"It's one of the biggest hits of the last 10 years," says Frances Egler, Sr. Director of Programming and Presentations at the Kimmel Center. "It's a very irreverent, very adult take on the story of two Mormon missionaries who end up in Africa."
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The story follows their misadventures while trying to spread the Good Word.
"They leave Utah and go to Uganda and deal with all their assumptions about what they're going to do there and meet the reality of what being a missionary is," Egler says. " It's a very, very, very funny, very adult musical," says Egler.
The show comes from South Park creators Trey Parker and Matthew Stone, in addition to Robert Lopez, composer of Frozen and Avenue Q.
The musical also won a Tony for Best Original Score.
"They have very funny songs... and actually a very funny opening number, that starts with the Mormons singing to a chorus of doorbells called Hello, because it's the door to door sort of conversion that they try to practice," says Egler.
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The choreography is by Tony Award winning Casey Nicholaw. He choreographed the Mean Girls tour, which will make a stop at the Kimmel Center next year.
"He's one of the busiest choreographers out there and there's a mixture of sort of modern dance and a funny tap number, it's basically got all the kind of Broadway dancing you'd want," says Egler.
The show has been dubbed the best musical of this century by the New York Times.
"It hasn't played in Philadelphia since 2015, so we're very excited to bring it back for 16 performances," Egler says. "Given that it's still selling out on Broadway, still selling out on tour, audiences really love the show."
The Book of Mormon is at the Academy of Music May 28-June 9. For tickets and show times visit The Arts in Philly.
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Broadway Philadelphia: The Book of Mormon
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Academy of Music
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