The Book of Mormon

A brief hiatus from the Germany series to fill you in on other great things I've been up to:

About a month ago, Ed surprised me with tickets to The Book of Mormon. I was completely over the moon about it, because they're extremely difficult to get and I've been dying to see it. However, my elation quickly turned to crushing disappointment when I checked my calendar and realized that the weekend he'd picked in October was the same weekend my dear friend Shannon, who I've known since second grade, was scheduled to tie the knot in D.C. After considering some rather desperate solutions, one of which may or may not have involved attempting to sabotage the wedding in hopes of a postponement, I told Ed I wasn't going to be able to go. (This is the downside to planning surprises for people.) My fortunes took a turn for the better, however, when Ed's mom decided to make a somewhat impromptu trip to New York and wanted to see The Book of Mormon. Ed's mom, it seems, is good at getting what she wants. A few days out, she and Ed had secured four tickets to the hardest show to see on Broadway, and last Tuesday we all arrived at the theater with Ed's cousin Sandy, feeling (at least I did) rather like lottery winners must.

A bit of background: The Book of Mormon is a musical written by the creators of South Park, Trey Parker and Matt Stone, in collaboration with Robert Lopez who co-wrote Avenue Q, one of my favorite musicals. It's been getting rave reviews since day one and won nine Tony awards this year, one of them for Best Musical. Ferran, after entering the ticket lottery every day for more than a week, got tickets just days before he left for Spain, and he called it "the best thing he's ever seen." Critics have been gaga over it. Just out of curiosity, I checked out TicketMaster today to see what it takes to get to see this thing, and the first available seats are for a performance on January 26th. That's how popular it is.

And for good reason. My cheeks and my stomach were aching by the intermission for laughing so hard. In the story, two Mormon missionaries are sent to Uganda, where they attempt to convert the locals, who are being terrorized by a brutal warlord, a perfect recipe for any comedy. (Er...) Classically, one of them is the perfect Mormon, whom everyone expects to convert the entire continent before dinnertime, while the other is a hopelessly clueless klutz with a tendency to lie compulsively. As one would expect from the creators of South Park and Avenue Q, it's completely irreverent, profane, and cringe-worthy, replete with toilet humor and sex jokes. It's also whip-smart, clever, and relevant. As the clip I've linked to (below, in the final paragraph) demonstrates, The Book of Mormon mixes a sizable dose of sensitivity into its lambaste of, well, everyone. Mormons are not the only ones mocked here. While the Mormon church is, obviously, the butt of its humor, it pokes fun at religion in general. This, in my opinion, is the root of Stone and Parker's genius: They start with the kind of general ridicule that anyone can produce, but then, surprisingly, reveal the other side of the argument in a reflective, insightful way. Just as in the real world, no one ends up with clean hands, and this is the way it should be.

The response from the Mormon church was not at all what I expected, though apparently Stone and Parker weren't worried at all as they developed the musical. The head of PR simply said that while the show might entertain people for an evening, the real Book of Mormon would enrich your life forever. Stone and Parker said they were confident that the church would "be cool about it." I must confess that I wasn't, but I have to hand it to them for being good sports about the whole thing.


My only criticism, one Ed shares (validation!), is that the clueless missionary was unbelievably clueless. I know the show is a comedy and it's not supposed to be too terribly realistic, but he over-played his role in the beginning quite a bit, and I was torn between thinking he was funny and wishing he'd get off the stage. As the plot unwound and his character gained complexity, however, he settled down and became extremely likable and, if not believable, at least entertaining rather than annoying. All four of us really enjoyed it; Sandy said it was the funniest musical he's ever seen, and I agree. Ed's mom said she liked it a lot, but, having grown up in the era of musicals like Carousel, found it to be a bit startling. Put that way, I suppose it would be.

Here's a clip of one of the songs that was performed at the Tony Awards ceremony. It's probably the least funny song in the whole thing, actually, but it contains the least profanity and sums up some of the central themes of the show nicely, two great reasons to choose it for an awards show. I can't recommend The Book of Mormon highly enough to anyone who is not offended by excessive profanity and has about six months to kill before they actually get to see it.