Ordinarily
I wouldn’t review a Toronto play. But one of the many great things about The Book of Mormon is that it features
no Toronto talent whatsoever (as in days of olde, we provincials are being
treated to a touring production, with
a foreign cast). So praise be to God (to coin a phrase). I can actually review this
play because no one I know is in any way connected with it.
The Book of Mormon is a fascinating
cultural phenomenom. Why is this
potty-mouthed musical about Mormons such a mammoth hit with old, Blue-haired Ladies?
What in the name of hell (to coin a phrase) is going on?
First, The Book of Mormon puts the word
‘comedy’ back in musical comedy. You see, a musical comedy is not just a play laced
with pretty songs (sorry, Andrew Lloyd Webber). The songs have to be funny (or
at least witty). Rodgers and Hammerstein often ride the fine line between
sentiment and comedy. But at the heart of the American musical lie songs like
“I’m Just a Girl Who Can’t Say No!” and “Doin’ What Comes Naturally’ (a song which
by the way is as dirty – at least by implication -- as anything in The Book of Mormon). Parker and Stone
have written a smart, entertaining and truly witty musical comedy, so we can all breathe a brief (and perhaps illusory) sigh
of relief.
But what is
the goddamn play about? One might be forgiven for being uncertain. The
publicists for the touring show are certainly doing their best to confuse us. They seem to view Torontonians as a passel of
hay-chewing rustics in a know-nothing hick town. A tiny piece in the Globe’s Friday May 3rd issue – planted by the
play’s publicists, no doubt -- suggests that The Book of Mormon is a pro-Mormon, religious musical. The brief article
informs us that the young stars Mark Evans and John O’Neill visited Rochester, New
York – apparently an historic Mormon place -- and that the visit “gave them new
respect for what they’re preaching onstage.”
Wow.
I don’t
think I’ve ever seen such a canny display of misrepresentation in the history of theatrical publicity.
The Book of Mormon does not preach Mormonism though,
understandably, the publicists would like to fool all The Blue Hairs into
thinking it’s so. No, the show is a very funny, didactic satire of all organized
religion, bigotry and of the institutionalized ignorance that is so often
attached to fundamentalism. At the climax of the play the two heroes go so far as
to question whether religions need rules, beliefs, or even faith in God! And during
the course of the play Christian white fundamentalists learn about life and the
human spirit from the non-white people they are seeking to teach.
So why in
the name of heaven (to coin a phrase) are The Blue Hairs buying it? Why don’t
they get the real message?
Let me tell you, three things really
help a lot to sell this wildly inventive experiment in theatrical hucksterism to small town hicks
everywhere:
1. The people who swear, use foul
sexual language and have AIDS in the play are black, not white – them, not us. (Usually the characters in
American plays who swear, use foul language and have AIDS are gay. But I guess
we’re finally getting tired of that tired old trope).
2. Most Christians have no idea of what what
their religion actually says. And frankly,
most of them don’t care. Once I got dressed up in drag and interviewed a bunch
of young Catholic women (don’t ask, it’s a long story). I asked them -- how can
you reconcile being a young modern woman with the Catholic church’s stand on
abortion? All of them basically agreed on one rule of thumb: “There’s my religion, and then there’s my
life. Never the twain shall meet.”
3. Finally, the theme of The Book of Mormon is that the specific beliefs of any religion
are less important than the fact that people believe in something – anything --
whether we’re black, white, Christian, or ‘pagan.’ The Book of Mormon is a success partially because it has the same
theme as many other hugely successful American musicals – The Music Man, and 110 in the
Shade (to name two). These musicals posit that the shyster/huckster figure (exemplified
by Mormonism in The Book of Mormon)
is an okay guy, because we all need a little magic, and we all need ‘a
dream.’ It’s not the content of the dream, but the fact that you dream at all, that’s
important.
Okay now that I’ve explained the
whole Goddamn Jesus thing for you (to coin a phrase), I hope you’re happy.