'The Book of Mormon' on Broadway: Mormons, missionaries and music from 'South Park' team
THEATER REVIEW: "The Book of Mormon" plays at the Eugene O'Neill Theatre, 230 W. 49th St., New York.; 212-239-6200 or www.bookofmormon.com
NEW YORK — If any show could make the case that you can have fun with absolutely anything in the oft-painful run of human experience — AIDS, genocide, genital mutilation, poverty, religion, “The Lion King” — then that show is “The Book of Mormon,” the shrewd, remarkably well-crafted and wholly hilarious new Broadway musical from the creators of “South Park” and the composer of “Avenue Q.”
Fans of Trey Parker and Matt Stone won't be surprised by the outrageous content and language — which surely goes further than any other musical in Broadway history — in this coming-of-age tale of an enthusiastic young Mormon missionary, whose fervent prayer to be sent to Orlando, his favorite city on earth, is answered with an assignment in war-torn Uganda and a partnership with the most inept and annoying Mormon sidekick in religious history.
But it's still an eye-popping moment when a curtain at a musical comedy goes up on designer Scott Pask's locale of intense poverty, populated by an ensemble of African citizens who suffer from the kind of unspeakable — well, here, very much speakable and singable — horrors rarely even mentioned, let alone lampooned, on the streets of midtown Manhattan.
But, as shrewder “South Park” fans understand, Parker and Stone built their career on their mastery of tone, and their seemingly innate ability to understand when to push the limits to the breaking point and when to dance deftly away from painful details. They have long forged material as sweet as it is sour, and, especially in their movies (“South Park: Bigger Longer & Uncut”), embraced the traditions of the Broadway musical even as they turned its milquetoast romanticism on its head.
In many ways, “The Book of Mormon” is an intensification — a culmination, really — of what “Monty Python's Spamalot” achieved, albeit signposted for a very different cultural generation. “The Book of Mormon,” which features not only the catchy songs of Robert Lopez (the opening doorbell number, “Hello,” is a classic example) but also his clearly crucial help on the book, starts with a satirical, self-aware and dazzlingly self-confident comedic mind-set — honed and, crucially, licensed and secured in other media.
But just as it starts to feel as if watching the “South Park” guys deconstruct the apparent illogicalities of Mormonism is starting to sound the same, one-sided note, Parker, Stone and Lopez engineer a very savvy twist in the narrative. This re-energizes the show early in the second act, focuses it more acutely on those “Avenue Q”-like themes of young people seeking out their purpose and propels it to a conclusion that leaves audience members feeling they've attended something weightier than a series of pointed laughs fired into a soft religious target.
By the end of a night more emotional than many will expect, the show is arguing the importance of finding a spiritual center, if not exactly embracing the doctrinal details of that most American of religions (and, as cooler heads may currently be observing in Salt Lake City, when you are the most American of religions, it could be seen as a badge of honor to be ridiculed on Broadway). In many ways, the rich, liberal do-gooders of “We Are the World” (the object of a hilarious Act 2 takedown) come off worse than the collection of naive missionaries trying to save the world. And “The Book of Mormon” even makes a case that it takes those suffering real pain to understand the real role of religion in our lives.
“South Park” was never friendly to pretentious baby boomers. Neither is its musical.
Along the jolly way, “The Book of Mormon” throws in many inside jokes. A spoof Mormon re-enactment diorama (sourced in part, I suspect, on the reporting in Jon Krakauer's “Under the Banner of Heaven”) is a nod to “Angels in America.” A catchy, faux-African ditty, “Hasa Diga Eebowai” (you don't want to know the translation) is a hilariously profane takedown of the Disneyfied complacencies of “Hakuna Matata.” And references to other Broadway musicals and stagings are sprinkled like little blessings throughout.
One can see the argument against this show — indeed, it plays out in your mind as you watch it. Some will find it juvenile. You could construct a case that it makes fun of real pain. You could build a better case that it has merely taken the over-familiar and pushed it further. But after you hold that trial in your head, between laughs, you ultimately end up dismissing the case.
Casey Nicholaw, who directs and choreographs with the right note of apparent sincerity (Parker shares directing credit), was smart enough not to cast stars who would pull focus or undermine the crucial Everyman naivete of the two leads and the ensemble of missionaries. The clear, earnest tones of Andrew Rannells beautifully enrich the character Elder Price, whose journey to hell and back (and this hell involves Johnnie Cochran) is at the center of the yarn.
Josh Gad (who played Barfee in “Spelling Bee” and affects a rather similar nerd savant here) is certainly a disquietingly annoying Elder Cunningham at the start, but he and the character redeem themselves just when it is becoming a problem. And Nikki M. James, as an African woman named Nabulungi (Gad's character, who can't get her name right, ends up calling her Nordstrom), creates a shrewd parody of the kind of romanticized African girl found in shows like “Once on This Island,” which, when it comes to sharper truths for flailing generations, can't compete with “The Book of Mormon.”
"In many ways, the rich, liberal do-gooders of 'We Are the World' (the object of a hilarious Act 2 takedown) come off worse than the collection of naive missionaries trying to save the world. And 'The Book of Mormon' even makes a case that it takes those suffering real pain to understand the real role of religion in our lives."
I never warmed to this aspect of Parker and Stone's equal-opportunity satire. Some liberal do-gooders might be naive and pretentious, but, you know, they mean well and, if they bring money and attention to worthy causes, where's the harm? I'm not sure what 'real pain' Parker and Stone have suffered that makes them experts on religion, genuine spirituality, Africa or anything really, and, in fact, they can come off as pretty pretentious and holier-than-thou themselves.
Another example: I didn't like the South Park episode that mercilessly ridiculed Al Gore, Prius-drivers, and, I guess, anyone who is concerned about the environment, with the funny but ultimately sour premise that environmentalists like nothing so much as the smell of their own farts. That sort of thing misses the mark for me. It's not that I can't take a joke, but some jokes poke fun while others seem tinged with more genuine disdain than is justified.
Of course, I haven't seen the show, and, if the reviews are to be believed, it's the best musical in the history of the universe, so maybe I shouldn't worry about the Stone/Parker sensibility, which always turned me off.
Posted by: JakeH | March 25, 2011 at 11:46 AM
The "harm" is the pretentiousness. Why can't people "bring money and attention to worthy causes" without acting like they're better than everyone else?
Posted by: Joe | March 25, 2011 at 02:00 PM
14 years ago my son and I saw on late-night cable TV the earliest example of the brilliance of Trey Parker and Matt Stone: their student film Cannibal The Musical. The instant I saw this rough-cut gem I remember thinking "if these kids ever get to do something on Broadway, we'd better all watch out!"
Then came South Park with its often hysterically cynical and original songs, followed by the film Bigger Longer and Uncut which took South Park as close to the Broadway stage that an animated series can get. Lots of people had seen South Park on TV by that time, but unless you had seen Cannibal, you had no idea that Trey was really deep down a latterday Frank Loesser in both his understanding of musical theater structure and his ability to craft superb lyrics and even music. Bigger Longer and Uncut proved it once again, although it actually annoyed some TV fans because it was "too much music" and "not enough South Park". Again, I remember thinking "this isn't terribly surprising: writing musicals is in Parker's blood".
Their next movie musical, Team America, once again broke new ground, using marionettes and terrifically satirical songs (probably the most hilarious number is the one depicting dictator Kim Il Jung of North Korea singing the song "I'm So Roanry" which brilliantly parodied far too many classic Broadway laments.
So it surprises me not one iota that Book Of Mormon is receiving fantastic reviews. Anyone who understood Broadway and saw their early effort with Cannibal could have predicted it. By the way, the movie can be found on DVD at various online vendors and it is worth putting in your collection.
As for the concerns about sacred cows being skewered in a show, this is a Broadway heritage. Rodgers and Hammerstein did it, Loesser did it (who can forget the hilarious songs from How To Succeed which won Mr. Loesser a Pulizer prize)... and so have many others including the recent Producers as well as Avenue Q. Maybe Parker and Stone use stronger language but the effect is the same and when done well (just as with brilliant stand-up comedy like Richard Pryor), the offensiveness of the language is mitigated by the purpose and intent of the satire.
I have my tickets in hand for later this summer and I can't wait!
Posted by: Jon Rosen | March 29, 2011 at 05:33 AM
@ JakeH "Another example: I didn't like the South Park episode that mercilessly ridiculed Al Gore, Prius-drivers, and, I guess, anyone who is concerned about the environment, with the funny but ultimately sour premise that environmentalists like nothing so much as the smell of their own farts. That sort of thing misses the mark for me. It's not that I can't take a joke, but some jokes poke fun while others seem tinged with more genuine disdain than is justified."
I think maybe you can't take a joke. I haven't seen the episode but even your description of it made me laugh out loud.
Posted by: J Dogg | May 05, 2011 at 12:49 PM
its always good to laugh at religious cults. the more onic the better. maybe the mormons can ware thier under ware with out shame . but none of the rest of the normal world can. thank you. Elder john Cunningham
Posted by: John Cunningham | May 13, 2011 at 01:11 PM
The full original cast recording can be heard on NPR's 'First Listen' page at:
http://www.npr.org/2011/05/09/136054170/first-listen-cast-recording-the-book-of-mormon
Posted by: Lucy Bowels | May 14, 2011 at 02:19 AM