Review: On Theater: Religious satire returns in ‘Book of Mormon’

Religion and satire make strange bedfellows; one is often hesitant to mock the beliefs of the other. So why is Segerstrom Center for the Arts packed to the rafters for its third visit from “The Book of Mormon?”

Quite simple — it’s not only because the show is hilarious, it’s because it’s so well-crafted. Authors Trey Parker and Matt Stone cut their creative teeth on TV’s “South Park” and, with colleague Robert Lopez, came up with an outrageously funny scenario.

Young Mormon men and their two-year “mission” provide the starting point for this wacky clash of cultures when the two main characters are dispatched to Uganda, where almost everyone has AIDS and the local warlord is circumcising all young women. Uganda be kidding, right? Of course, right.

Sterling performances by Kevin Clay as the upright shining example youth and Conner Peirson as his schlumpy companion who tends to “make things up” drive this flamboyant touring production under the direction of Parker and choreographer Casey Nicholaw. The latter deserves high praise for his staging of the complex ensemble numbers.

Clay’s robust self-aggrandizement (“You and me, but mostly me”) and Peirson’s continual stretching of the truth (“You’re making things up again, Arnold”) are rendered with satiric zeal. They’re ably abetted by Kayla Pecchioni as a native Ugandan girl who gets under Peirson’s skin so much that each of his references to her are by a different name, a clever running gag.

Nicholaw’s superior choreography highlights the showier segments with six other Mormon missionaries comprising a stellar dance team. The local Ugandans also are pretty light on their feet as they join in on the synchronized swiftness.

The choreographic highlight — and the one return visitors eagerly await — is the “Spooky Mormon Hell Dream,” in which Clay’s character is consumed by his guilt. Here he encounters such historic villains as Hitler, Genghis Khan, Jeffrey Dahmer and … Johnny Cochran, whose big sin is “getting O.J. off.” Against the backdrop of Scott Pask’s hellish setting, it’s a monster number.

Strong supporting performances by Corey Jones as General Butt F. Naked and Ron Bohmer, tripling as Mormon founder Joseph Smith, Clay’s dad and the mission president, strengthen the show considerably.

You won’t find a funnier show — or a more potentially offensive one, depending on your personal religious beliefs — than “The Book of Mormon,” which, unfortunately, will be gone after April 1. If you haven’t caught it the first two times it played here, don’t miss this incarnation.

If You Go

What: “The Book of Mormon”

When: 1 and 6:30 p.m. April 1

Where: Segerstrom Center for the Arts, 600 Town Center Drive, Costa Mesa

Cost: Tickets start at $34.75

Information: (714) 556-2787 or visit scfta.org.

TOM TITUS reviews local theater.