Trey Parker and Matt Stone are best known for creating the hit animated adult comedy, South Park, and the hilarious film Team America: World Police, but they first started out by writing movie musicals together such as Cannibal! The Musical’.
After the success of the South Park TV series and movie, Parker and Stone met with the writer-composer of the musical Avenue Q, Robert Lopez, whilst making their new film, Team America. Lopez revealed that South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut was highly influential in the creation of Avenue Q.
The trio quickly hit it off and started work on The Book of Mormon Musical, and after nearly seven years of development, the show opened on Broadway in 2011 and was welcomed by huge acclaim and has already wowed the critics and public alike with an overwhelming positive critical response as well as numerous theatre awards including nine Tony Awards. The musical was bought to the West End in February 2013 at the Prince of Wales Theatre, however, be warned, finding a spare seat is a nigh on impossibility with tickets being like gold dust.
The Book of Mormon parodies organised religion and traditional musical theatre, reflecting the creators’ lifelong fascination with Mormonism and musicals.
The show tells the story of two young, naive Mormon missionaries sent to a remote village in northern Uganda, where a brutal local warlord, General Butt-F*cking-Naked is threatening the local population.
Mafala Hatimbi welcomes the two missionaries to the village and they quickly realise the appalling conditions they have to live in as well as being ruled by a cruel, repressive chieftain who is bizarrely obsessed with female circumcision as he believes all of the clitorises in the village will destroy him.
Naive and optimistic, the two missionaries try to share the Book of Mormon (even though only one has actually read it) and attempt to convert the villagers. However, they have trouble connecting with the locals, showing a complete collision of cultures, as they are more worried about war, famine, poverty, and AIDS than about religion. One of their songs literally translates to ‘F*ck you, God’!
We see Cunningham fabricating a new faith by making up stories from a combination of the little he knows of Mormon doctrines with bits and pieces of science fiction. Mormonism is merged with the likes of Star Wars and The Lord of the Rings, and the villagers are enraptured; they are baptized and accept Mormonism. The ruler is over-ruled and goodness prevails.
The central theme in all of this is scrutinising religion, showing that religious stories are silly, meaningless, and essentially, untrue. It explains that it is easy to invent a new religion, and people will indeed follow. However, although the musical satirizes organised religion and denotes it all as false, ludicrous, and entirely made-up, it also shows that believing in a religion is never a bad thing (as long as it is taken metaphorically and not literally). Humans have a built-in bias towards belief, and even if religious messages are not literally true, if it helps people, then believing such religious messages is surely a good thing. A made-up faith may just be the remedy for rescue; religious belief may be ridiculous but may also be a force for temporal good.
The musical approach is also spoofing contemporary Broadway styles with most of the songs mimicking the likes of Bye Bye Birdie, The King and I, and even The Lion King.
The trio of creators push the boundaries of offense, it is a foul-mouthed show, not for the oversensitive, thin skinned or prudish.
It is brilliantly conceived and executed combining an offensive, outrageous and controversial satire with a hilarious show where you are welcomed to judge, mock and ridicule pretty much everything.
You should be ready for blasphemy and profanity by the bucket load. Subtle it is not. You need to approach this musical much like how they are telling you to approach religion, with a handful of salt. If you can handle a show about vile beliefs such as raping babies and bestiality, then you will, without doubt, have a brilliant night out but don’t bother going if you think you may be offended, because you unquestionably will be.
It literally shatters every remaining taboo going, and at times you are sat wondering how on earth they got away with it all, let alone make millions and break records. The Mormons themselves have decided to see the funny side too, with adverts for the Mormon Church going in the actual programme given out at the hit show. Good on them.
This is certainly theatre’s crudest, funniest show of all time. Definitely worth a watch. To book, please visit their official page.
