The smash hit musical comedy The Book of Mormon has been playing at the Sydney Lyric Theatre since February.

Mahony believes it appeals to a wide range of demographics due to it being “not like a lot of musicals”.

“It’s not your standard musical,” he said. “It’s almost a musical for people who don’t like, or wouldn’t usually see musicals.

“My brothers and sisters, when they came to see it with their partners, they loved it.

“They almost seemed relieved that I was a part of a musical they enjoyed, and didn’t have to pretend to enjoy this time. Which is great.”

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Created by Matt Stone and Trey Parker (South Park), The Book of Mormon first premiered on Broadway in 2011. 

It’s since become one of the biggest shows in the world, regularly selling out its performances and winning major awards. 

Mahony, who was born and raised in Oak Flats, is part of the ensemble cast. 

Mahony has played one of the Mormon men since the show began in Melbourne in February last year.

He has continued on to the Sydney season, which features eight shows per week. 

“It can be shocking at times, and that can take people off-guard if they’re not prepared for that,” he said.

“But it’s not just (being) shocking for shocking’s sake… It’s all in context, to make you think, and it’s very cleverly written.”

Mahony began his training at Diane Blass School of Dance in Wollongong.

He then furthered his training at Queensland University of Technology. 

Since graduating he has worked with Royal Caribbean and Tokyo Disneyland, among other commercial work. 

His television credits include ABC’s Dance Academy and as the Dance Captain in the telemovie Carlotta.

After making his musical theatre debut in Wicked on London’s West End, Mahony returned to Australia and again toured with the production. Most recently, he was in the original Australian cast of Matilda.

“Wicked when it just opened in London, that was quite big at the time I thought,” he said.

“But this (Mormon) has been almost beyond that.”

Mahony, who still has family in the Illawarra, plans to continue touring with The Book of Mormon when it heads to Brisbane in 2019. 

He’s lived a “gypsy” lifestyle in recent years, although was thankful he’d managed to stay steadily employed for about a decade. 

“They’ve all kind of lined up eerily well,” he said of his various gigs. “I’ve been incredibly lucky.”

The Book of Mormon is currently selling tickets for Sydney performances to mid-January.

Tickets are available from Ticketmaster. 

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