THE BOOK OF MORMON- THEATRE REVIEW
Hello my lovely readers, today I'm going to be reviewing the musical 'The Book of Mormon' from the creators of South Park. The story follows two young Mormons, as they're sent on their missionary to a small village in Northern Uganda. Their aim to bring their religious views to the people didn't quite go as planned, as the village is currently under threat and AID's is quickly spreading throughout the community.
About six months later I heard that The 'Book of Mormon' would be debuting in London this year. I was super excited about this. I knew most of the lyrics to the songs and had watched loads of clips online. I couldn't wait to get tickets. I thought, 'yes this will be my chance to sing along and let out my inner performer'. I managed to get two tickets, one for me and one for my best friend Rachel to see a matinee performance, which was packed to the brim with excited theatregoers. I looked around to see people in the queue laughing and singing to the songs while they waited to go into the theatre. As I watched for a moment, I thought to myself 'I definitely fit in here', this is what I love and it's so nice to be able to share my passions with so many other people. I wish more of my friends and family enjoyed this sort of thing. Whenever I drive around in my car I like to roll down the windows and sing to music extra loud. Although lots of people do this, the difference with me is my soundtrack usually includes songs like Disney's Aladdin, The Lion King, Hairspray (my all time favourite for a good sing a long), Book of Mormon, Avenue Q and a Chorus Line. I like to imagine that I'm on the stage in front of thousands of people, who have paid just to watch me perform. Often when I'm in a queue or at the traffic lights I like to direct my songs to passer-by's. I know its a little sad but, I just find it quite amusing to see peoples reactions. Once I did actually have someone join me in my sing along to Legally Blonde's 'OMG you guys', but the majority of the time people just stare at me with an awkward or confused expression across their face. They're probably thinking 'what the hell is this crazy girl doing'. My sister always tell me she hates driving around with me as she knows full well I'm going to be singing along to all my musicals, whilst bobbing my little head up and down (Don't worry I'm a safe driver, I still keep my hands on the wheel at 10-2). I think she gets a little embarrassed sometimes but, I have to remind her that her little sister is a performer and this is what we do. She normally lets me just get on with it, but I know it annoys her.
Anyway back to the Book of Mormon. This show included everything you could ever want from a good musical and so much more. There were sparkly costumes, dancing, singing, excellent set design and most importantly comedy. The shows humour was aimed at taking the absolute piss out of everything and everyone. I love this type of humour, its about learning not to take the world so seriously and just have a laugh.
Now I can understand that some people could get offended by things in this musical, but like I said it's not supposed to be taken too seriously. Nothing they say or do is done to specifically target anyone. If anything I think it's actually making fun of the stereotypes that people are given. If you're quite a sensitive person I'd say maybe avoid this one.
My favourite song in the whole show is called 'Hasa Diga Eebowai' which apparently means 'F**k you God'. This song is sung by the village people of Uganda and probably involves every bad and inappropriate word you could think of, including the one word I can't stand, where they use the phrase 'F**k God in the c**t'. These are the things that they say when something bad happens. It wasn't a shock for me when I heard this during the performance as I knew exactly what to expect before I booked the tickets. It was humorous, however, to hear the two older ladies in front of us saying to each other "they can't possibly be saying what I think they are, can they?" "They sure are carol, they sure are". I guess even in the 21st Century it's shocking to hear lyrics like this, but I have to praise the writers for this one, they definitely know how to capture the audience's attention.
The song comes near the beginning of the show and from that point on the scenes become more and more scandalous. Every scene was represented amazingly well with humour, realism and it's outrageous nature. The whole show looked well rehearsed and I didn't notice anything that could have gone wrong or that was out of place.
Now I can understand that some people could get offended by things in this musical, but like I said it's not supposed to be taken too seriously. Nothing they say or do is done to specifically target anyone. If anything I think it's actually making fun of the stereotypes that people are given. If you're quite a sensitive person I'd say maybe avoid this one.
My favourite song in the whole show is called 'Hasa Diga Eebowai' which apparently means 'F**k you God'. This song is sung by the village people of Uganda and probably involves every bad and inappropriate word you could think of, including the one word I can't stand, where they use the phrase 'F**k God in the c**t'. These are the things that they say when something bad happens. It wasn't a shock for me when I heard this during the performance as I knew exactly what to expect before I booked the tickets. It was humorous, however, to hear the two older ladies in front of us saying to each other "they can't possibly be saying what I think they are, can they?" "They sure are carol, they sure are". I guess even in the 21st Century it's shocking to hear lyrics like this, but I have to praise the writers for this one, they definitely know how to capture the audience's attention.
The song comes near the beginning of the show and from that point on the scenes become more and more scandalous. Every scene was represented amazingly well with humour, realism and it's outrageous nature. The whole show looked well rehearsed and I didn't notice anything that could have gone wrong or that was out of place.
The one scene I loved in particular is when Mormon Elder Cunningham gets baptised by the young Ugandan girl. You can clearly see a sexual connection between the two characters and scene shows this very blatantly. The scene comes across very sensual and they try to link the movements and sound of the baptism with sex. For example when Elder Cunningham has the holy water poured on him, he begins to heavy breath and make moaning sounds. It was so obscene that you couldn't help but chuckle. The show continues down this path with most of the scenes having some kind of innuendo or another. I'm really critical when it comes to comedy as I find a lot of comedians try way too hard to be funny. I actually find this quite cringing and definitely NOT funny. I have to admit that I wouldn't put the Book of Mormon in this category. For the first time I was kept in stitches throughout the whole show.
The next scene that really stood out for me was the scene set in hell. I did find this one a little strange and not for the over sensitive audience. Elder Price is sent to hell in his dream for deserting his missionary partner. Whilst here he doesn't just come across obvious characters you would expect to find such as devils, no no, out pops Michael Jackson holding a child, Hitler hailing himself and a variety of other paedophiles and real life criminals. This was obviously supposed to be a joke by making fun of them and where they had ended up, however I'm not too sure everyone would find it appropriate. Throughout this scene all the characters were prancing around like morons, trying to frighten Elder Price. It may have been a strange scene, but it was done tremendously well.
I don't think I could fault one part of this show. I think the acting was absolute perfection and every actor took on their roles with freedom and ease. Although these characters were all exaggerated stereotypes, they still had a sense of realism to them. I could feel the enjoyment from the actors on stage, which made it even more fun to watch. If the cast look like they are having a good time then so will the audience.
The show has clarified for me that it is important to laugh at yourself and not take things too serious. One tip I would give is make sure you go into other theatre with a good sense of honour and embrace its craziness. It's all in good humour.
The point of the musical is to shock the audience and I think they did this with perfection. I would without a doubt go and see this again.
I give it a big thumbs up and FIVE STARS!!!!
(Picture source: peterson in showsinlondon.co.uk :2014)
(Picture source: Theguardian.co.uk: 2014)
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