Spain’s most award-winning musical is preparing to lower the curtain in Madrid. The Book of Mormon, the irreverent comedy that has revolutionized Madrid’s musicals, faces its final farewell to the Teatro Rialto after three historic seasons and more than half a million spectators who have left the auditorium humming its songs and repeating its famous “¿Qué tal?” The city thus loses one of its greatest recent theatrical phenomena: a show that has proven that you can fill a large theater night after night with a cheeky, sharp, and uncompromising production.
Its impact can be measured in numbers, but also in prestige. The Spanish production ofThe Book of Mormon has racked up more than 800 performances and has been crowned the most awarded musical in the country’s history, with 17 awards, including the triple crown for Best Musical of 2024 at the Talía Awards, Broadway World Spain, and the Musical Theater Awards, something unprecedented until now. Its stars, Alexandre Ars and Alejandro Mesa, have also been recognized with Best Actor awards, consolidating a cast of 25 performers who have turned each performance into a true theatrical celebration. The production, by ATG Entertainment, leaves the bar very high for upcoming premieres on Gran Vía.
The Book of Mormon bids farewell to Madrid for now
The farewell in Madrid does not mean the end of the phenomenon, but it does mark the closing of a key chapter. The Book of Mormon will continue to be performed on Broadway and in London’s West End, where it has been running for more than a decade, and will maintain its status as the only contemporary comedy to triumph in all three major musical capitals.
In Madrid, its farewell leaves a symbolic void: that of a show that dared to be different—more irreverent, more acidic, more politically incorrect—in a lineup dominated by great classics and family adaptations, such as The Lion King.