The controversial Tony award-winning musical The Book of Mormon opened in London to mixed reviews Friday in its debut outside the US.

The musical, by the creators of the animated TV comedy South Park, is an expletive-filled satire of two Mormon missionaries sent to Africa to win converts.

Writers Trey Parker and Matt Stone have the Mormons confront a thuggish one-eyed warlord terrorizing terminally ill villagers in Uganda in a world where AIDS is dominant and female circumcision rife. The show, by Parker and Stone in collaboration with Avenue Q co-creator Robert Lopez, opened on Broadway in March 2011 to wide acclaim and won nine Tony awards, Broadway's highest honors.

The Book of Mormon, starring American actors Gavin Creel and Jared Gertner as the two mis-matched missionaries, received a mixed reception from London critics. Henry Hitchings from London's Evening Standard newspaper said some theatergoers were bound to find the show puerile or offensive.

"Yet this is an affectionate portrait of culture clash and friendship, which parodies several classic musicals," he wrote, giving the show a four out of five-star rating.