I don’t know what took me so long, but it suddenly hit me that I should download the soundtrack from The Book of Mormon in iTunes. Nothing short of seeing the show would be such an informative view on what all of the fuss is about. I have not been disappointed. For starters, the soundtrack is one of the best I’ve ever heard produced for a musical at the time of its release. The recordings are crisp, the vocals are fantastic…the overall quality is what you expect from a movie soundtrack but rarely get for a Broadway show. So good job, guys.
TBOM is quite a ride. Having grown up amidst Mormons in Spokane, and then living near the Temple in Oakland, I’ve always found the religion to be a bit of a mystery, mostly because the people I knew would never really explain anything about it. So full of secrets! I have come to learn that there seem to be a lot of good reasons for this. But I digress…
TBOM is an interesting mix of “things that really happen,” like young 19-year-olds being sent out as Elders on missions, with the sole purpose of proselytizing the new gospels, and “things that really are,” which in this case are the realities of life in a third world, AIDS-infected country like Uganda. The call of the people there is “F-U God,” about which an entire song or two is devoted. Discussions of genital mutilation become prominent because, of course, this is a very real aspect of life in African societies, regardless of our Western sensibilities. At the moment that I felt myself cringe, I realized that theatrically, this show is ready to deal with life on it’s own terms, and strike for something deeper than farce or simply poking fun at our too-youthful missionaries.
What the musical achieves in the process is something we expect from our plays but rarely from musicals: a synthesis of real, dynamic and deadly issues in a part of the world that has been overtly romanticized (think: Lion King, etc.) with the very -American notion that with God, money, our presence, etc., we can fix something or make it better. Elder Price, the show’s co-hero, goes to Uganda believing that his work will be fairly simple. It is not, and he retreats in fear and frustration. Elder Cunningham, with few expectations for himself, finds the holy grail in modifying God’s message to suit the situation at hand, invoking frogs and Jesus and a host of other images to create an outlandish new pathway to bring the people to the church. It is only outlandish because it’s trying to be, the real point is that the church has been in the story modification business since the dawn of Christianity. So why not the Mormons?
That the show has been a hit is a testament to it’s high quality production and humor, but also because it pokes fun at a faith that seems to keep changing its mind about things. Polygamy, black people, caffeine, the list goes on and on. And even a short research session on Joseph Smith uncovers that the “prophet” had a closet full of unbecoming inclinations: an affair with a teenage girl, betting and gambling, treason and more. Whether Mormons like it or not, there is plenty of ammo for people who question where this all came from, and how one can see past the sordid history of the church to something that reads like comic book fiction. Be that as it may, that Mormons seem to embrace change and fluidity in their faith certainly offers up a different choice and way of thinking. Christians of other faiths, of course, dismiss outright the notion that anything has changed after the delivery of the New Testament, but for the most part, their practices indicate quite a different story. Catholics, for starters, have changed everything more than once. Although not by name, most religions are convicted in TBOM, and we should remain vigilant against excluding ours own from the lampooner’s sword.
A note about the music: it’s not cutting edge, it’s fairly old school. But it works. It’s well produced, and draws upon a littany of other songs from musicals. You will hear Lion King, The Producers, Wicked, Little Shop, a few Sondheim shows, disco and more. It certainly is celebratory of the traditional Broadway fare, and its fine. The magic is in the lyrics, and the music is a vehicle for establishing the Broadway Musical format.
There is the usual Trey Parker sense of the crazy and disconnected that make this a hell of a lot of fun. Someone has “maggots in [his] scrotum!” No great reason for this, but that’s why it stands out.
I understand that ticket prices to TBOM are pretty ridiculous…so if you’re at all interested in what’s on the cutting edge of musicals, spend 11.99 and enjoy yourself at home.
