{"id":188,"date":"2011-03-22T17:15:55","date_gmt":"2011-03-22T17:15:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/flunkingsainthood\/2011\/03\/a-mormon-reviews-broadway%e2%80%99s-new-book-of-mormon-musical.html"},"modified":"2011-03-24T12:02:42","modified_gmt":"2011-03-24T16:02:42","slug":"a-mormon-reviews-broadway%e2%80%99s-new-book-of-mormon-musical","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/flunkingsainthood\/2011\/03\/a-mormon-reviews-broadway%e2%80%99s-new-book-of-mormon-musical.html","title":{"rendered":"A Mormon Reviews Broadway\u2019s New “Book of Mormon” Musical"},"content":{"rendered":"

I was prepared for scatological humor, generous doses of the F word, and off-color bawdiness\u2014this is South Park<\/em> without network censorship, remember?\u2014but I wasn\u2019t prepared for my Mormon faith to be lampooned with any sensitivity. I was happy to be wrong.<\/h2>\n

 <\/p>\n

By Jana Riess<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>\u201cJesus sounds like Kenny,\u201d my friend Donna whispered at the start of Book of Mormon: The Musical<\/em>,<\/a> which is still in previews but already a smash hit on Broadway. \u00a0That triumph is not surprising, since the musical was co-written by Trey Parker and Matt Stone, the creators of South Park,<\/a> <\/em>and Bobby Lopez<\/a>, the writer for Avenue Q<\/em>, <\/a>one of my favorite musicals of all time. (And guess what! We’re going to run a Q&A with Bobby Lopez this week<\/a>, talking about his curiosity about Mormonism.)<\/p>\n

I was prepared for scatological humor, generous doses of the F word, and off-color bawdiness\u2014this is South Park<\/em> without network censorship, remember?\u2014but I wasn\u2019t prepared for my Mormon faith to be lampooned with any sensitivity. I was happy to be wrong.<\/p>\n

I had bought tickets for Tuesday\u2019s performance back in January, advance planning that turned out to be a good thing. A few days before we attended, Jon Stewart cemented the production\u2019s bright future by raving about it for a full seven minutes on <\/a>The Daily Show<\/a>.<\/em> Stewart told Stone and Parker, \u201cYou have somehow managed to satirize religion while simultaneously almost celebrating it in this sweet, yet really hard-edged [way].\u201d Needless to say, the theater was packed.<\/p>\n

Despite the production\u2019s title, the musical has very little to do with the scriptural Book of Mormon.<\/a> There are a couple of framing scenes in which we see golden plates being buried in \u201cancient upstate New York.\u201d We have brief glimpses of Mormon and his son Moroni (who shows up with great hilarity later in the musical as something of a disco star). Then the opening song is an up-tempo, doorbell-ringing number with ten male missionaries proclaiming, \u201cThis Book Will Change Your Life.\u201d They are excited, thrilled to be getting their mission calls, and dreaming aloud about where in the world they might be sent. They know that serving a mission is their calling because \u201cGod loves Mormons, and he wants some more!\u201d<\/p>\n

The companionship we follow is that of Elder Price, the quintessential Eagle Scout who is earnest about his faith but also deeply self-absorbed; and Elder Cunningham, who is just . . . weird. He\u2019s a follower, a science fiction geek, and something of a pathological liar. Mostly he wants to be accepted and to have a best friend for the first time.<\/p>\n

The elders are sent not to Orlando, Elder Price\u2019s dream destination, but to Uganda, where they are immediately robbed. When the locals burst into a song with a \u201cHakuna Matata\u201d feel, Elder Cunningham enthusiastically joins in, only to learn that what they\u2019re really saying is \u201cF you, God.\u201d The Ugandans are sick of the wars and diseases that ravage their lives. Eighty percent of the people have AIDS, and as one character keeps reminding the audience in one of the show\u2019s running gags, there are maggots in his scrotum.\u00a0 Where is God in their suffering?<\/p>\n

Although the show has some decided stereotypes, they\u2019re not of Mormons so much as they are of east Africans. Uganda is depicted as an entirely rural place, where many people still practice female genital mutilation (which is actually illegal in Uganda) and no one has a cell phone or access to the outside world. (In reality, between one-third and one-half of Ugandans have cell phones.) The locals\u2019 only information about Mormonism therefore comes from the elders, especially Elder Cunningham, who steps up to leadership in Act I\u2019s concluding song \u201cMan Up!\u201d after Elder Price burns out in frustration. However, Elder Cunningham\u2019s tendency to embroider the truth comes out in his determination to make the Book of Mormon relevant to the Ugandans\u2019 lives and problems. His portrayal of Mormonism, with its liberal borrowings from Star Wars, Star Trek<\/em>, and The Lord of the Rings<\/em>, results in a fabulous uptick in baptismal rates (and what may be the world\u2019s first sexually suggestive baptism song). Such success attracts the attention of the buttoned-up mission president, which leads to a scene of wildly comical hijinks and a crisis of faith.<\/p>\n

In the end, the musical has some very positive things to say about Mormons, who are depicted as na\u00efve but committed to helping everyone they can and trying to improve their corners of the world. There are some missteps, to be sure. The song \u201cSpooky Mormon Hell\u201d is hilarious (check out the life-size dancing Starbucks cups; I could not<\/em> stop laughing) but theologically inaccurate. Although Mormons believe that a tiny fraction of humankind may spend eternity in outer darkness, it\u2019s nothing like the Jonathan Edwards-styled fire-and-brimstone hell depicted in Elder Price\u2019s nightmare.<\/p>\n

Where the show really nails Mormonism is in the ballad \u201cI Believe,\u201d sung by Elder Price when he remembers his call to serve and decides to head back to the mission field. \u201cI am a Mormon, and a Mormon just believes,\u201d he croons. This brilliant song is at once a mockery of the genre of the inspirational ballad and an affirmation of the choice to remain Mormon despite the apparent irrationality of some of the religion\u2019s beliefs: \u201cI believe that in 1978, God changed his mind about black people!\u201d Elder Price sings. \u201cI believe that God is on a planet called Kolob!\u201d<\/p>\n

The production closes with a demonstration of Mormon commitment: although many other Christian missionaries have come and gone in the musical\u2019s fictional village, the Mormons are determined to stick around and change the Ugandans\u2019 social reality. They are not just passing out Books of Mormon, but standing toe-to-toe with warlords. In doing so, they bring hope. As one new convert sings, \u201cI am a Latter-day Saint\/ I help all those I can\/ The only latter day that matters is tomorrow!\u201d<\/p>\n

It is an honor to be thus lampooned.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I was prepared for scatological humor, generous doses of the F word, and off-color bawdiness\u2014this is South Park without network censorship, remember?\u2014but I wasn\u2019t prepared for my Mormon faith to be lampooned with any sensitivity. I was happy to be wrong.   By Jana Riess \u201cJesus sounds like Kenny,\u201d my friend Donna whispered at the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":226,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,12,3,10],"tags":[34,19,24,16,44,37,36,45,22,35,38,47,21,27,29,26,46,33,32,18,23,1144,30,20,25,41,40,39,42,28,31,17,43],"class_list":["post-188","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bible","category-cultural-commentary","category-mormonism","category-satire","tag-avenue-q","tag-bobby-lopez","tag-book-of-mormon","tag-book-of-mormon-musical","tag-cell-phones-in-uganda","tag-elder-cunningham","tag-elder-price","tag-fgm-in-uganda","tag-flunking-sainthood","tag-god-loves-mormons-and-he-wants-some-more","tag-hakuna-matata","tag-jackson-county","tag-jana-riess","tag-jon-stewart","tag-jon-stewart-and-the-book-of-mormon-musical","tag-kenny-from-south-park","tag-kolob","tag-lyrics","tag-man-up","tag-matt-stone","tag-mormon-review","tag-mormonism","tag-moroni","tag-roberto-lopez","tag-south-park","tag-spooky-mormon-hell","tag-star-trek-and-mormonimsm","tag-star-wars-and-mormonism","tag-starbucks","tag-the-daily-show","tag-this-book-will-change-your-life","tag-trey-parker","tag-uganda"],"yoast_head":"\nA Mormon Reviews Broadway\u2019s New "Book of Mormon" Musical - Flunking Sainthood<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/flunkingsainthood\/2011\/03\/a-mormon-reviews-broadway\u2019s-new-book-of-mormon-musical.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"A Mormon Reviews Broadway\u2019s New "Book of Mormon" Musical - Flunking Sainthood\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I was prepared for scatological humor, generous doses of the F word, and off-color bawdiness\u2014this is South Park without network censorship, remember?\u2014but I wasn\u2019t prepared for my Mormon faith to be lampooned with any sensitivity. 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