It was 2011. Broadway was, honestly, in a weird spot. We had seen a string of movie-to-musical adaptations that felt a bit like checking boxes, and then suddenly, these two guys known for a talking cartoon sponge and a foul-mouthed kid in a red parka decided to write a musical about Joseph Smith. People were nervous. They expected a two-hour bash session. What they got instead, thanks to the original cast Book of Mormon, was one of the most technically perfect, surprisingly sweet, and blisteringly funny pieces of theater ever staged.
The energy in the Eugene O'Neill Theatre during those early previews was electric. You could feel it. It wasn't just that the jokes were landing; it was that the chemistry between the leads was so specific that it felt impossible to replicate. Even now, years later, when you listen to the cast recording, that specific magic is still there. It’s the sound of a group of performers who knew they were about to change the industry.
The duo that shouldn't have worked: Josh Gad and Andrew Rannells
You can’t talk about this show without talking about Elder Price and Elder Cunningham. On paper, it’s a classic "odd couple" trope. You have the golden boy and the loser. But Andrew Rannells and Josh Gad brought something deeper than just archetypes.
Rannells played Elder Price with this terrifyingly bright, plastic smile that hid a massive ego. His vocal performance on "I Believe" is basically a masterclass in Broadway belt technique. It’s crisp. It’s precise. It’s incredibly difficult to sing. When he hits that high note at the end of the anthem, it isn’t just a musical moment; it’s a character breakdown disguised as a triumph.
Then you have Josh Gad.
Honestly, Gad’s performance as Arnold Cunningham is what turned the show into a phenomenon. He didn’t just play the "funny fat kid." He brought this desperate, sweaty, manic need to be liked that made the character's habit of "lying" (or "Making Things Up") feel tragic and hilarious at the same time. His improvisational energy meant that no two shows were exactly the same. He squeaked. He grunted. He danced with a strange, nimble grace that caught everyone off guard.
When you put those two together, you got a comedic friction that defined the original cast Book of Mormon. They weren't just singing at each other; they were reacting in real-time. If Rannells was the straight man, Gad was the chaotic neutral force of nature that kept the audience guessing.
Nikki M. James and the "Heart" problem
A lot of people think The Book of Mormon is just about being offensive. It’s not. If it were just shock humor, it would have died out in six months. The reason it swept the Tonys is largely due to the sincerity brought by Nikki M. James as Nabulungi.
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She had the hardest job in the show. She had to play the emotional center in a world of caricatures. When she sang "Sal Tlay Ka Siti," she wasn't wink-winking at the audience. She played it straight. She sang about a literal dream of a paradise involving "flourished" rooms and goats. It was beautiful. It was also heartbreaking.
Because James stayed so grounded, the satire actually worked. You cared about her character's salvation, which made the absurdity of the "baptism" scene later on feel earned rather than just cheap. She won the Tony for Best Featured Actress for a reason. She was the anchor. Without her, the show is just a bunch of guys making "Hasa Diga Eebowai" jokes.
Why the ensemble was the secret weapon
Usually, the ensemble in a big musical is there to fill out the sound and look pretty in the background. Not here. The original cast Book of Mormon featured an ensemble that was doing some of the heaviest lifting in Broadway history.
Think about the "Spooky Mormon Hell Dream" number.
That song is a logistical nightmare. You have Hitler, Genghis Khan, Jeffrey Dahmer, and giant dancing Starbucks cups. The transitions are lightning fast. The ensemble had to switch from being clean-cut missionaries to literal demons in seconds. The precision required for the choreography—originally handled by Casey Nicholaw—was Olympian.
- Rory O’Malley as Elder McKinley deserves his own wing in the Broadway Hall of Fame. His performance of "Turn It Off" is the definitive version. The way he could flip a switch from "repressed" to "jazz hands" in a microsecond became the gold standard for that role.
- Michael Potts as Mafala Hatimbi provided the perfect cynical counterpoint to the missionaries' naive optimism.
- Brian Tyree Henry, who has since gone on to be a massive star in Atlanta and the MCU, was in that original lineup. It was a powerhouse of talent.
The Trey Parker and Matt Stone factor
Let's be real: people showed up because of South Park. They stayed because of Robert Lopez.
The collaboration between Parker, Stone, and Lopez (who already had Avenue Q under his belt) created a score that was shockingly traditional. They weren't trying to reinvent the wheel; they were trying to write a Golden Age musical that happened to have jokes about dysentery and frogs.
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They spent years developing it. It wasn't a rush job. They held workshops. They tweaked the lyrics. They made sure the theology—while satired—was actually researched. That's why the original cast Book of Mormon felt so polished when it finally opened. It didn't feel like a "sketch" stretched into a musical. It felt like a classic.
The "Hasa Diga Eebowai" controversy and cultural impact
When the show first hit, there was a lot of talk about whether it was "too far." The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints actually handled it brilliantly. They didn't protest; they bought ads in the playbill that said, "The book is always better."
But the original cast had to navigate that tension every night. They were performing songs that, out of context, sounded genuinely blasphemous. Yet, because of the way the cast leaned into the earnestness of the characters, most people left the theater feeling like they’d seen a pro-faith (or at least pro-community) show.
It changed the way Broadway marketed itself. It proved that you could have a "hard-R" rated comedy that still appealed to the "theatre nerds" who grew up on The Sound of Music.
Is the cast recording enough?
Basically, yes and no.
The cast recording of the original cast Book of Mormon is incredible. It’s one of the few albums where the comedy actually translates through the speakers. You can hear the smirk in Rannells' voice. You can hear Gad's breathy desperation. But you miss the physical comedy.
You miss the "Turn It Off" tap break. You miss the visual gag of the "golden plates" being revealed. If you haven't seen the archival footage or a high-quality production, you’re only getting about 60% of the experience. The original cast was incredibly physical. They used their bodies to sell the absurdity.
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Actionable insights for fans and collectors
If you're obsessed with this specific era of the show, there are a few things you should actually do to appreciate it more.
First, go find the 2011 Tony Awards performance. It’s on YouTube. Watch the way the cast moves together. It’s a level of synchronization that most touring companies struggle to match.
Second, listen to the "Making Of" interviews with Robert Lopez. He breaks down how they wrote "Hello!" and why they chose those specific doorbell sounds. It’s fascinating for anyone into the craft of songwriting.
Third, look into the careers of the ensemble members. Many of them are now leading their own shows or starring in major television series. It shows just how high the bar was for casting back then.
Finally, if you’re looking for merchandise or playbills from the original run, make sure they are from the Eugene O'Neill Theatre in 2011. There are a lot of reprints out there, but the "Opening Night" playbills are the ones that carry the real history of that moment in time.
The show is still running, and the new casts are great. They really are. But there is a specific, jagged, hilarious energy to that first group that we probably won't see again. It was the right people at the right time with the right (totally insane) script. Over a decade later, it’s still the "Gold Standard" for modern musical comedy.