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. |
 
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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.
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