How Not To Like Musicals

Cultural guru Bryan Appleyard demonstrates how not to like musicals based on less-than-pleasing experiences of Starlight Express, Phantom of the Opera and a Sondheim show:

As intellectually challenging as a Moonpig card and as aesthetically satisfying as cat litter, these shows left me baffled. Why would anybody want to see such nonsense? In the case of Sondheim – the easily shocked should look away now – I concluded he wasn’t very good.

Can I look now?

In the end, I suppose, musicals are, to some, restful. They provide – sometimes – nice tunes and consoling sentiments as well as lots of expensive stage effects. Fair enough. I suppose.

Phew. He is, of course, wrong. But that's OK as he does tend to be right about everything else in life and he does find one exception in The Book of Mormon.

Although he fails to credit Robert Lopez as co-author along with the South Park fellas, Matt Stone and Trey Parker (by the way, how often is this going to happen in the forthcoming reviews?), his analysis is spot on:

Neither Mormonism nor religion is the prime target, parochialism is the heart of the matter...They [Trey and Parker] do not, however, resort to the helpless, postmodern shrug; rather, they draw consolation from the fact that, adrift we may be, but at least we are all in the same boat. And what do we do to pass the time? We tell stories.

However absurd Mormon parochialism appears to the outsider, it is a story to live by and we all need one of those.

How to Handle a Mormon

A letter to Christianity magazine in reply to this article by culture columnist Martin Saunders:

Martin Saunders asks if we should ignore, embrace or campaign against the new musical The Book of Mormon. Well, if you’re of a sensitive disposition or under the age of 15, I’d say ignore it. For everyone else, embrace it. 

Yes, the songs are potty-mouthed and profane. But they’re also very, very funny. Yes, there are pot shots at religion and the wackier Mormon beliefs. But we still end up rooting for the Mormon characters. 

Christians needn’t judge the musical with a blasphemy-ometer but as a piece of theatre. The Book of Mormon is quite simply a spiritual whoopee cushion of a show.

It'll be interesting to see if The Book of Mormon gets the same treatment as Jerry Springer with fringe Christian groups (well, group) protesting outside of theatres.

I suspect not. For one thing, the show is technically aimed at Mormons rather than Christianity in general. And the type of Christians who protest outside of theatres are unlikely to put any effort into defending Mormonism as a proper form of Christianity.

For another and more important thing, The Book of Mormon has a bucket-load more heart than Jerry Springer. Even though the profanity per minute rate is probably the same in both shows, Jerry Springer was an altogether colder and more cynical affair, whereas the Book of Mormon, despite everything, is oddly warm and sentimental. This will count for something when it comes to religious reaction.

My general prediction for the show is that there may be a few angry letters but no significant campaigns. The critics will love it and it'll find an audience for a decent West End run. But if it does go on tour, it'll die on road. Every show has its limits.

REVIEW: The Book of Mormon - God's Favourite Musical

Another show from over the pond:

Sometimes it’s all about the punctuation. In musicals there’s a modern sub-genre which can best be described as the Unlikely Idea For A Musical! The Musical musical. The really significant bit is the exclamation mark. Now these new exclamation marks are not like the old exclamation marks of, say, an Oklahoma! or an Oliver!. Then they signalled joy and exuberance. Today’s punctuation is more of an ironic wink to the audience: “We know this is silly; you know that we know this is silly. Let’s all be silly and ironic together”. The problem with this approach is that it demeans the form as much as it does the subject matter; musicals as mindless superficiality. But all that ironic silliness is a just cop-out and no substitute for the far harder task of dealing in honest character and genuine feeling. More than funding cuts, jukebox jollies or Heathcliff on Ice, it’s the exclamation mark that truly threatens the future of musical theatre.

As a pretty unlikely idea for a musical The Book of Mormon could easily have gone down this route and turned itself into a piece of self-satisfied religion bashing. Thank Heavenly Father, it didn’t. Instead of being silly in an ironic way, it’s silly in a laugh-out-loud funny way. And amongst all the potty-mouthed so-wrong-it’s-right political incorrectness, it’s sincere and sentimental.

The show is written by South Park creators, Trey Parker and Matt Stone, along with Robert Lopez. Lopez was the co-author of the puppets-for-grown-ups musical Avenue Q and the same theme of wide-eyed innocents being thrown into the big wild world provides the basic impetus here. Two young Mormon missionaries, Kevin and Arnold, are sent to Uganda to convert the local folks. But the pair’s naive doctrines prove inadequate when dealing with the ills of Africa: poverty, AIDs, warlords and scrotal infestations (don’t ask). Kevin becomes disillusioned whilst Arnold makes up his own version of the Mormon story to try and win over the Ugandans, including a young girl Nabalungi.

One of the problems facing the authors must have been the need for exposition. The Book of Mormon can’t necessarily assume a lot of audience knowledge about the subject. The authors need to get some important facts across. So the centrepiece of the story is Kevin and Arnold’s mission and the big number in Act One, “The All-American Prophet”, sees them leading the locals through the Mormon basics. But it’s also educating us, the audience. Perhaps not in a strictly Mormonistic way (“You mean the bible is actually a trilogy and the Book of Mormon is Return of the Jedi? I’m interested”). But enough so that we get the Joseph Smith highlights:

“He didn’t come from the Middle East like those other Holy Men
No, God’s favourite prophet was All-American”

This set piece is then mirrored in Act II when the now-converted Ugandans act out their understanding of the story for the visiting Mormon bigwig. The problem is that their understanding is based on Arnold’s made-up version which involves the angel Moroni descending from the Starship Enterprise, ewoks dancing merrily in Salt Lake City and significant amounts of ranine fornication (seriously, don’t ask). The point is that all this exposition, which is normally just the boring bits necessary to explain the plot, has become the plot. That’s wonderful book writing and what makes the show work.

What makes the show funny is the cheery advice on how to cope with stultifying feelings of guilt, fear and shame:

“Turn it off like a light switch
Just go click
It’s a nifty
little Mormon trick”

Or perhaps it’s the fey bunch of shirt-and-tied white boys getting in touch with the dark continent:

“We are Africa
Just like Bono, we are Africa”

Let’s be clear: Cole Porter, these songs ain’t. There are no sophisticated rhymes, unexpected melodic structures or crunchy ‘n’ complex harmonies. But then Cole never wrote songs about a Mormon facing down a warlord by grabbing his hand for a white gospel singalong. Funny songs need funny ideas and this is one of the funniest. There are no rhymes. They aren’t even any jokes as such, just statements of faith set to an earnest gospel track:

“I believe
That ancient Jews built boats and sailed to America
I am a Mormon and a Mormon just believes”

Of course we’re being invited to laugh at some of the wackier Mormon beliefs but never at the Mormon characters; we’re still rooting for Kevin. It may not be Porter but, on its own terms, it’s just as good.

There’s obvious confidence in the material. The cast are kept busy by some wonderful vocal arrangements and a few of those tricky Jesus to Darth Vader quick-changes. The two leads, Andrew Rannells and Josh Gad, are spot on. They’re like two opposite types kids you meet at school: one’s the perfectly vain head boy, the other’s the weirdo at the back of the class. Yet you never doubt that their friendship is genuine. The staging adds to the whole with subtle touches of suitable inappropriateness. Such as? Well, things like the Ugandan’s ritualistically symbolic depiction of dysentery with red and brown tasselled sticks (you did ask).

The jokes may be dirty but it’s heart is pure. The Book of Mormon - no exclamation mark - is a spiritual whoopee cushion of a show.