Last night Stu and I went to see The Book of Mormon at Prince of Wales Theatre in London's glitzy West End. It's a religious satire musical with book, lyrics, and music by Trey Parker, Robert Lopez, and Matt Stone.We were really looking forward to it - partly from all the hype and partly because Popbitch had described it as "This is a musical for adults. Adults that are happy to laugh at a grown man fucking a frog on stage."
The Book of Mormon tells the story of two young Mormon missionaries sent to a remote village in northern Uganda, where a brutal warlord is threatening the local population. Naïve and optimistic, the two missionaries try to share the Book of Mormon, one of their scriptures—which only one of them knows very well—but have trouble connecting with the locals, who are more worried about war, famine, poverty, and AIDS than about religion.
The show was funny, clever, rude, had great dancing, had great songs - everything a night out should be. It's South Park meets Lion King with a dose of Family Guy. If you like musicals it's a triumph. Not quite as caustic as much of South Park though but not mean spirited either and every song a self-knowing show-stopper.
They had us from the opening number "Hello". The brilliant "You and Me (But Mostly Me)" had us laughing in the aisles as did the hysterical "Turn It Off". Best routine of the night was the fantastically realised "Spooky Mormon Hell Dream."
Go. Just go.
