Review: The Book Of Mormon At The Broward Center

BY A.J. KURZMAN

Musical theatre and satirical comedy don’t usually go together.  With rigid customs and older audience that are typically associated with the theatre, raunchy language and themes are not something that can be tolerated, right?  Well with South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone as well as Avenue Q’s Robert Lopez as the playwrights, who knows what theatrical custom will be violated.  After years of Parker and Stone’s fascination with musicals and Mormonism, they finally wrote and produced their first full-length musical, The Book of Mormon. Nine Tony awards (including best musical) later and it finally made its debut here in South Florida at the Broward Center.  The play is everything you’d expect it to be:  crude, vulgar, and offensive, yet it never ceases to be outrageously fun and incredibly smart.

The story begins with a handful of Utah Mormons being sent away on their first mission.  It focuses on two in particular, Elder Price (basically the perfect Mormon, played by Mark Evans) and Elder Cunningham (overweight, goofy, and a complete misfit in Mormon society, played by Christopher John O’Neill).  The unlikely pair are partnered up and sent away to Uganda to try and convert the poverty, AIDS, and famine stricken people of Uganda to believe in the all-American prophet, Joseph Smith.  After much resistance from the seemingly backward African society and oppression from a crazy warlord, Elder Cunningham makes up a theology containing Hobbits, Darth Vader, and other pop culture icons to better relate to the African’s views.

Even though as a whole, the play satirizes organized religions and the literally credibility of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, it is also all tied together in the end with the message that religion itself can do enormous good as long as the stories are taken metaphorically and not literally.  The satire of Mormon’s weird beliefs is shown in Act 2’s “I Believe” sung by Elder Price.  He exclaims “I believe Adam and Eve were actually from Jackson County Missouri!” but never acknowledges a shred of doubt because “I am a Mormon and dang it, a Mormon just believes!”  Despite these beliefs and the ridiculous stories concocted by Elder Cunningham, the play shows the absurd new “religion” changes this African Society that once stuck their middle fingers up towards God into a more civilized and caring village.  As long as religious messages aren’t taken literally (i.e. Joseph Smith being sent down from the Death Star), then religion is capable of changing the world in a positive way.

The musical score by Parker, Stone, and Lopez also delivers.  The songs are rich, tuneful, and beautifully written.  With so many great ones, it was hard to choose the best, but none was done better than “Turn It Off”. Confused by the society uneager to convert around them, Elder Price and Cunningham receive a message from the other Elders of that area.  Elder McKinley (played by Grey Henson) leads the other missionaries in explaining the “nifty Mormon trick” of suppressing inconvenient (in his case homosexual) thoughts with no more effort than “the flick of a light switch”.  It’s not only wildly entertaining song but also brilliantly choreographed as the group of Elders emerges in pink vests tap dancing to the tune.

Overall, the Book of Mormon is not perfect. Yes, sometimes it may take things a little too far, but if you’re a fan of wildly outrageous humor to a catchy tune with a kindhearted message to tie it all together, The Book of Mormon is worth the price of admission by a mile.