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PopEntertainment.com > Reviews > Theatre > The Book of Mormon

THEATRE REVIEWS

The Book of Mormon

THE BOOK OF MORMON (2011)

Starring Josh Gad, Andrew Rannells, Nikki M. James, Rory O'Malley, Michael Potts, Lewis Cleale, Ta'rea Campbell, Tyson Jennette, Scott Barnhardt, Justin Bohon, Darlesia Cearcy, Kevin Duda, Asmeret Ghebremichael, Brian Tyree Henry, John Eric Parker, Jason Michael Snow, Benjamin Schrader, Michael James Scott, Brian Sears, Lawrence Stallings, Rema Webb, Maia Nkenge Wilson and Tommar Wilson.

A Musical by Trey Parker, Robert Lopez and Matt Stone.

Directed by Casey Nicholaw and Trey Parker.

Performed at The Eugene O’ Neill Theater-230 West 49th Street, New York, NY 10038.

 

Fare Buzz

 

The Book of Mormon

It’s the ultimate in “you really had to be there.” None of this should make sense, and yet some serious miracles are being worked here.

Like the play-within-the-play of The Producers, The Book of Mormon is so bad that it’s good, so bizarre that it’s traditional, and so downright filthy that it’s good clean fun.

One can’t help but think of
Springtime For Hitler”: how can we create a play so offensive, so out there, that it will be a can’t-win, sure-fire flop? That is, until theater audiences plug right in and can’t get enough.

As its unlikely story unfolds, Mormon’s bull-in-the-china-shop style doesn’t give you a minute to object. It has us at the first ringing doorbell. And as the evening goes, it does everything so wrong that it can’t be more right. In fact, it’s so wrong-headed that it’s absolutely right-minded. It’s perfect.

The songs, which themes range from homosexual repression to giving the finger to the Lord to turning baptism into a symbolic sexual act, are, and believe me when I tell you, children, right on. If you love the South Park Musical, you are already on board. And if you’ve never seen that flick, you’ll be roaring as if you had. Like Seinfeld, any attempt at hugging and learning is quickly shot down and stomped upon. It’s about time.

The musical (yes, all singing and dancing, including Jesus, Uhura from Star Trek, Satan and Starbucks Coffee) is packing them in, and like The Producers before it, has become the hottest ticket in town.

Because the story was created by South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone, as well as by Avenue Q creator Robert Lopez, we should expect no less of the more: the whitest white boys you know go to Uganda in attempt to convert the locals to Mormonism. Hilarity gold ensues, and the audience is riding it from Minute One.

Talk about heavenly: in one of the all-time glories in the history of theater, an audience who has just been cursed at and forced to watch lewd dancing rises to its feet and raises the roof with its applause. And the biggest winners of the night: the Mormons themselves. Go figure.

Other winners include Josh Gad and Andrew Rannells, shining like beacons as the main missionaries. They will become stars.

Good luck getting tickets. This one is a real bell-ringer.

 

Ronald Sklar

Copyright ©2011 PopEntertainment.com. All rights reserved. Posted: April 4, 2011.

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Copyright ©2011 PopEntertainment.com. All rights reserved. Posted: April 4, 2011.