So Tuesday I did birthday like a professional. It was, courtesy of my incredible husband, one of the best birthdays I have ever had. We strolled around London, ate huge portions of cheese and drank delicious wine in the sun. After that we stumbled upon a tiny shop selling American goods, so I treated myself to a can of A&W Root Beer. Yum! We pottered round M&M World an had our picture snapped with some poor bastard dressed up as a giant peanut M&M before heading to T.G.I. Friday's (I know, I can see you shaking your heads) for cocktails and then we finally took our seats to watch The Book of Mormon.
Tickets to this show are like gold-dust. I deliberately avoided any of the media surrounding this show from last year because I knew that somehow I was going to see it and I wanted to be surprised. The only thing I knew was that it was about Mormon missionaries trying to help an AIDS-ridden area of Africa with their tales of Joseph Smith, and of course, that it was written by Trey Parker and Matt Stone.
I was expecting to be offended, to be grossed out and to be slightly ashamed of my fellow countrymen as often happens when being exposed to spectacles that near the knuckle, but I wasn't. I was in tears from laughing and my cheeks ached from smiling. My heart was jubilant and I was in some tantric state of bliss by the time the final curtain fell. I have never wanted something not to end so badly. When it was time we gave a standing ovation, I whooped and hollered until my throat hurt, and then we adjourned back to T.G.I. Friday's (it's a treat here, OK) for more cocktails.
I was halfway through my second margarita when the guilt kicked in. I turned to Steve and asked him "do you feel at all guilty about the fact that loads of white people were just packed into a space where we were amused and brought to tears with laughter about how horrendous the living conditions are in some parts of Africa?" Steve looked at me and shrugged. "It's South Park, isn't it?" While I still maintain it was the best musical I have ever seen and that if you don't get tickets you will regret it, I still feel a little off about it today.
I've been working in the Charity Sector for over 7 years now. Talking to people daily about children dying from cholera and huge percentages of populations suffering with AIDS is part of my job every day. I never thought I'd find it funny. Uganda in a particular has a notoriously sketchy human rights record and one of the highest AIDS populations in Africa. I suppose this is what makes them an easy target for satire.The situation in Uganda couldn't be less comical, but the South Park boys managed to make it so. How?
Trey Parker and Matt Stone have honed their craft to perfection. I was worried that BOM would end up like the South Park movie and peak too soon with something akin to Uncle Fucker. Instead this fantastic story filled with songs that haven't left my head for days could have gone on forever for me. I am a musical fanatic, so pleasing me with a book and score can be tricky. There is always one dud, but not here. From the opening "Hello" to "The Creepy Mormon Hell Dream" I was grinning ear to ear like an idiot. I'd have to toss a coin between "Turn it Off" and "Baptize Me" to choose my favorite, but it is all good. Really. ALL of it. Never have I left a musical that I enjoyed so much not in tears. Les Miz- tears, Sweeney Todd- tears, Wicked- destroyed, Miss Saigon-inconsolable. So imagine my surprise at leaving the theater skipping hand in hand with my husband singing "I Believe" into his ear and kind of wanting to be Mormon.
Another reason I have to give credit and not criticism to the Colorado boys is that although they are quite horrendously making fun of a horrible situation faced by desperate people, they are also acknowledging and providing real roles for actors that don't normally get as many opportunities in musical theater. Having so many parts for non-whites is something truly awesome and rare in musicals. Black actors are pretty screwed when it comes to musical theater. Porgy and Bess, The Lion King and roles in the ensemble is where they get sequestered to most of the time. We need more roles like Elphaba in Wicked, roles where it doesn't matter what color the actor is as long as they can sing their faces off.
Too often these musicals were written at a time where the characters were unlikely to have been inspired by someone with flavor. During the French Revolution for example, there were black soldiers, but it is not likely that the head of the police in Paris wold have been back. I commend the first director who cast a black actor to play Javert. It's historically impossible, but Norm Lewis was incredible in that role. Sure, the actors in The Book of Mormon are playing supremely unflattering caricatures of what white people assume they are like, but that's I guess, all part of the genius.
The Book of Mormon has the most incredible cast and the most incredible music. Go with an open mind. Prepare to be delighted and potentially slightly offended, but if you, like me, leave the theater with a residual feeling of shame my advice is to head to T.G.I. Friday's (it's right next door!) Order yourself a Barnamint Bailey's and just turn it off.
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