Show Review: Book of Mormon

This review is from February 2016.

The Book of Mormon (BOM) is a hugely popular show, specifically with the younger demographic.  The show won the 2011 Tony Award for Best Musical along with a host of other awards.   BOM was created by Trey Parker and Matt Stone (the creators of South Park) along with Robert Lopez (Avenue Q and later Disney's Frozen).  Needless to say, given the show runners, this would not be a reverent or traditional production.  The touring production was in town for a week and we have said for a while we wanted to see this show.  So it made a nice 5 year anniversary present to ourselves.  

And now, a little about the show. BOM blends the musical stylings of Broadway productions with the irreverent satire that comes from shows in the vein of South Park. The show follows a pair of Mormon elders (missionaries) as they graduate from the missionary training center and are sent to their first mission.  Elder Price is the upstanding model Mormon.  Elder Cunningham is quirky and the clown of the group.  Of course they are paired together and instead of being sent to Elder Price's dream mission (Orlando), they are sent to Uganda.  There they meet with the overly stereotypical villagers and warlords.  Elder Price sees it as punishment for something and Elder Cunningham is just happy to have his new "best friend".  Needless to say, it is a story of up and down trying to bring the book to the fouled mouthed villagers.  All of this with repeated song and dance.    

The touring cast melds well as an ensemble. Although there are two lead male roles and one semi-lead female character, this is really an ensemble piece.  The villagers, Mormon elders, warlords, and historical figures are at the center of the piece and are feature prominently in a great deal of the numbers.  The lyrics are mostly tongue-in-cheek throughout, playing on numerous stereotypes.  Ryan Bondy and Cody Jamison Strand carried well as Elders Price and Cunningham, respectively.  Mr. Strand had a presumably intentional similarity to Josh Gad (the originator of the role and Olaf from Frozen) and it struck me that the role had been created as Josh Gad playing Josh Gad.  It is indistinguishable from all of his other comedy work.  With that said, the touring cast was vocally solid and handled the choreography aptly.  

The second act of the show takes the comedy a bit further, in true South Park fashion.  While other similar TV shows such as Family Guy or The Simpsons toe the line, my issue with South Park has always been needlessly crossing from irreverent satire to silly, overly foul comedy.  And here BOM also goes to that length.  There are certainly powerful and memorable musical numbers in Act II such as "I Believe" and "Salt Lake City", which actually have a great message under the humorous lyrics.  However, they also present a very silly number on Mormon hell and the villagers sing a silly piece about the history of the church.  These numbers have hints of the same but go way to far in making it silly.  Audiences seem to take to it but note that if you think like I do on South Park, you may feel it goes too far.  

There were a few technical glitches with sound, including some reverb and issues with high gain where many of the microphones on louder singers were piercing at times.  It also seemed to be a little technically constrained in lighting with spill over much of the audience from back of house lighting.  This is more than likely attributable to the venue itself.   It did distract from some of the more dramatic lighting shifts by showering the house in spilled photons.  Overall, however, the technical issues were not overly problematic.  

This was also our first trip to Ruth Eckerd Hall in Clearwater.  The venue is a single level but the house is raked enough that there is not a bad seat in the house. They also allow food and drink in the theatre since it is not carpeted under the seating area.  There are even cup holders on the back of the seats just like going to the movies.  Acoustically, it is a bit loud due to the lack of carpeting and also the shape of the auditorium.  Incidentally, this is a multipurpose music and theatre hall so this makes sense.  I will note that parking at this venue is horrendous.  To get in and get out of the cul-de-sac where the hall sits takes a considerable amount of time.  We spent nearly 30 minutes just trying to back out of our parking space.  There may be other options around but the general parking was, well, a parking lot trying to escape after the show.

Overall, the show was a good, fun show but not necessarily something I would see again.  Several musical numbers were great but overall I did feel the score was something I would not listen to repeatedly.  If you get the chance to see it and are curious, go in knowing it is South Park for the stage and you will be ok.  This is a show that will likely tour for a while and may end up at various college and regional theatres in the future.  It lends itself well to ensemble theatres with minimal technical abilities.