Musical theatre performer Paris Leveque had not played a lead role since her Year 11 casting as the titular character in Mary Poppins.

She rectified this during her final year of studying at the Victorian College of the Arts by securing her professional debut performance in a musical — as far removed from the English nanny as possible — starring as Nabulungi in The Book Of Mormon.

“I was auditioning for the show in my final year at VCA,” 23-year-old Leveque says of the Australian production currently at Crown Theatre Perth.

“We were able to start auditioning for shows if it lined up with the end of our degree. The Book Of Mormon was one of them because it was starting the year after I graduated.

“I went through the audition process in around July or August of 2024, landed the role, finished out my degree, did my showcase, got my piece of paper, had a bit of a gap in between, and then was able to start the show (opening in Sydney, July 2025). It definitely alleviated a lot of the post-drama school anxiety of auditioning, and not really knowing what’s going to happen next.”

With a Russian mother and Mauritian father, Leveque was surrounded by many different types of music while growing up in the south-east of Melbourne, including Greek and Bollywood.

She discovered musical theatre during her school days while also idolising performers like Beyonce and Michael Jackson who could sing and dance at the same time.

Her first taste of doing musical theatre full-time came the year after high school when Leveque moved to Perth to study the diploma of musical theatre at the WA Academy of Performing Arts, before following it up with a bachelor of fine arts in music theatre at VCA.

“We studied abroad for a couple of weeks in London during my final year at VCA, and The Book Of Mormon was the first show we saw on the West End,” Leveque recounts.

“I was sat up in the nosebleeds, right in the back of the dress circle . . . surprised by how successful the show had been, being so provocative. How had they gotten away with it for so long?

“By the end of the show, seeing Nabulungi’s arc, I knew I needed to play that role at some point in my life. Then later that year, they announced they were holding auditions.

“Playing Nabulungi was so far from anything I thought would be achievable but I decided to put my name in the mix and just see what happened.”

Co-written by South Park’s Trey Parker and Matt Stone with Robert Lopez (Avenue Q, Frozen), the production follows two mismatched Mormon missionaries, Elder Price and Elder Cunningham, sent on a two-year mission to a place as far removed from Salt Lake City as possible — Uganda.

Leveque sees Nabulungi as the emotional heart of the musical, living through war and poverty in a Ugandan village, who will use anything to find hope for herself and those around her.

“I think she’s the driving force of the show,” she shares.

“She’s taught me a lot about wearing your heart on your sleeve.”

Performing many of her scenes opposite Nick Cox as Elder Cunningham — who describes his character as like a puppy meets tornado, and an outlier of the group that means well — required chemistry reads between the two during the audition process.

“We walked into the room at our very first chemistry read and he accidentally dropped all of his sheet music and headshots,” Leveque recounts.

“I instantly went to help him, and I was like ‘oh my God, are you OK?’ We hadn’t even done any material yet and I looked over at the panel, and they all looked at each other like ‘that is a very Cunningham/Nabulungi moment’. It was just very natural and happened out of nowhere.”

Opening on Broadway in 2011, the winner of nine Tony Awards is known for its crude humour, but behind that, Leveque says the trajectory of the songs and story arc delivers a special message about friendship and community.

“Sometimes musicals can brush over how important community is, but that is the whole purpose of The Book Of Mormon story,” she adds.

“When you have something that unites people, no matter where they are from and no matter the differing circumstances that they’re from, we can all see eye to eye. There will always be something that will bring us together.”

The Book Of Mormon is at Crown Theatre Perth until December 6. Tickets at ticketmaster.com.au.