THE BOOK OF MORMON First National Tour Company THE BOOK OF MORMON First National Tour (c) Joan Marcus, 2013
WEB EXTRA: Read our interview with Chris O'Neill, who plays Elder Cunningham in the touring Broadway production of Book of Mormon.
The follower of live theater has historically had it worse than most. Not long ago, you’d hear tell of some fantastically grand production on the Great White Way, but unless your jet-setting lifestyle allowed you to scarper off to New York on a whim to take in a show, it was often years—and that’s no exaggeration—before a touring company would even be mounted, let alone be slated for a showing here in the fabled “flyover zone.” Even as tours have begun to follow closer on the heels of many major Broadway runs, it has often seemed that our town had to wait eons to get a peek. Thankfully, that tide is beginning to turn.
Hot on the heels of its remarkable harvest of Tony Awards, The Book of Mormon comes to Fox Theatre in its first touring run. This unlikeliest of smash Broadway success stories is the brainchild of South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone, along with Robert Lopez, writer of the superb Avenue Q, which came to the Fox in 2010.
The Book of Mormon tells the story of a pair of Mormon missionaries, Elders Kevin Price and Arnold Cunningham, assigned to Uganda for their two-year mission. Kevin is gung-ho, devout, and resentful that his prayers have not sent him to mission in Orlando, while Arnold is overweight, insecure, and given to peppering his version of Mormonism with hobbits and Star Wars tidbits. The songcraft is a modest exaggeration of classic Broadway templates—no surprise there, given Lopez’s accomplishments as a composer (he followed up Mormon by working on Disney’s Winnie the Pooh reboot). And Parker’s long had a love affair with classic musicals, evident in a viewing of South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut (which netted an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Song in 1999), as well as Parker and Stone’s 1993 lark Cannibal: The Musical (visit stlmag.com/cannibal to see our November 2011 review).
Early in its run, The Book of Mormon was accused of a wholesale attack on The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and while that content is certainly present, any fan of South Park can tell you that Parker and Stone like to spread their sweet, sweet venom around. As in their TV show and Lopez’s Avenue Q, the musical’s goal is examination of the human condition through the skewering of societal conventions, foibles, and mores. While the content of Lopez’s calling-card show was decidedly adult-themed, despite the device of puppetry, his Book of Mormon collaborators bring the material into decidedly R-rated territory. Know going in that F-bombs will be dropped—silly, charming, delightful F-bombs.
More learned folk may assess the broader cultural implications of the far-flung embrace of The Book of Mormon, with its troublesome tone and breaking of taboos. But the show’s inclusion in this year’s U.S. Bank Broadway Series clearly speaks to Fox Theatre’s continued commitment to featuring grade-A, prime New York stage-steak. Also on the bill of fare this season are Priscilla Queen of the Desert and War Horse (both 2011 Tony winners), as well as Million Dollar Quartet (a Tony winner in 2010). Patience being what it is, we’ll gladly trade some virtue for top-notch entertainment, sooner rather than later—no download required.
NOW HEAR THIS: A Bit of Background on The Book of Mormon
Trey Parker and Matt Stone’s work exhibits some fascination with Joseph Smith, the origins of the LDS church, and contemporary Mormonism. First there was 1997’s Orgazmo: Earnest missionary Joe Young enters the seamy world of porn to raise money, that he might wed his betrothed. Hilarity and grossness ensue. Then there was the seventh-season episode of South Park titled “All About Mormons,” which aired in 2003, wherein the Marsh family explores conversion to the titular faith. The episode features a hilarious (and to some, quite upsetting) simplified breakdown of the Joseph Smith revelation story.
But whence Robert Lopez’s involvement? At a performance of Avenue Q, Parker and Stone saw that Lopez had thanked them in Playbill. Said Stone: “‘Well,’ we thought, ‘that’s weird.’” Lopez was in attendance that night, introductions were made, and the trio repaired to a watering hole. Asked what he might do next, Lopez proffered a musical about Joseph Smith; Parker and Stone revealed that they’d pondered the notion for some time. “It just became ridiculously obvious that we should team up and do something about Mormons,” says Parker.
That gave us this musical, true, but they weren’t done yet. They teamed up again in South Park’s 15th season with the episode “Broadway Bro Down.” Randy Marsh crashes the world of Broadway musicals, with the upstart outsider drawing the ire of the Broadway establishment. A bit on the nose, n’est-ce pas?
And in December, HarperCollins put out the trio’s The Book of Mormon: The Testament of a Broadway Musical, which includes a fleshing out of the creation narrative above, more than 700 color images, and the musical’s complete stage book and lyrics.
The Book of Mormon runs February 19 through March 3. Performances are at 8 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday, 2 p.m. Saturday, and 1 & 6 p.m. Sunday. Tickets are $39 to $100, with an eight-ticket limit. Fox Theatre, 527 N. Grand, 314-534-1111, fabulousfox.com.
