UA musical theater alum Clayton Lukens saw "The Book of Mormon" for the first time when he was 15.
His teenage self never imagined that at 23, he would be in the Broadway tour of the musical comedy, which Broadway In Tucson is bringing to Centennial Hall Friday, Feb. 27, to Sunday, March 1.
Less than a year after Clayton Lukens graduated from the University of Arizona with a MFA in musical theater, he landed his first national tour.
Lukens, who graduated from the University of Arizona School of Theatre, Film & Television in spring 2024 with his BFA in musical theater, joined the cast as an ensemble player last March in his first gig since graduating.
"It's crazy. It's the same stage I graduated on with the College of Fine Arts," Lukens said during a phone call late last week from a tour stop in Folsom, California. "I have been wondering about this: How am I going to feel when I'm up there? I'm just really excited for my professors to see all the work I've gotten to do and had to do in the past year."
The show is a special event for Broadway In Tucson's 20th anniversary season and marks the seventh time since 2016 that "The Book of Mormon" has been here. It was here last in September 2023.
The musical comedy, written by "South Park" creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone and "Avenue Q" creator Robert Lopez, follows Elder Price and Elder Cunningham, a pair of mismatched Mormon missionaries posted to a remote Uganda village where they try to convert the residents as a vicious warlord is on the attack.
In addition to being in the ensemble, Lukens understudies the role of Elder Price; so far on the tour, he has assumed that role a couple of times.
Lukens, a native of Washington state, spent four years at the U of A, performing in a number of musicals including lead roles in "Jesus Christ Superstar" and "Sweeney Todd." During summer breaks he was part of the Okoboji Summer Theatre program in Iowa.
After graduating, Lukens came home to Washington, where he took a summer job selling ice cream at local farmers markets to pay for his move to New York City. He arrived in the Big Apple in fall 2024 and took odd jobs while he auditioned for theater roles including in "The Book of Mormon."
"I originally auditioned for the Broadway company because there's the Broadway production that's been running for a bit," he said. "Then my agent called me and said they redirected me to a callback for the tour, but I would have to dance in the ensemble."
Dancing, he said, was not exactly his strong suit. But after he got a call on a Thursday afternoon that he had won the role, by Monday morning he was thrown into the thick of it.
"This was like a boot camp," he said. "They really put me through the ringer. And it was, I mean, it was fantastic. It feels like I did a mini grad school, honestly, by learning this show like it was. I was learning new things about musical theater already that I thought I had already learned."
Lukens said he is still enamored with the show he saw as a teenager and saw again while he was in Tucson.
"It's such a classic musical comedy that the audience just gets a kick out of it," he said. "And it's such an escape, (which) we need right now. To be able to go and just laugh among your community. It's really fun."
When the cast gets to Tucson this week, Lukens said he will play dutiful tour guide to his old stomping grounds including taking the cast to several of his favorite restaurants and bars and a trip to Gates Pass and Saguaro National Park.
"The Book of Mormon" runs two hours and 30 minutes. Performances are at 7:30 p.m. Friday, 2 and 7:30 p.m. Saturday and 1 and 6:30 p.m. Sunday at Centennial Hall, 1020 E. University Blvd. on the U of A campus. Tickets are $53.20 to $171 through ticketmaster.com.
