| The Book of Mormon | |
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Original poster |
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| Music | Trey Parker Robert Lopez Matt Stone |
| Lyrics | Trey Parker Robert Lopez Matt Stone |
| Book | Trey Parker Robert Lopez Matt Stone |
| Productions | 2011 Broadway 2012 US Tour 2012 Chicago 2012 London |
| Awards | Tony Award for Best Musical Tony Award for Best Book Tony Award for Best Original Score New York Drama Critics' Circle Award for Best Musical Outer Critics Circle Award for Outstanding New Broadway Musical Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Musical |
The Book of Mormon is a religious satire musical with a book, lyrics, and music by Trey Parker, Robert Lopez, and Matt Stone.[1] Best known for creating the animated comedy South Park, Parker and Stone co-created the music with Lopez, who co-wrote and co-composed Avenue Q. The show lampoons organized religion and traditional musical theatre, reflecting the creators' lifelong fascination with Mormonism and musicals.[2]
The Book of Mormon tells the story of two young Mormon missionaries sent to a remote village in northern Uganda, where a brutal warlord is threatening the local population. Naive and optimistic, the two missionaries try to share their scriptures—which only one of them knows very well—but have trouble connecting with the locals, who are worried about famine, poverty, and AIDS.[3]
After nearly seven years of development, the show premiered on Broadway in March 2011. The Book of Mormon has garnered positive critical response and numerous theatre awards, including nine Tony Awards, one of which was for Best Musical. An original Broadway cast recording was released in May 2011 and became the highest-charting Broadway cast album in over four decades, reaching #3 on the Billboard Charts.
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The Book of Mormon was conceived by Trey Parker, Robert Lopez, and Matt Stone. Both Parker and Stone grew up in Colorado, and were somewhat familiar with the Mormon church and its members.[4] Parker had an extensive background in music before meeting Stone; in high school, he was in the chorus of a community theater production of The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, was piano player for the chorus as well as president of Choir Counsel. He also performed in productions of Grease and Flower Drum Song, and helped build the set for the community theater production of Little Shop of Horrors.[5][6] The writers became friends at the University of Colorado at Boulder. At the college, they collaborated on a musical film, Cannibal! The Musical (1993), their first experience with musicals.[7] In 1997, they created the TV series South Park for Comedy Central and the 1999 musical film South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut.[8] The two had first thought of a fictionalized Joseph Smith, religious leader and founder of the Latter Day Saint movement, while working on an aborted Fox series about historical characters.[4] Their 1998 film, Orgazmo, and the 2003 episode "All About Mormons" of South Park both gave comic treatment to Mormonism.[7]
During the summer of 2003, Parker and Stone flew to New York City to discuss the script of their new film, Team America: World Police, with friend and producer Scott Rudin (who also produced South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut).[4][9] Rudin advised the duo to see the musical Avenue Q on Broadway, finding the cast of marionettes in Team America similar to the puppets of Avenue Q.[9] Parker and Stone went to see the production during that summer, and Lopez, writer-composer of Avenue Q, noticed them in the audience and introduced himself. Lopez revealed that South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut was highly influential in the creation of Avenue Q.[9] The trio went for drinks afterwards, and soon found that each camp wanted to write something involving Joseph Smith.[4] The three began working out details nearly immediately, with the idea to create a modern story formulated early on.[4] For research purposes, the trio took a field trip to Salt Lake City where they "interviewed a bunch of missionaries—or ex-missionaries."[10] They had to work around Parker and Stone's South Park schedule.[7][11] In 2006, Parker and Stone flew to London where they spent three weeks with Lopez, who was working on the West End production of Avenue Q. There, the three wrote "four or five songs" and came up with the basic idea of the story. For the next few years, the trio met frequently to develop what they initially called The Book of Mormon: The Musical of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. "There was a lot of hopping back and forth between L.A. and New York," Parker recalled.[4]
Lopez pushed for the stage, and his partners concurred. Lopez prodded them to take the project a step further and "workshop" it, which baffled Parker and Stone, clueless about what he meant.[4] Developmental workshops directed by Jason Moore starred Cheyenne Jackson.[12] Other actors in readings included Benjamin Walker and Daniel Reichard.[13] The crew embarked on the first of a half-dozen workshops that would take place during the next four years, ranging from 30-minute mini-performances for family and friends to much larger-scale renderings of the embryonic show. They spent hundreds of thousands of dollars of their own money, still unconvinced they would take it any further.[4] In February 2008, a fully staged reading starred Walker and Josh Gad as Elders Price and Cunningham, respectively.[13] Moore was originally set to direct, but left the production in June 2010.[13] Other directors, including James Lapine, were optioned to join the creative team, but the producers recruited Casey Nicholaw.[13] A final five-week workshop took place in August 2010, when Nicholaw came on board as choreographer and co-director with Parker.[4]
Rudin was named as the producer of the show.[14] Originally, Rudin planned to stage The Book of Mormon off-Broadway at the New York Theater Workshop in Summer 2010, but opted to premiere it directly on Broadway, "[s]ince the guys [Parker and Stone] work best when the stakes are highest."[13] Rudin booked the Eugene O'Neill Theatre and hired key players while sets were designed and built.[4] Rudin expected the production to cost $11 million, but it came in under budget at $9 million.[13] Hundreds of actors auditioned and 28 were cast. When a rehearsal space was found, the work of producing a full-blown musical got under way.[4] Parker and Stone, along with their families, decamped from Los Angeles to New York City shortly after the completion of South Park's fourteenth season in November 2010. The cast and crew then frantically delved into rewrites and rehearsals. The crew did four weeks of rehearsals, two weeks of 'tech', and then went directly into previews. The producers only heard the musical with a full orchestra a mere six days before the first paying audience.[4]
At the LDS Church Missionary Training Center in Provo, a devout, handsome, supercilious missionary-to-be, Elder Kevin Price, leads his classmates in a demonstration of the door-to-door to attempt to convert people to Mormonism ("Hello"). One of the missionaries, Elder Arnold Cunningham, is an insecure, overweight, incorrigible nerd who tries to join in, but is completely hopeless. Price believes if he prays enough, he will be sent to Orlando, Florida for his two-year mission, but he and Cunningham are sent to Uganda as a pair ("Two By Two"). After saying goodbye to their families, the elders board a plane at the Salt Lake City airport. Price is sure he's destined to do something incredible (on his own), while Cunningham is just happy to have a best friend — one he met just the previous day ("You And Me [But Mostly Me]").
Upon arrival in northern Uganda, the two are robbed at gunpoint by soldiers of a local warlord, General Butt-Fucking-Naked (an allusion to the real General Butt Naked). Mafala Hatimbi and a group of villagers share their daily realities of living in appalling conditions of famine, poverty and AIDS, while being ruled by a despotic, murderous chieftain. To make their lives seem better, the natives constantly repeat the phrase "hasa diga eebowai" and sing to the tune of a song composed around that phrase ("Hasa Diga Eebowai"). Price and Cunningham join them in the song but are horrified to find out "hasa diga eebowai" translates to "Fuck you, God" in English and the villagers constantly blaspheme to cheer up.
Afterwards Nabulungi, Hatimbi's daughter, shows Price and Cunningham their living quarters where they meet the fellow missionaries stationed in the area, who have been unable to convert any native to Mormonism. Elder McKinley, the district leader, teaches Price and Cunningham a widely accepted method of dealing with the negative and upsetting feelings brought on by the challenges of Mormon life (including McKinley's own repressed homosexual thoughts), inviting them to "turn it off like a light switch" ("Turn It Off"). The others agree their feelings must be hidden at all costs. Though Price is riddled with anxiety, Cunningham reassures him he will succeed in bringing the natives to the church ("I Am Here for You").
Price is certain he can succeed where the other Mormon Elders have failed, teaching the natives about Joseph Smith, the founder of the LDS Church through a song that begins as a tribute to Smith but eventually descends into a tribute by Price to himself ("All-American Prophet"). The natives do not show any interest in the slightest as they find religion useless and Price arrogant and annoying. Shortly after Price's attempt to dazzle the natives, General Butt-Fucking-Naked arrives and announces his demand for the circumcision of all female villagers by week's end, something that greatly angers the villagers; leading the General to execute a random villager to silence the locals' protests. Safely back at home, Nabulungi, moved by Price's promise of an earthly paradise, dreams of a better life in a new land ("Sal Tlay Ka Siti").
At the mission headquarters, Elder McKinley flies into a panic after he receives a message saying the Mission President has requested a full progress report on their heavily unsuccessful mission and his anxiety is only worsened after he learns of Price and Cunningham's failure. Shocked by the execution and dark reality of Africa, Price decides to abandon his mission and requests for transfer to Orlando while Cunningham, ever loyal, assures Price he'll follow him anywhere ("I Am Here For You [Reprise]"). However, Price unceremoniously dumps him as mission companion. Finding himself alone and heartbroken, Cunningham gains the courage to take control when Nabulungi comes to him, wanting to learn more about the Book of Mormon ("Man Up").
Cunningham lacks much knowledge of the Book of Mormon, so he makes up stories by combining what he knows of Mormon doctrines with bits and pieces of science fiction and other cultural ideas, many of them unsavory ("Making Things Up Again"). But Cunningham's creative stories relate to the problems of living in a war-torn Uganda, which gets the natives listening. Cunningham feels guilty for stretching the truth with the natives, but rationalizes: if it is to help people, it surely can't be wrong. While preparing to leave, Price reflects on the misdemeanors he committed in his childhood, including blaming the theft of a pastry on his brother Jack. He is reminded of the nightmares of hell he had as a child and he flies into a panic when his nightmare begins once again ("Spooky Mormon Hell Dream").
Price awakens from his nightmare and realizes it was wrong to abandon his post, telling the fellow Elders he re-commits to his mission. Cunningham arrives and announces ten eager Africans are interested in the church, and still stung by Price's rejection, he is unwilling to let Price back into his life. Listening to the promising news of success in the region, Price is inspired and sets off on the "mission he was born to do". Price confronts the General with the Book of Mormon in hand, determined to convert him ("I Believe").
Cunningham concludes his preaching and the villagers are enchanted; they are baptized and accept Mormonism, with Nabulungi and Cunningham sharing a tender moment as they do ("Baptize Me"). The Mormon missionaries feel oneness with the people of Uganda, and celebrate ("I Am Africa"). Price's attempted conversion of General Butt-Fucking Naked unfortunately does not succeed. Price drowns his sorrows in numerous cups of coffee at a cafe in Kitguli, where Cunningham finds him. He tells the bitter Price they need to — at the least – act like mission companions, as the Mission President and other senior Mormon leaders are coming to visit the Ugandan mission team to congratulate them on their progress. After Cunningham leaves, Price bitterly reflects over all the broken promises the Church, his parents, his friends and life in general made to him ("Orlando").
At the celebration, Price and Cunningham are singled out as the most successful missionaries in all Africa. Shortly thereafter, Nabulungi and the villagers burst in, and ask to perform a pageant to "honor [them] with the story of Joseph Smith, the American Moses" ("Joseph Smith American Moses"), which reflects the distortions of standard Mormon doctrine and embellishments put forth by Cunningham. The Mission President is appalled, ordering all the missionaries to go home, and telling Nabulungi she and her fellow villagers are not Mormons. Cunningham becomes depressed because he ended up causing more trouble for the villagers and feels he is a disappointment to the Church. However, Price has an epiphany and realizes Cunningham was right all along; though scriptures are important, what's more important is ensuring religion helps people. Price and Cunningham reconcile as they reassure each other they will remain in Africa and help the Ugandans together, because they are best friends ("You And Me (But Mostly Me) (Reprise)").
Nabulungi believes Elder Cunningham was making fun of her the whole time and tells the villagers he got eaten by lions. The General is about to take over their village with Nabulungi's help when the villagers tell Nabulungi the stories Cunningham told them as metaphors to help them in their daily life rather than literal truth; embracing Mormonism. Price returns with Cunningham and drives the General away, telling him you can't hurt the "undead." The missionaries reunite with the villagers and they all come together to evangelize "The Book of Arnold". Price rallies everyone — the Mormons and the Ugandans — to work together to make this their paradise planet, because, after all, they are all Latter-day Saints ("Tomorrow Is a Latter Day").
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†Not on Broadway cast album
††Listed as part of "Tomorrow Is a Latter Day" on the cast album.
Book of Mormon uses a 9-piece orchestra: [15]
| Character | Description | Original Broadway cast[16] |
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A Mormon missionary sent to Uganda, though he wishes to go to Orlando instead. |
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Another missionary also sent there. He often weaves characters from Star Wars and The Lord of the Rings into his teachings. |
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Mafala Hatimbi's daughter, who dreams of moving to Sal Tlay Ka Siti. |
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One of the lead Mormon elders and the Church's current District Leader in Uganda, he is secretly gay but in denial of his feelings. |
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A member of the Ugandan tribe and Cunningham and Price's tour guide. Nabulungi's father. |
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Fucking Naked |
The murderous despot of the village Price and Cunningham are sent to. |
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The leader of the Mormon missionaries. |
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The Book of Mormon contains many religious themes, most notably those of faith and doubt.[17] Although the musical satirizes organized religion and the literal credibility of the LDS Church, the Mormons in The Book of Mormon are portrayed as well-meaning and optimistic, if a little naive and un-worldly. In addition, the central theme that many religious stories are rigid, out of touch, and silly comes to the conclusion that, essentially, religion itself can do enormous good as long as it is taken metaphorically and not literally.[18] Matt Stone, one of the show's creators, described The Book of Mormon as "an atheist's love letter to religion."[19]
"The songs, often inspired lampoons of contemporary Broadway styles, are as catchy as they are clever";[20] "'I Believe' parodies The 'Sound of Music'’s 'I Have Confidence."[21] In the Broadway cast recording's liner notes, Frank Rich wrote that The Book of Mormon "scrupulously follows the old testament of Broadway circa 1945–1965, A.D., even while fondly spoofing it". He compares "I Believe” to “Climb Ev'ry Mountain” from The Sound of Music, the opening number "Hello!" to “The Telephone Hour” in Bye Bye Birdie, “Turn It Off” to “I’ll Never Be Jealous Again” from The Pajama Game, and reprise of "Orlando" harkens back to "Tomorrow" from Annie. Other parodies are "You And Me (But Mostly Me)," which is similar to The Wizard And I from Wicked, and "Sal Tiay Ka Siti," which contains musical references to Alan Menken ballads like "Somewhere That's Green" and "Part of Your World." Other songs, he writes, owe much to the parodies of Tom Lehrer.[22] In a series of interview segments for Broadway.com, Casey Nicholaw describes the scene of the Africans performing the "Joseph Smith, American Moses" pageant before the Mission President as a "total riff" of the Siamese performance of "Uncle Tom's Cabin" for the British envoy in The King and I.
The Book of Mormon premiered on Broadway at the Eugene O'Neill Theatre on March 24, 2011, following previews from February 24.[23][24] The production is choreographed by Casey Nicholaw and co-directed by Nicholaw and Parker. Set design is by Scott Pask, with costumes by Ann Roth, lighting by Brian MacDevitt, and sound by Brian Ronan. Orchestrations are co-created by Larry Hochman and the show's musical director and vocal arranger Stephen Oremus.[16] The production stars Andrew Rannells as Elder Price and Josh Gad as Elder Cunningham.[16]
On April 25, 2011, the producers confirmed that "counterfeit tickets to the Broadway production had been sold to and presented by theatergoers on at least five different occasions". An article in The New York Times reported, "In each case, the tickets were purchased on Craigslist, and while a single seller is suspected, the ticket purchases have taken place in different locations each time. ... [T]he production’s management and Jujamcyn Theaters, which operates the O’Neill, had notified the New York Police Department".[25]
The New York production of The Book of Mormon employed an innovative pricing strategy, similar to the ones used in the airline and hotel industries. The producers have been able to charge as much as $477 dollars for the best seats for performances with particularly high demand.[26] The strategy paid off handsomely. During its first year, the show was consistently one of the top five best selling shows on Broadway and set 22 new weekly sales records for the Eugene O'Neill Theater. For the week of Thanksgiving 2011, the average paid admission was over $170 even though the highest priced regular seat was listed at $155.[27] High attendance coupled with aggressive pricing allowed the financial backers to recoup their investment of $11.4 million after just nine months of performances.[28]
The first North American tour of The Book of Mormon is scheduled to begin a tech run on August 14, 2012 at the Denver Center for the Performing Arts in Denver, Colorado, before opening at the Pantages Theatre in Los Angeles on September 5, and running for an additional three months. The tour was originally planned for December 2012, but has been moved forward four months.[29]
A separate production from the national tour will play a 12-week engagement at the Bank of America Theatre in 2012, becoming the show's first North American sit-down production.[30]
Producer Sonia Friedman has announced a possible West End production in London by 2012. The "opening date will depend on the availability of Parker and Stone, who are working on the 15th season of South Park."[31]
The Book of Mormon received broad critical praise, mostly for the plot, score, and choreography.[32] Vogue Magazine called the show "the filthiest, most offensive, and—surprise—sweetest thing you’ll see on Broadway this year, and quite possibly the funniest musical ever."[33] The New York Post reported that audience members were "sore from laughing so hard". It praised the score, calling it "tuneful and very funny," and added that "the show has heart. It makes fun of organized religion, but the two Mormons are real people, not caricatures."[34]
Ben Brantley of The New York Times, compared the show favorably to Rodgers and Hammerstein's The King and I but "rather than dealing with tyrannical, charismatic men with way too many children, our heroes... must confront a one-eyed, genocidal warlord with an unprintable name... That's enough to test the faith of even the most optimistic gospel spreaders (not to mention songwriters). Yet in setting these dark elements to sunny melodies, The Book of Mormon achieves something like a miracle. It both makes fun of and ardently embraces the all-American art form of the inspirational book musical. No Broadway show has so successfully had it both ways since Mel Brooks adapted his film The Producers for the stage a decade ago."[35] Jon Stewart, host of The Daily Show, devoted almost his entire interview with Parker and Stone on the March 10, 2011 episode to delivering heaps of praise about the musical.[36]
Charles McNulty of the Los Angeles Times praised the music, and stated: "The songs, often inspired lampoons of contemporary Broadway styles, are as catchy as they are clever." McNulty concluded by stating "Sure it’s crass, but the show is not without good intentions and, in any case, vindicates itself with musical panache."[20] Peter Marks of the Washington Post wrote: "The marvel of The Book of Mormon is that even as it profanes some serious articles of faith, its spirit is anything but mean. The ardently devout and comedically challenged are sure to disagree. Anyone else should excitedly approach the altar of Parker, Stone and Lopez and expect to drink from a cup of some of the sweetest poison ever poured." Marks further describes the musical as "one of the most joyously acidic bundles Broadway has unwrapped in years."[37]
However, The Wall Street Journal's Terry Teachout called the show "slick and smutty: The Book of Mormon is the first musical to open on Broadway since La Cage aux Folles that has the smell of a send-in-the-tourists hit. ... The amateurish part relates mostly to the score, which is jointly credited to the three co-creators and is no better than what you might hear at a junior-varsity college show. The tunes are jingly-jangly, the lyrics embarrassingly ill-crafted."[38] Writing for Religion Dispatches, Jared Farmer disparaged the musical as an "awesomely lame" work of satire. Farmer criticized the musical for its depictions of Africans, complained about inaccuracies concerning LDS beliefs and practices, and concluded that the show missed opportunities and chose "soft religious targets".[39]
The response of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to the musical has been described as "measured".[40] The church released an official response to inquiries regarding the musical, stating, "The production may attempt to entertain audiences for an evening, but the Book of Mormon as a volume of scripture will change people's lives forever by bringing them closer to Christ."[41] Michael Otterson, the head of Public Affairs for the church, followed on April 2011 with measured criticism. "Of course, parody isn't reality, and it's the very distortion that makes it appealing and often funny. The danger is not when people laugh but when they take it seriously—if they leave a theater believing that Mormons really do live in some kind of a surreal world of self-deception and illusion", Otterson wrote, outlining various humanitarian efforts achieved by Mormon missionaries in Africa in recent years.[42][43]
Stone and Parker were unsurprised by this response:[10]
The official church response was something along the lines of 'The Book of Mormon the musical might entertain you for a night, but the Book of Mormon,'—the book as scripture—'will change your life through Jesus.' Which we actually completely agree with. The Mormon church's response to this musical is almost like our Q.E.D. at the end of it. That's a cool, American response to a ribbing—a big musical that's done in their name. Before the church responded, a lot of people would ask us, 'Are you afraid of what the church would say?' And Trey and I were like, 'They're going to be cool.' And they were like, 'No, they're not. There are going to be protests.' And we were like, 'Nope, they're going to be cool.' We weren't that surprised by the church's response. We had faith in them.
Mormons themselves have had varying responses to the musical. Richard Bushman, professor of Mormon studies, said of the musical, "Mormons experience the show like looking at themselves in a fun-house mirror. The reflection is hilarious but not really you. The nose is yours but swollen out of proportion."[44] Bushman said that the musical was not meant to explain Mormon belief, and that many of the ideas in Elder Price's "I believe" (like Mormons getting their own planets, God living on a planet called Kolob, and changing his mind about black people), though having some roots in Mormon belief, are not doctrinally accurate.[44]
A cast recording of the original Broadway production was released on May 17, 2011, by Ghostlight Records. All of the songs featured on stage are present on the recording with the exception of "Orlando" and "You and Me (But Mostly Me)" (Reprise). "Hello" (Reprise) is attached to the ending of "Tomorrow Is a Latter Day". A free preview of the entire recording was released on NPR starting on May 9, 2011.[51][52][53] Excerpts from the cast recording are featured in an extended Fresh Air interview.[10]
During its first week of its iTunes Store release, the recording "has become the fastest-selling Broadway cast album in iTunes history," according to representatives for the production, ranking #2 on its day of release on the iTunes Top 10 Chart. According to Playbill, "It's a rare occurrence for a Broadway cast album to place among the iTunes best sellers. The cast album for the Green Day musical American Idiot also ranked among the top 10 when it debuted in 2010."[54] The record has received positive reviews, with Rolling Stone calling the recording an "outstanding album that highlights the wit of the lyrics and the incredible tunefulness of the songs while leaving you desperate to score tickets to see the actual show."[55] Although the cast album had a respectable debut on the US Billboard 200 chart in its initial week of release, after the show's success at the 2011 Tony Awards, the record skyrocketed back up the chart to number three, making it the highest-charting Broadway cast album in over four decades.[56]
"The Book of Mormon Radio" was broadcast on Sirius XM Radio on April 2, 2011. The radio special features interviews from creators Parker, Stone, Lopez, and Nicholaw, and cast members Gad, Rannells, James, O'Malley, and Potts. The special was re-broadcast on the same channel April 3, 2011.[57]
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