There is only one musical that can repeatedly sing “Fuck you God in the ass, mouth and cunt-a!” and still receive a standing ovation at the end of the night.
“The Book of Mormon” debuted on Broadway in Spring 2011. The show has since won nine Tony Awards, a Grammy for Best Musical Theatre Album and become the 11th-longest-running Broadway show of all time. Over the weekend of Oct. 24-26, the show returned to the Overture Center for the first time since 2017.
The show follows two young Mormon missionaries, Elder Price (Sam McLellan) and Elder Cunningham (Jacob Aune), who are sent to Uganda to baptize the local people into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Aune’s hilarious and over-the-top performance as Elder Cunningham was a stand-out, alongside Charity Arianna’s stellar musical performance as female lead and love interest Nabulungi.
“The Book of Mormon” was created by Matt Stone and Trey Parker, co-creators of the animated series “South Park,” alongside songwriter Robert Lopez. And in traditional “South Park” style, the show satirizes and makes fun of everyone, from the Ugandan people to, of course, the Mormon Church itself.
Much of the show focuses on the naivety and racism of the Mormon missionaries as white saviors attempting to convert the Ugandan people while being completely ignorant and dismissive of their culture.
For instance, during the song “I Am Africa,” the missionaries celebrate their successful baptisms by standing in front of the Ugandan people, drowning out their voices and loudly singing that they, as a group of white men from the United States, embody the spirit of Africa.
Still, the show has faced criticism for its offensive portrayals of Ugandan people as naive, violent and primitive for comedy. The people sleep in straw shacks, overwhelmingly suffer from AIDS, live in fear of a warlord threatening to circumsise women and struggle with the morality of raping babies.
Stone and Parker said they operate on a policy of making fun of everyone equally regardless of race, gender, sexual orientation or religious affiliation. While that might sound fair on paper, not all of these groups start on equal footing.
The musical shines the most when it punches up — such as its criticism of the Mormon church’s history of racism and homophobia. These moments solicited the biggest laughs from the audience. The perpetuation of harmful stereotypes of African people, on the other hand, were easily the weakest moments of the show, receiving only nervous chuckles in a show otherwise filled with roaring laughter and applause.
Wedged between crude jokes about having sex with frogs, “The Book of Mormon” presents a surprisingly thoughtful examination of people becoming disillusioned with theology, questioning the credibility of what can often seem to be unbelievable and contradictory religious stories.
Interestingly, the ending — where the missionaries in Uganda invent and promote a new, fabricated religion, “The Book of Arnold” — is not fully cynical or atheistic. Rather, it suggests that religion, whether factual or allegorical, can still inspire hope and comfort for people in need.
In the same vein, the creators clearly have respect for the Broadway musical medium. The show includes subtle melodic and lyrical references to other well-known musicals, including “The Sound of Music,” “The Little Mermaid,” “Chorus Line” and “The Lion King.”
“The Book of Mormon” blends the shockingly offensive and surprisingly sincere into a satirical comedy musical that, while imperfect, has earned its reputation as the funniest show on Broadway.
