The Book of Mormon

I’ve been wanting to see this musical since it came out as a South Park fan. I am so glad I finally did, granted it was a YouTube upload and not a pro shot but it had the original Broadway cast which was cool to see. I enjoyed seeing Josh Gad because to me it feels like his character of Elder Cunningham is who Disney based Olaf off of but Disney made a more non sensical version of Cunningham. I like the nuances of his character in that he’s not just an idiot for the sake of comedy but rather he is like people we all know who had difficulty making friends due to antisocial skills so turned to all nerdy fandoms as it seems. Honestly this describes me pretty well to be honest but I like to think I’ve developed better social skills in my adult life.

Overall I liked this show a lot. The music didn’t do anything too unique but the lyrics were fantastic as you’d expect from Trey Parker and Matt Stone with their expertise in comedy and character development and especially subtext. I feel those guys are masters of comedic subtext if nothing else. My favorite part where this shines is in the song Baptize Me. That song is about his first baptism but it’s treated like he’s losing his virginity.

I like how the thesis for their views on Mormonism are not as on the nose in showing it being a form of christianity that’s modernized to attract followers today and the irony of how Cunningham is criticized for doing the same in his own way essentially just making the stories sound more interesting and make them catered more to the people he’s trying to convert. In the end, this is what religion does in general to convince people to convert. Of course it’s also interesting with the exploration of how people join religion for their own personal pursuits and not necessarily for the sake of actually believing the teachings. From my personal experience it seems the most common reason people turn to religion especially as they get older is to find aid in handling life’s existential enigmas, most notably death and grief because it’s much easier to continue on believing one day we will meet again in death than to believe that there may be nothing after life.

I hope to see this performed live sometime and definitely recommend it to both musical and South Park fans alike. Most of all I hope Trey Parker and Matt Stone make more musicals as they do have a voice that is definitely needed to be heard and have a talent for making great musicals.