I really didn't have too high of expectations coming into this production; all I really knew beforehand was that this was the cast recording of a musical based on The Book of Mormon that the creators of South Park were involved with. I had mixed initial thoughts as, while I think South Park has some incredible writing and is a brilliant social satire, I never really cared for most of the musical interludes included and assumed this would be along the same lines (and I also recently watched `Cannibal! The Musical' which lowered my expectations even more). But after listening to this in its entirety I was completely blown away, and even began searching the internet for tickets immediately afterwards (I haven't seen the production yet but I'd love to and will definitely see it eventually).
The writing, the singing, the characters, the story, and the theme overall is absolutely brilliant. From some initial feedback I heard I thought that this production could be a bit juvenile, like some sort of vaguely masked attack against Mormonism / religion in general, but I was incredibly surprised when I found the complete opposite to be true. Yes, there are scenes that poke fun of some of the more questionable aspects of Mormonism, but these same hard-to-really-believable facts are present in all religions, which ends up strengthening the theme with universal appeal. And instead of focusing the theme squarely on the trivial oddities of Mormonism, the play actually focuses on the deeper meaning of religion in general, of how the important meaning isn't in the technical details (like how Joseph Smith received the gold tablets, etc.) but instead how religion can be used as a powerful tool to bring people together, give people hope and contribute to a positive outlook when life seems overwhelming.
Therefore, I'm really (well, I guess not really, unfortunately) surprised by the number of people that have taken offense to this production. It does contain coarse language and vulgar content at times, but never in any way that's unfair, adversarial, or mean-spirited. But for those who were offended, I mean, what did you really expect? Did you think that this was actually a serious documentary based on Mormonism? Did you overlook the explicit content advisory on the CD cover? And if you saw the play, did you really throw down at least three hundred dollars a ticket to attend a show you knew nothing about? Going back to the earlier South Park reference, I guess that would be fair analogy for the level of offensiveness: if South Park offends you then this will probably offend you as well.
But if you take this in with an open mind, you'll really see that this play has a huge heart and actually manages to create a beautiful, positive examination of religion in general, all while being extremely hilarious and uncompromising in its focus; truly an impressive feat, highly recommended.
taken from amazon reviews by MP Perspective
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