I went to see The Book of Mormon last night. The musical was written by South Park creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker and composed in collaboration with Robert Lopez, known for Avenue Q and Disney's Frozen. I've heard nothing but good things about this play, and Stone and Parker have a good track record: I'm a fan of South Park and their movies Orgazmo and Baseketball.
Before the show started, I got a kick out of actual full-page Mormon church advertisements in the playbill, they looked like this, complete with those vacant smiles you can only get out of stock photography models and cult members:
The show is two acts and not counting intermission lasted about 2 hours and 15 minutes. It tells the story of an odd couple of newly "elder" Mormon missionaries paired together for their 2 year mission. After watching their brethren get assigned to nice European countries, our two elders get assigned to a third world shithole and the story goes from there.
The production turned out to be much more musical than anything else. The music seemed to fit square in the middle of musical theater genre, which in my opinion is mediocre. I'm not a musical guy so I don't hear it often but when I do, it always sounds formulaic and rushed. There were hysterical moments but most of the songs had a lot of filler lyrics and each one got a laugh or two out of me but it was nothing like the South Park Movie where every song was hilarious. If Parker/Stone had full lyrical control, they were really holding back. There were great trademark crude moments from them however.
The dancing was well practiced and choreographed. The majority of it, performed mostly by the Mormon characters and their imaginary friends, seemed to be stereotypical musical theater dance including a tap dance number (I irrationally hate tap dancing). It could be some self-referential parody on musical theater itself but I'm not experienced enough to pick up on it. Apart from that style of dance there were several moments of a more African-caricature style of dance which was a good change of pace.
The story was weaker than I expected. And the LDS church didn't get an ass-ripping nearly as bad as portrayed in South Park's Mormon episode, which was disappointing. The plot seemed to be paced nicely until the end, where loose ends were tied haphazardly. Most characters central to the plot were one-dimensional, and there was never a clear antagonist when there could have been one. The climax of the plot wasn't much of one, making the ending seem like it came too early.
Conclusion: I should have waited for someone to make a TV or movie production out of it.
2 golden plates out of 5
