The Book of Mormon (2011)

Megan and I had wanted to see “The Book of Mormon” ever since we heard about it, roughly five years ago.
This past weekend we were going to NYC just for fun; we saw that “The Book of Mormon” was showing, so I snagged a pair of tickets!
It was Megan’s first Broadway show ever, and the first one I’d seen since I was about 10, and that one had been “Oklahoma,” so it almost doesn’t count.
So: Saturday night we headed to the Eugene O’Niell theater and took our seats on the mezzanine.

We’d heard that “The Book of Mormon” was unmistakably adult themed, and we knew it was by Trey Parker and Matt Stone - the guys who made both “South Park” and “Team America: World Police” (2004) - but we weren’t quite prepared for just how far they’d push the envelope with their musical.

We watched, we loved it.
It was good.
Nay.
It was magnificent.

Like Parker and Stones’ other creations, this was a display of shenanigans that was so thoroughly self-aware that it was endearing. The actors on stage played their roles so damn well, the orchestra was fantastic, and the simple set pieces were the perfect finishing touch to every scene.

The story followed Elder Price and Elder Cunningham, two of the newest proselytizers for the Church of Latter Day Saints (the Mormon church) as they head to Uganda to do their two-year mission of religious convergence. 
Unfortunately, the local population was soured on the entire concept of Christianity and any conversions, as it wouldn’t mitigate an AIDS outbreak or help them deal with the regional warlord who took psychotic pleasure from hurting civilians.
Those sound like the same kind of deep, dark, emotional concepts that we got from DiCaprio’s “Blood Diamond” (2006), but with Parker and Stone at the helm, those ideas were, of course, played for ridiculous laughs. And it worked. 
Without being blatantly crass about it, those problems were turned into joking musical numbers that were fun to listen to and undoubtedly fun for the cast to sing.

Because it’s a musical comedy and this is America, there was a happy ending. 
And most importantly: they earned it. 
No unnecessary “dark twist,” no “deep” conclusion, nothing jarring for the sake of “making a statement.”
Just a fitting, comical end to a Pythonesque play.

When this opened in 2011, the role of Elder Cunningham was played by Josh Gad, in a characterization quite similar to his LeFou from 2017’s “Beauty and the Beast.” Almost a decade later, and with a new actor in place, you can still feel Gad’s influence on the role.
That’s not a complaint by any means, just a fun factoid that Megan and I learned when we looked up the play’s history during intermission.

Like any good musical - Disney’s animated “Broadway” hits included - the songs were immediately hummable. “Turn it off” is running through my mind as I write this, and I’m pretty sure Megan wants me to buy the soundtrack, which isn’t a hard sell and the songs are pop-styled and quite catchy.

Fair warning to any potential audience: this play earned itself a hard-R. No nudity, but there’s a lot of cursing and many other adult themes.
And if you’re going to go, take your sense of humor with you. While I can’t say they made this with the specific intent to offend, it definitely didn’t shy away from things that a pearl-clutcher would instantly find uncouth.

Unlike everything else I’ve reviewed for this website - movies, shows, podcasts, theme parks - because I don’t see Broadway musicals with any regularity, I have very little to compare it too, and thus don’t have a lot of experience to review it against.
That said: I absolutely got my money’s worth. While it was a magnitude more expensive to see this play than to see a movie on opening night in IMAX, this was worth every dollar.
If you can take a joke, take a friend and go see it.