The books the cast brandish in The Book of Mormon, the foul-mouthed, screamingly funny and universally offensive musical written by South Park’s Trey Parker and Matt Stone with Frozen’s Robert Lopez, are, in fact, real. As in, they are really copies of The Book of Mormon, the 1830 holy text of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

“In rehearsals, there were the few moments where we’d be having a little bit of downtime, or the director would be working with somebody else. And I was like, ‘Oh yeah, I’ll just flick through and read some parts of this book’,” says Sean Johnston, who plays leading man Elder Price in the current production of the show.

Life imitating art imitating life. And doubtless heartwarming to the real Church of LDS, whose relentless commitment to cheerful proselytising is the central gag of the show. To be fair, the Mormons have taken the whole thing pretty well.

“The Broadway musical opened right across the street from a Mormon church,” says Nick Cox, who plays Price’s nerdy sidekick Elder Cunningham. “And the Mormons also took out an ad in the Playbill, and they responded in really great spirit being like, ‘this is a really funny story. If you want to hear the real thing, please come visit’ – which is hilarious.”

The show opened in 2011, and while the Church of LDS took it in its stride, plenty of people were offended, particularly at the portrayal of the Ugandans whom the Elders are trying to convert. After the musical reopened after COVID-19 shutdowns, Stone and Parker tweaked the book to centre those characters more. But the substance is the same as it was when Mormon was last in Melbourne in 2015, setting a record for the longest-running musical in the city’s history.

“I’ve had interactions with people at stage door, and some people say they saw it when it first came out, and they thought today it wouldn’t have been as good … or it would have been too shocking, but I feel like it’s aged so well. It’s still right on the edge, but still so relevant,” says Cox. “A good satire is always that fine line of proving a point while also pushing the boundaries. And I think that’s what makes the show so brilliant.”

Cox does not look like your typical Elder Cunningham, a role originated by Hollywood actor Josh Gad, who leaned into a portly physique and squeaky voice (you’ll know him as buck-toothed snowman Olaf in Frozen). So, how does Boston-born Cox telegraph to the audience that he’s a dork?

He laughs. “I knew that I definitely wasn’t the typical type for him, but I thought I’d like to work physically with my character,” Cox says. “Sometimes you go from like an inside-out approach, or you go from an outside in, and this one was very much an outside in. Once I found his physicality in the audition room, everything else was kind of informed by it.” He demonstrates his character’s awkward pose, hands halfway between his hips and armpits. “And once I unlocked how he stood and his nervous tics, I felt like everything else was informed by that.”