Written by South Park‘s own Trey Parker and Matt Stone, and Avenue Q’s Robert Lopez, Broadway MusicalThe Book of Mormon delivers exactly what you’d expect with respect to scatological sacrilege. The Book of Mormon tells the story of two young naive and optimistic Mormon missionaries (Elder Price and Elder Cunningham) sent to a remote village in Uganda to connect with the locals and share The Book of Mormon. Upon their arrival and immediate robbery at gunpoint by soldiers of a local thuggish one-eyed warlord, they are “welcomed” into the village where natives share the daily realities of famine, poverty, AIDS, female circumcision, and overall dreadful living conditions.
The Book of Mormon is most undoubtedly cheeky and pushes the boundaries with content and profanity. It can’t be overlooked that the score, production, acting, and vocal talent is brilliant, and that there is something utterly original about this musical and its controversial content. Unlike other productions, The Book of Mormon does not depend on any one principal cast member to carry the weight in that the talent is amazingly distributed amongst all of the performers. Whether offended or entertained, EW.com said it well with “The perfect Broadway musical. Behold The Book of Mormon. An exhilarating Broadway musical at once revolutionary and classic, hilarious and humane, funny and obscene, uncompromising in production standards and unafraid of just about anything. This is what 21st century Broadway can be. If Broadway has the balls. Lord knows,The Book of Mormon does…”
After first opening on Broadway in March 2011, The Book of Mormonis running at Austin‘s Bass Concert Hall from October 1-13, 2013 and brings with it nine Tony Awards, including Best Musical, Best Score (Trey Parker, Robert Lopez, Matt Stone), Best Book (Trey Parker, Robert Lopez, Matt Stone), Best Direction (Casey Nicholaw, Trey Parker), Best Featured Actress (Nikki M. James), Best Scenic Design (Scott Pask), Best Lighting Design (Brian MacDevitt), Best Sound Design (Brian Ronan) and Best Orchestrations (Larry Hochman, Stephen Oremus); the New York Drama Critics Circle Award for Best Musical; five Drama Desk Awards including Best Musical, the 2011 Grammy Award for Best Musical Theater Album; four Outer Critics Circle Awards, including Best Musical, and the Drama League Award for Best Musical.
