The Book Of Mormon at Academy of Music

Known as Philadelphia's most spacious and top-tier musical theatres, Academy Of Music is proud to host the Book of Mormon on October at Saturday 5th October 2024. Known for its world-class staging, facilties, and spacious seating, Academy Of Music is already applauded by both locals and foreigners in Philadelphia as its leading musical venue.

The musical runs at 2 hours and 30 minutes, the Book of Mormon was a surprising yet welcome addition to Broadway theatres when it started over a decade ago, back in 2011 at the Eugene O’Neill Theatre. The inventive take on the Book of Mormon was a record-breaker. In just the first nine months of the show, it broke the weekly box office record 22 times. By mid-2022, it had already grossed more than $1 Billion Dollars around the world. Over the past decade, the show accumulated awards over all of its productions globally as well, ranging from Tony Awards, Grammy Awards, Olivier Awards, Drama Desk Awards and Helpmann awards among other citations!

The Book of Mormon mixes the key ideas of religion, culture shock, and classic theatre into its comedic musical. Its plot features two very different Mormon missionaries, Kevin Price and Arnold Cunningham, its main characters, as they are sent on a mission for training to convert the local population of a small African village in Uganda to their religion. It turns out to be a challenge however, as they learn that the village faces more urgent affairs such as poverty, famine, an HIV/AIDS epidemic, and even oppression from the local General. Thinking outside the box, it is Cunningham who is able to get through to the locals with aid from the village leader’s daughter, Nabulungi, and a bit of creativity. Though not as competent on the Mormon doctrine as his companions, he creates relatable stories that are a combination of fact and fiction, blatantly taking stories from science fiction and fantasy works such as Star Wars and Lord of the Rings that entice the villagers more to convert. The two techniques of Price and Cunningham clash, orthodox and unorthodox respectively, as they struggle try to strategize the best way to achieve the mission they set out for in the first place.

The Book of Mormon’s decade-long run in Philadelphia. Tickets are purchasable by clicking the link above.