‘Book of Mormon’ Breaks Record in London Opening

The producers of The Book of Mormon, which opened Thursday night at London’s Prince of Wales Theatre, announced that the show set a record for the biggest single day of sales in West End and Broadway history.

The show grossed 2,107,972 pounds ($3,210,441). The single-day sales gross for the West End is more than double the day-after sales from the show’s 2011 Broadway opening, which was $1,519,201.

Producer Scott Rudin said: “London can be tough. American musicals tend to get knocked in the teeth in London, by and large. It’s a tougher place.”

The Book of Mormon is a religious satire musical with book, lyrics, and music by Trey Parker, Robert Lopez, and Matt Stone. Best known for creating the animated comedy South Park, Parker and Stone co-created the music with Lopez, who co-wrote and co-composed Avenue Q. The show lampoons organized religion and traditional musical theatre, reflecting the creators’ lifelong fascination with Mormonism and musicals.

The Book of Mormon tells the story of two young Mormon missionaries sent to a remote village in northern Uganda, where a brutal warlord is threatening the local population. Naïve and optimistic, the two missionaries try to share the Book of Mormon, one of their scriptures—which only one of them has read—but have trouble connecting with the locals, who are more worried about war, famine, poverty, and AIDS than about religion.