‘Book of Mormon’ tour keeps the faith
Jacob Aune (left) is Elder Cunningham, Charity Arianna (center) is Nabulungi and Sam McLellan is Elder Price in The Book of Mormon North American tour, part of the BroadwaySF season at the Orpheum Theatre. Photo by Julieta Cervantes
I have seen and enjoyed The Book of Mormon multiple times, including in 2011 on Broadway with the original cast when it was the hottest show around. All these years later, I still gasp at the outrageousness of “Hasa Diga Eebowai,” the spoof of “Hakuna Matata” that trades “no worries for the rest of your days” for “fuck you, God.” The song takes the blasphemy even further as the infectious song continues, but then again, you would expect nothing less from South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone, who made their Broadway debut with this show (with the help of Avenue Q alum Robert Lopez).
Fifteen years ago, the show was laugh-out-loud funny, and is still is. A touring production of Mormon that pulled into the Orpheum Theatre as part of the BroadwaySF season, still packs big, guffaw-inducing laughs, and that sparkling score still features one banger after another.
What I wondered is this: how does a 15-year-old mega-hit that trades as much on shock value as it does on sweetness and a surprisingly heartfelt examination of faith fare in a world still reverberating from the Black Lives Matter movement and a world (or, maybe country is a more specific word) where it feels like any progress to counter racism has been replaced with brutality, horror and government-sanctioned violence?
Sam McLellan as Elder Price and Shafiq Hicks as General Butt Fucking Naked. Photo by Julieta Cervantes
The Mormon creative team has made a few tweaks over the years (like modifying an African’s joke about texting on an old typewriter to texting on a beat-up tablet), but Parker and Stone, as their still-running, still-vital South Park demonstrates, do not pull their punches. They punch and they pummel and they launch precision attacks with their satirical comedy.
The Book of Mormon is an exercise in contrasts: the whitest people on the planet (Mormon missionaries) are forced into the world of deepest African poverty, illness and terrorist regimes. How each reacts to the other is rife with humor, but what’s more important in the show is how they change each other as reality obliterates faith in one way and then sees it emerge again in another.
That’s what I loved about the show when I first saw it, and that’s what still makes it something more than a raucous musical comedy today. The twist in Act 2 is genius, proving that faith is truly no joke.
McLellan’s Elder Price (center) and his fellow Elders prepare to learn where they’re being sent on their two-year missions. Photo by Julieta Cervantes
This touring production, directed and choreographed by Jennifer Werner based on the original choreography by Casey Nicholaw and the direction by Nicholaw and Parker, looks and sounds good thanks mainly to its sturdy ensemble.
The two central missionaries, the ultra-confident Elder Price played by Sam McLellan and the uber-schlub Elder Cunningham played by Jacob Aune, are solid and funny, with Aune conveying what it might be like to see Melissa McCarthy as a 19-year-old male missionary for whom the actual Book of Mormon isn’t nearly as interesting as Star Wars, The Lord of the Rings or stretching the truth to get people to like him.
Vocally, not everyone is up to the challenges of the score, but Charity Arianna as Nabulungi, a hoepful young Ugandan, almost makes up for it every time she opens her mouth to sing.
Is The Book of Mormon the funniest musical ever as one of the reviews on the show’s poster claims? I’ve been thinking about that, and laugh for laugh, I’m inclined to agree, although my other contenders are strong: The Producers, The Drowsy Chaperone and Avenue Q.
With The Book of Mormon, there’s something absolutely delicious about serious laughter, serious outrageousness and serious contemplation of why and how we believe (or don’t believe) in something bigger than ourselves. Honestly, this show gives me faith in the Broadway musical.
FOR MORE INFORMATION
The Book of Mormon by Trey Parker, Matt Stone and Robert Lopez’s The Book of Mormon continues through Feb. 1 as part of the BroadwaySF season at the Orpheum Theatre, 1 Taylor St., San Francisco. Running time: 2 hours and 30 minutes (including one intermission). Tickets are $63.18-$310.05 (subject to change). Call 888-746-1799 or visit broadwaysf.com.
