The Fox Theatre is once again hosting The Book of Mormon, the 2011 Tony Award–winning musical with book, music, and lyrics by Trey Parker, Robert Lopez and Matt Stone. The show is as outrageous and delightful as ever in its third national tour.
The opening scene features a chorus of cheerful, identically dressed young men ringing on doorbells. They are Mormons in training to be missionaries. All but one of them are practicing the same speech, the one they will deliver to win converts to their faith. The maverick is Elder Cunningham, the slacker of the group. He has to wing it because he hasn’t learned the approved script.
The star student is Elder Price. He thinks his devout faith will earn him a missionary assignment to his favorite place in all the world: Orlando, Florida. At graduation, Elder Price is shocked to learn that he will be sent to Uganda with his exact opposite, Elder Cunningham.
In Uganda, Elder Price is an utter failure, along with all the other missionaries following the well-rehearsed script. It has no relevance for people enduring dreadful conditions under a despot. The only person who can get through to the Ugandans is Elder Cunningham. To prevent something terrible from happening, he falls back on his old habit of lying his way out of trouble. Appling his knowledge of fantasy and science fiction to the local culture, he improvises an appeal that wins many converts to his faith.
The mission president is so impressed with the number of conversions that he travels to Africa to see for himself what has happened. He is shocked when the villagers perform a pageant celebrating what they have learned from Elder Cunningham.
This number, “Joseph Smith American Moses,” is one of the high points of the show. So is Elder Price’s “Spooky Mormon Hell Dream.” These numbers have irresistible energy as directed and choreographed for the tour by Jennifer Werner, whose work is based on the original Broadway direction by Trey Parker and Casey Nicholaw and choreography by Nicholaw. Music director Mason Moss conducts the fine band.
The entire show is filled with raunchy, raucous comedy that is sure to entertain if doesn’t offend. The stellar design team includes Scott Pask (set), Ann Roth (costumes), Brian MacDevitt (lighting), Brian Ronan (sound), and Josh Marquette (hair).
The excellent touring cast is led by Sam McLellan as Elder Price and Sam Nackman as Elder Cunningham. The featured performers are Keke Nesbitt as Nabulungi, Sean Casey Flanagan as Elder McKinley, Lamont J. Whitaker as Mafala Hatimbi, Dewight Braxton Jr. as the general, and Trevor Dorner as Price’s dad, Joseph Smith, and the mission president.
The ultimate object of the show’s satire is not a single book or a particular faith but the danger of rigid adherence to received doctrine. The authors’ key insight is that prophets speak in metaphors. Taking the metaphors literally is a mistake. The Ugandans understand this. They are the smartest people in the show.
The Book of Mormon continues through April 14 at the Fox Theatre, 527 North Grand Boulevard.
—Gerry Kowarsky
Photo by Julieta Cervantes
Sam McLellan (Elder Price, left), Keke Nesbitt (Nabulungi, center), and Sam Nackman (Elder Cunningham, right) and the company of the North American tour of The Book of Mormon.
