The Book of Mormon

After getting home at 2:30am Saturday night/Sunday morning from the Tim McGraw concert, Shauna & I were up bright & early to see the afternoon show of 'The Book of Mormon' at the Kentucky Center for the Arts.  We had these tickets before the concert came up.  It seemed like a good idea at the time to do both things in one weekend back when we bought the tickets....

That morning...not so much...

I wasn't really sure what this was gonna be about.  I knew it was from the creators of the adult cartoon 'South Park' so I expected funny.  I also thought it might be a little on the dirty side.  I did research on it (God Bless the internet) - it has won Tony Awards & gotten rave reviews.  I kinda figured it would be poking a bit of fun at the Mormon religion (because of the aforementioned creators) & who doesn't enjoy a 'bit of poking fun'?  I mean-this thing is a Broadway Musical after all - it should be good.  And when you see something at the Kentucky Center for the Arts you kind of think it's gonna be more on the 'upscale' of things.

We all know what Mormons are, right?  They're with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.  Their founder was Joseph Smith, sometimes they practice polygamy & they come to your door to share their 'book' (aka Bible) with you.

The premise is there is a graduating class that is getting ready to be assigned their country to be missionaries. One of them is like the model Mormon & he gets paired w/ another guy who is a goof off & hasn't even read the 'book'.  While the other missionaries are being assigned to France & Norway - these 2 are sent to Uganda in Africa.  

Well, the model Mormon is appalled by this unfortunate turn of events (he wanted to go to Orlando...random, I know...)& the goof off guy is excited because he's decided they're now best friends (because rule #72 is that you NEVER leave your assigned partner...only to go to the bathroom...). They go off to Uganda & find a village of people who are fed up with life.  There is an evil War Lord that rules over them making their lives miserable. 

I always say "I am easily embarrassed, not easily offended' & this musical definitely embarrassed me.  It had extremely foul language & no one was safe from being made fun of:  Mormons, Christians, Jews, Black people, gay people, people w/ Aids - you name it.  There were some funny parts (the goofy guy was hilarious!), but mostly I kept my hand over my mouth a lot because I couldn't believe what they were saying.  Shauna & I looked at each other in disbelief (a LOT) & said things like, "What are we doing here?"  "You know we're going to hell, right?"  "WHAT did they just say?"

After the first act Shauna even wondered how many people would come back.  It seemed most people returned to their seats - as did we.  I don't know if we did it because we:

A) wanted to see what they'd say next?

B) paid for those damn tickets & we were gonna watch the show!

C) wanted to see if God would strike tho whole theater with lightning how it would end?  

I ran into the wife of a guy I work with who was there with their 16 year old daughter & that gave me major anxiety.  (She said they had been warned it was bad, but STILL...) I was thinking, "OH MY GAWD that 16 year old is hearing all this!"  I was also never so glad in my WHOLE life that I hadn't asked my mother to go.  I can hear her now, "JAIME DIANE - WHAT have you brought me too?!"  She would've burst into flames...

So when I'm asked, "Hey-what did you think of 'The Book of Mormon'? - I have no idea.  I wouldn't say it was good, but I wouldn't say it was bad either.  It did have some not too dirty or offensive humor in it but I don't think I would go see it again.  I'm all about sattire & having a little fun w/ teasing, etc - but this stomped all over that line & then charged forward. I guess I would classify it as inappropriate.  I always say there's a time & a place for everything - but this stage wasn't it.   I wasn't offended by what they said per se, but I couldn't believe those talented actors & actresses were on stage in costumes w/ a full orchestra singing songs about.... well-I'm not gonna repeat in typed word what they sang about.... (I will say this - if we made a drinking game out of when they said 'F***, Clitoris or Aids' - we would've died from alcohol poisoning in the first act... Are you wondering WHY in the world 'Clitoris' was in a musical about Mormons?  Yea-it was crazy town.)  The performers did an amazing job singing, acting & dancing. It's not their fault the content wasn't for 'me'.

Luckily we went on the final day it was in town so I don't have to worry about recommending or not recommending seeing it.  (But if you're a God fearing kinda person - I would recommend NOT... I'm sure we escaped death by lightning strike because He knew we didn't know exactly what we'd signed up for...)