A Quick Read on "The Book of Mormon"

Posted by Bruce Miller
On our recent theatre trip to NYC, my daughter Hannah and I saw The Book of Mormon. Almost locked-in to win the Tony Award for Best Musical, Mormon is the hottest ticket on Broadway. So it's the one show we bought in advance, paying $352 (before box office service charges) for two seats in the rear mezz. Yikes!

I read a rave review on Facebook from one of the Richmond theatre artists I most respect. His glowing assessment echoed the sentiments of virtually every mover and shaper in American theatre. Mormon has already won Best Musical nods from the New York Drama Critics' Circle, the Drama Desk Awards, the Outer Critics Circle Awards, and the Drama League Awards.

Ben Brantley in the New York Times called it "the best musical of this century." Peter Marks gushes in the Washington Post: "Matt and Trey: where have they been all my life? The Book of Mormon deserves worship." The critic in Vogue proclaims it "the best new American musical of the last 25 years." And Entertainment Weekly describes it as "a perfect Broadway musical," adding, "This is what 21st Century Broadway can be."

The youthful, packed house on the Sunday evening performance we attended went WILD--the most enthusiastic audience response I've witnessed on Broadway since the euphoric reaction that followed Jennifer Holliday singing And I Am Telling You I'm Not Going in the pre-Tony Award months of the original run of Dreamgirls in 1982.

So what did we think of The Book of Mormon? I liked it more than Hannah did. There were elements I liked a lot. If the rest of the world weren't getting all orgasmic, I'd be talking about how fun it was. But the best musical of the century or the last 25 years? Better than Into the Woods, The Lion King, Rent, Wicked, Spring Awakening, and Light in the Piazza? I have to admit that I just don't get it.

I'm sure part of it is that I'm 60 years old. I've never watched South Park, also written by two of the creators of Mormon, even for five seconds. When I watched that South Park "Hamlet" take-off that James Ricks posted on Facebook a week or so ago, I found it confusing and annoying and not funny in the least. I'm 60 years old, which I know is no excuse, but it seems to me like maybe it's germane.

My taste in musicals was forged during the era of Stephen Sondheim. My favorite musical of all time is A Little Night Music. My favorite musicals of this century are Wicked, Spring Awakening, and Light in the Piazza. I NEVER thought I'd say this about Sondheim (Night Music), but I fear and suspect that my beloved musicals of days gone by now seem terribly old school to young, savvy theatregoers who find Avenue Q and The Book of Mormon to be what American musical theatre needs today.

To me, The Book of Mormon was a lot of fun, clever and energetic, full of sound and fury signifying ... not a heck of a lot. To me, it was mostly derivative. Like Spamalot and Avenue Q, it revels in its irreverence. Like Drowsy Chaperone, it celebrates unapologetic musical comedy technique. Like Urinetown, it finds much of its humor from referencing other musical theatre hits. Like The Producers, it rejoices in an old fashioned bring-on-the-dancing-girls (in this case boys) sensibility that is almost quaint. Like In the Heights, it wraps everything up at the end with a tidy sentimental bow.

Not that there's anything wrong with that.

Unlike the great works of Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein, Cole Porter, Rodgers and Hart, Rodgers and Hammerstein, Leonard Bernstein, Stephen Sondheim, and Kander and Ebb, it breaks no new ground with its production, libretto or score. It challenges nothing (seriously, find me an easier target for satire). It takes us nowhere we haven't been before. It teaches us very little. But it doesn't intend to do any of that.

Also, full disclosure time, I experience discomfort making smart-aleck fun of anyone's faith, no matter what that faith may be. Early in the show, there's a jaunty song that repeats the catch phrase, forgive me, "f... you God," I knew my father, were he alive, would be deeply hurt to see me applauding.

So, let me say what I LOVED about the show:

The CONCEPT: Take the squeakiest clean, fastest growing religion in the world and insert two of its virgin missionaries into Uganda, the most hellish place on earth (at least as described in this show), and see what they can do to convert a populace that is being decimated by AIDS, barbaric war loads, and enforced female circumcisions. View everything though the lens of American musical comedy. A GREAT idea.

The PERFORMANCES: I thought Josh Gad as a Mormon Zach Galifianakis (Jack Black?) and Andrew Rannells as a Mormon Bradley Cooper were full of talent and energy, as were their Mormon back-up singers. Nikki M. James, the beautiful black woman who is the first to convert, is a joy to watch. Everyone sings, dances and acts with such a love of all things Broadway, they send your spirits soaring.

The RESOLUTION: Using the mythology of the Broadway musical to shed light on the mythology of Mormonism (standing in for all the world's religions), and watching the Disneyworld Africans discover that, yes, mythology is make-believe but that's all it's ever been intended to be--stand-ins for the truths of love and interconnectedness. Yes, it is a small world after all.

I honestly did think the show was fresh, excitingly performed, and a lot of fun. At the end, it's even sorta sweet. I wasn't offended, just a little uneasy. In the overall arc of musical theatre, I think this show will go down as very 2011. Which is in many ways a great compliment.

--Bruce Miller

A Richmond High School Theatre Lover Takes Her First Trip to the Tonys

Posted by Lizzie Holland
As most of you know, the 62nd Annual Antoinette Perry Awards were held on June 15th at Radio City Music Hall in New York City. This year I was fortunate enough to attend the awards with my family, and it was so much fun! I am one of Barksdale’s high school theatre enthusiasts (that's me in the picture to the right), and Bruce asked me to write about the experience. So here goes.

(Note: Bruce nabbed all the photos from my Facebook and wrote all the bizarre captions himself, since I left for camp yesterday. All of the photos were taken at stage doors after I went to see the shows. None were taken at the actual Tony Awards. They don't allow you to bring a camera into the awards ceremony. Go figure.)

My dad and I have always joked about going to the Tonys and this year he was actually serious enough to buy tickets the day the nominations came out. (That's not my dad in the photo to the left. That's Mark Rylance, winner of the 2008 Best Actor Tony for Boeing-Boeing.)

I was so excited, but I really didn’t know what to expect. I’ve been watching the Tony Awards on TV ever since I can remember, now I was going to be a part of the whole experience. Here’s what it’s like to attend the Tonys as a non-famous person.

First we bought our tickets, which go on sale each year the day the nominations come out, which this year was May 13th. We got our seats online, but you also can get your seats by calling the Radio City box office. It was easy. We wound up in the front row on the top balcony, which was still close enough to get a good look at all the nominees (including Martha Plimpton, pictured to the right, Best Featured Actress nominee for Top Girls.)

I got more and more excited as we waited for the day when it was finally time to fly up to New York. We arrived at Radio City Music Hall at 6:30 pm. If you are a ticket holder, you must be in your seat by 7:00. The down side to having a ticket is that you have to enter the theatre on the opposite side of the building from the red carpet, so you can’t see any of the celebrities before the show. (After the show, however, you might be lucky enough to spend some time with Raul Esparza, Best Featured Actor nominee for The Homecoming.)

The whole theatre is two-thirds full by 7:30, when the pre-show starts. The pre-show is when the “not glitzy enough for prime time” awards are given out, such as Best Book, Best Lighting, Best Sound, and Best Costumes. True theatre fans know that these awards are just as important as Best Actor or Actress, but they explain that there’s no possible way to fit all of the awards and performances into the three-hour TV time slot. (That's Laurie Metcalf in the picture above and to the right, Best Featured Actress nominee for November.)

Personally, I thought the pre-show was the best part. Michael Cerveris and Julie White hosted the pre-show and they were hysterical. (That's Daniel Evans in the photo to the left, nominated for Best Actor in a Musical for Sunday in the Park with George.)

At 8:00 pm, the doors closed and the televised Tony Awards began. This year, the prime time show kicked off with the opening number from The Lion King. It was fantastic (and that means a lot coming from a girl who doesn’t prefer Disney musicals). Then Whoopi Goldberg took the stage and began hosting the awards!

If you have the right Broadway connections (like Brian d'Arcy James, pictured to the right, 2002 Best Featured Actor nominee for Sweet Smell of Success), I'm told, you don’t need to buy tickets to be inside Radio City on the big night. You can sign up to be a “seat filler,” which is free! The producers never want the TV audience to see an empty seat in the theatre, and Radio City is HUGE. Every time someone gets up to accept an award or go to the bathroom, a “seat filler” rushes in and temporarily fills the vacated seat. This is an awesome opportunity because you may get to sit next to some hotshot actor, director, etc., or perhaps their significant other.

However, from the top balcony, the job of "seat filler" looked very tiring. You get tired just watching the next-in-line “seat filler” jog down the aisle the second someone who was seated gets up (someone like Eve Best, Best Featured Actress nominee for The Homecoming, pictured to the left), and then have to leave the seat minutes later when the seat holder returns and taps them on the shoulder. At that point, the “seat filler” runs back up the aisle and gets in line all over again.

Ironically, once the TV cameras turn on, everything starts happening so fast … the cameras roving and the “seat fillers” running and the scenery shifting … the awards themselves became a blur. After it was all over, I couldn’t even remember who won what. On TV, it’s definitely about the awards and speeches. But in person, it’s all about watching the crew run around at the last second to make the magic happen. (Speaking of "magic," that's Jonathan Groff above and to the right, Best Actor nominee last year for Spring Awakening.)

Something that a lot of people keep asking me is, “What happened during commercials?” The answer is clips--lots and lots of clips! We saw many old Broadway commercials for past mega-hits, featuring the original casts of Rent, Gypsy, and Equus. My favorite clip was one about the “Broadway League.” This is a baseball league for the members of Broadway shows. The clip was a little dated because it had interviews with Mathew Broderick when he was still in The Producers.

When there were no clips being shown, everyone seemed to realize it was an impromptu “stretch break.” Lots of people, including stars (like Norbert Leo Butz, pictured above and to the left, 2005 Tony-winner as Best Actor in Dirty Rotten Scoundrels), rose from their seats and greeted their colleagues while also stretching their legs. We in the galleries gazed down upon them.

It was very cool being able to see everything that went on off camera. Since there were three connected stages, something was always happening on one or both of the side stages while the crew was taping a performance on the main stage. (That's Mary McCormack, above and to the right, Best Featured Actress nominee for Boeing-Boeing, and star of the new hit TV series In Plain Sight -- is she having a good year or what?!)

All in all, the Tony Awards were great fun—a once in a lifetime experience. (And who better to experience it with than Christine Baranski, pictured to the left, two-time Tony winner for Best Featured Actress in The Real Thing - 1984, and Rumors - 1989, and currently hysterical in Boeing-Boeing.)

It was terrific being able to see everything that went on that was not televised. But beyond all the hubbub with cameras etc, there was not that much extra to see. I do recommend going though, especially if you can get cheap(er) tickets and don’t mind sitting in the nosebleed section. Next time I go, I plan, of course, on being nominated!

Now will someone please cue Kelli O’Hara singing Cock Eyed Optimist.

--Lizzie Holland