A bounty of kindness despite its barbed satire, The Book of Mormon seems more relevant and necessary than ever.

Before the play opened in 2011, the assumption was that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints would be under imminent assault by South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone and Avenue Q composer-lyricist Robert Lopez. These merciless satirists were no doubt sharpening their knives to make mincemeat of the newest and most American offshoot of Christianity. One imagined that Book of Mormon would be devastating and mean, an ice-water bath of truth that finally exposed a sect that believes Israelites settled in North America six centuries before the birth of Christ. Anticipation reached a fever pitch.

Yet this brilliant, uproarious, and thoughtful musical, rather than aiming at one religion, turned out to be an indictment and celebration of best intentions laid to waste by reality. The show’s blaspheming creators take great thrill in generalizing outward once the audience is united in mockery of this supposedly weird system of belief. Parker, Lopez, and Stone are instead telling a more universal joke. Its setup is that all religions are fundamentally bogus. The punchline, however, is more nuanced and surprising: There are extreme situations when absurdity can be miraculous. By the show’s end, a character’s cooked-up fantasy seems just as legitimate a balm and source of hope as any other established faith.

Returning to the Kennedy Center after two sold-out runs in 2013 and 2015, The Book of Mormon follows a duo of young Mormon missionaries. Righteous Kevin Price (Kevin Clay) and his clownish sidekick Arnold Cunningham (Connor Peirson, fully committed to hijinks) embark from Utah to Uganda with the Herculean goal of transforming an African village into an outpost of Latter-day enlightenment.

Their hubris quickly shrinks in the face of human misery and a filthily named warlord who mutilates women, seemingly for sport. Song and dance come to the rescue, literally and figuratively, when the black villagers and white evangelists decide to abandon their past and embrace a bold (if ridiculous) new future, hand in hand.

Much like Parker and Stone’s prior work, The Book of Mormon brims with a kitchen sink’s worth of pop-cultural references—from Star Wars to Lord of the Rings, the O.J. Simpson trial to Jesus Christ Superstar, Jeffrey Dahmer to Bono—that are far from current but evergreen enough to not seem dated today.

Beyond these allusions, two productions stand out most as inspirations: The Lion King and The King and I. Not only is Disney’s beloved masterpiece called out by name on multiple occasions, its musical DNA can be heard throughout Mormon’s songs, most obviously on the marvelous and profane “Hakuna Matata” spoof, “Hasa Diga Eebowai,”

As for the Rodgers and Hammerstein classic, its story of white Westerners descending on an exotic land to impart wisdom on noble savages is skewered with puckish glee. Lest anyone miss the homage, Parker, Lopez, and Stone reimagine The King and I‘s infamous show-within-a-show “Small House of Uncle Thomas,” and manage to make their version more offensive than the original.

If The Book of Mormon remains a pure delight more than half a decade later, and it does, thanks go to these songs, which shine as gems of contemporary musical theater. There are outright showstoppers (“Spooky Mormon Hell Dream”), sky-high ballads (“Baptize Me,”), and a handful of instant classics that fit both categories (“Hello!,” “Turn It Off,” “I Believe”). All are remarkably sophisticated and tuneful, and anticipate Lopez’s contribution to Frozen (which earned him the final quarter of an EGOT). Casey Nicholaw’s tap-inflected choreography, even more jubilant than these numbers, is executed with joy by the cast, all of whom seem to be having a blast. Their manic, sunny energy can be intoxicating.

America is a cynical, unhappy place right now. Any show, especially one this heavenly, which whisks an audience away from daily political tantrums and also reminds us of the power of civility, well deserves the ovations currently roaring from the Kennedy Center. Believe in The Book of Mormon.

The Book of Mormon is at Kennedy Center through November 19. $59-229. Buy tickets here.