked in the ‘can I believe my ears?’ sort of way, rather than being appalled. 

Phenomenon: The Book of Mormon has already taken Broadway by storm

As Sonia Friedman, who is producing with Anne Garefino and Scott Rudin, observed: ‘Underneath all the fun and the satire and the jokes, there’s a story about faith and friendship, and not so much the power of religion, but the power of good.’

It’s almost as if the shocking stuff is a veneer that you chip away and find there’s a beautiful beating heart.

Jared was worried when he was cast to do the U.S. tour of The Book Of Mormon. ‘I watched South Park on TV and sort of likened in my mind Trey and Matt being like the cool kids who are on the edge in the playground smoking and I’m like the kid polishing the apple for the teacher,’ he says.

‘I was worried. I didn’t know if I was going to understand how to do South Park humour. But Trey talked about it not being about the laugh, but  the heart. Shocking and outrageous isn’t enough.’
I agree. It must have an emphatic component as well, like the stage version of Billy Elliot did.

Growing up in New Jersey, Jared had a cousin in the original cast of A Chorus Line, who would take him backstage, and his uncle ran a theatre. Jared did local theatre from the age of six.

‘Things like Peter Pan,’ he told me, adding: ‘I was the most Lost Boy ever.’

Jared’s parents travelled with him to London when he was  nine (he’s 33 now). He wrote in his journal at the time: ‘I love London. Have to go back there as a grown-up.’

Gavin’s much taller than Jared, a sight gag that makes you smile before either has said a word. He was in a choir and sang in three-part harmony, and - like Jared - has two older sisters. ‘It means we’re both attention hogs,’ he joked. He’s keen to see whether Brits are harder to shock than Americans; he already knows we’re not as demonstrative as our U.S. cousins.

One reason The Book Of Mormon works so magnificently is that Garefino and her colleagues spent nearly five years working on the book with the creators.

She’s worked with Matt and Trey for 17 years and knows their script process is to examine every line, character development and every joke.

‘They’re infamous procrastinators,’ Garefino explained, pointing out that Trey believes that if he waits until the last minute, something funny will happen. ‘He won’t let the script go until someone rips it out of his hand.’

By that definition, he held on to the script of The Book Of Mormon for as long as he could. Then it turned to gold.

The view is that if it works in London, it can work anywhere.

No, ladies - it's not me on the left moonlighting!

This is the view of the cast of The Full Monty from backstage.

From left, Sidney Cole, Kieran O’Brien, Craig Gazey, Kenny Doughty, Roger Morlidge and Simon Rouse are playing out-of-work steel workers-turned-strippers in the finale scene of Simon Beaufoy’s play, directed by  Daniel Evans, at the Lyceum Theatre, Sheffield.

And please, don’t think it or ask it. The chap on the far left is not me. 

The Full Monty: The finale scene of Simon Beaufoy's play at Sheffield's Lyceum Theatre

A couple of women shrieked when they saw me leaving the theatre on Tuesday night. ‘Oh,’ one of them complained, when they saw me fully clothed (as I had been all night), ‘we wanted an action replay.’

There was a musical stage version of The Full Monty, but it was set in Buffalo in the U.S. and didn’t take off. This version is the real deal. Beaufoy wrote the movie and this play, which has the added poignancy of being set and played in Sheffield. He had nothing to do with the show transplanted to Buffalo.

The audience, mostly women, responded with the kind of laughter I haven’t heard since One Man, Two Guvnors at the National Theatre. The show goes on tour after Sheffield.

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Watch out for...

  • Richard Eyre, who has been invited by Michael Attenborough to be part of the latter’s final season as artistic director of the Almeida before he hands over the reins to Rupert Goold. Eyre will adapt and direct Ibsen’s Ghosts from September 26. Attenborough said he is ‘still haunted by Eyre’s production of Hedda Gabler which starred the then relatively unknown Eve Best and Benedict Cumberbatch.
  • Tuppence Middleton, who will join Les Miserables movie heart-throb Eddie Redmayne, Channing Tatum, Mila Kunis and Sean Bean in  the Andy and Lana Wachowski sci-fi thriller Jupiter Descending which  is in pre- production here and will shoot on UK locations  next month. Meanwhile, from March 5 Tuppence will make her theatre debut as part of the ensemble in Graham Green’s The Living Room with Caroline Blakiston, Christopher Timothy and others at the Jermyn Street Theatre
  • Tom Cruise, who was in jovial spirits at the Charles Finch and Chanel pre Bafta party at Annabel’s night club. Cruise told me new space adventure Oblivion, in which he stars with Andrea Riseborough, opens in April but is still being edited at the Skywalker Ranch in California. ‘There are a lot of special effects but it’ll be ready,’ Tom assured me.


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