After seeing one of the last previews of the Broadway production of The Book of Mormon you felt that musical theatre history was being made. With the opening of the Chicago production last night at the Bank of America Theatre, the same is true. Few shows have had the impact on the genre as The Book of Mormon, not only from a brilliant marketing strategy, but as a financial beacon that most other theater works can only wish for.
The Book of Mormon is the brainchild of South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone who have long had a fascination with the hypocrisy of all organized religion. In fact one of the most popular episodes of South Park involves the musicalized origin of Mormonism underscored by a chorus singing "dumb-dumb-dumb". Mr. Parker grew up performing in and accompanying musicals which he was doing when he met his best friend Mr. Stone at high school in Colorado (where South Park is based). It is when Parker and Stone saw Avenue Q and met with the shows creators Jeff Marx and Robert Lopez that the idea of The Book of Mormon came to fruition. As every musical has its growing pains in its evolution, Book of Mormon was no exception. After seven years in the development the process and the eventual exiting of Mr. Marx, workshops began, which included our friend Cheyenne Jackson as Elder Price. The boys decided to go all in and instead of having tryouts, went directly into previews on Broadway and was an instant hit.
The Book of Mormon follows Elder Kevin Price who is about to embark on his two year mission to "recruit" souls to the church. Though it is his dream to do his required duty in the miraculous city of Orlando, Elder Price is instead paired with misfit Elder Arnold Cunningham and shipped to Uganda where the tribe is faced with AIDS, clitoral mutilation, baby rape and a very angry warlord. Through inspired production numbers, creative choreography and characters that you instantly feel an affection for, the musical takes off like a freight train and never slows down. As in their South Park episodes, The Book of Mormon points out the ridiculousness of the religious institution itself, but never once questions the authenticity of the boys who believe in the faith. It is in that basic idea of belief in the potential greatness of people and not organizations, that The Book of Mormon finds its underlying success.