The Book Of Mormon

Ding Dong

Hello, my name is Fit For Nothing and I would like to tell you about this most crude and offensive musical.

Hello. Yes, I was dragged (I hate musicals) and it's not going to change my life but it was a hoot.

Today we take a day trip down to the Prince of Wales Theatre in the West End, treating Daughter to First Class on the way, and also meeting Son and his gf there. Yes, two musical deniers in the same room at the same time.

The Book Of Mormon has drawn plenty of criticism from those of will be offended and you can see why. Which is obviously what the creators of South Park who wrote the musical intended.

Of course if your beliefs can't stand up to criticism, and\or ridicule for that matter, then there can't have been much of substance there in the first place. Which is perhaps why the Mormon religion have embraced the production in their own way. Rather than protest they have bought advertising space in the programme and will happily sell you a copy of their book outside afterwards. Fair play to them.

I actually found the show very educational about Mormonism and it will have brought the religion to the attention of more people than any of their evangelical missions, which are so pilloried in this production, could have achieved. So perhaps a result all round then.

Most of the musical is set in an impoverished Ugandan village, where a mismatched pair of beaming brainwashed Utah-raised Mormons, Elders Price and Cunningham, are sent. They head to Africa expecting the Lion King and instead get General Buttfuckingnaked.

This is all designed as a dose of reality not just to Mormonism but to all religions. How do centuries old religions deal with modern real life issues such as the likes of violent warlords, diseases like AIDS, cult driven medical practices and female genital mutilation.

They don’t, not in a practical sense, and the Ugandans are not interested in what the Mormons have to say. The Mormons are forced to accept that they don’t have a solution.

The musicals lays this on with a trowel with it’s language, jokes, songs and political references. It is totally over the top but their aim is to get their point across.

So stand up Elders Cunningham, who admits he hasn’t even read the book. He realises that if they aren’t listening to what you’re saying then say something else and that he can hit his ‘baptism-quota’ if he just makes everything up drawing heavily on stories he does know like Star Wars and The Hobbit.

It’s all excellent stuff even if it does have a lot of singing in it. 

(Wednesday 22^nd August)