Phyre Hawkins, Ryan Bondy and A.J. Holmes in the Australian production of THE BOOK OF MORMON. Image by Jeff Busby.
The Mormons are coming! The Mormons are coming! That’s what we’ve been seeing plastered on trams, TVs and newspapers for almost a year and the wait is finally over – the Mormons have arrived. Massive musical megahit The Book of Mormon opened at Melbourne’s Princess Theatre over the weekend and it has well and truly been worth the wait and all of the hype.
When it opened cold on Broadway in 2011 it was an astounding critical and commercial success. Tickets sold out months even years in advance with scalpers making a small fortune in order to feed a hungry public’s appetite to see the show everyone was talking about. That the show in question was an R-rated musical comedy from the warped minds of South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone made its immediate and continued popularity even more astonishing. Audiences and critics alike from all walks of life and from all over the world can’t get enough of this foul-mouthed yet kind hearted musical about Mormon missionaries in Africa, the true meaning of friendship and maggot infested scrotums.
After the hilarious opening number ‘Hello’ establishes the typical Mormon door knock, familiar to many, the production takes off running and doesn’t let up for the duration of its side-splittingly hilarious two-and-a-half hours. Uber positive Mormon poster boy Elder Price (Ryan Bondy) finds himself stuck with scruffy social outcast Elder Cunningham (A.J. Holmes) in impoverished Uganda. There they befriend Mafala Hatimbi (Bert LaBonté) and his daughter Nabulungi (Zahra Newman) and set about attempting to baptize the local community into The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. However, they quickly learn that their time in Africa will be nothing like The Lion King (this is just one of many ongoing jokes throughout the show) and that their faith and friendship will be put to the test.
The Book of Mormon is filthy and ridiculous. There are F-bombs galore, jokes about AIDS and female genital mutilation and the creators delight in taking the piss out of the Mormon Church and musicals themselves. The catchy score overtly references everything from Wicked to West Side Story. However, at its heart, the show follows a traditional book musical in structure and has all the hallmarks of a typical Broadway property. There’s the classic ‘I want’ song in Price’s early solo ‘You and Me (But Mostly Me),’ a flashy tap dance number (‘Turn it Off’) and a romantic duet between young lovers (‘Baptize Me’). The whole plot has echoes of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s classic The King and I and if this legacy is not abundantly clear to the audience early on then by the end of the ‘Joseph Smith American Moses’ sequence in act two there is no doubt. This bastardisation of the ‘Uncle Tom’ ballet from that classic 1950’s musical brings the whole evening to a climactic frenzy of comedy and it had this reviewer weeping with laughter.
The Book of Mormon certainly takes the Mormon faith to task but it’s never nasty about it. There are many jokes poking fun at the sometimes weird and fantastical elements of the religion, particularly in the history lesson song ‘All-American Prophet,’ but the ultimate message is one of spiritual fulfilment and belonging. Still the sting in the tail is never far away; when the final number begins to appear too saccharine the author’s return to their unforgiving brand of humour with a witty reprise of the opening number. This clever blending of the shocking and the sweet goes someway to explaining the massive popularity of this rather provocative musical.
Let’s get something out of the way early; the casting of this production is somewhat controversial. The two leads are imports from the U.S and Canada who have performed these roles in multiple companies across the world. Why the creative team couldn’t or wouldn’t cast local performers in these pivotal roles is beyond me, after all these are young Caucasian males, and opens up a whole debate about the importing of actors in lead roles in major productions on our shores. That being said, the entire cast is close to perfection.
Bondy has Price’s cheesy optimism down pat, even if he does take a little while to warm up to the role vocally. However, it’s Holmes that nearly steals the show as Cunningham. He’s so unabashedly quirky and adorably awkward that he is fascinating to watch on stage. In many ways it’s the best part in the show and Holmes certainly makes the most of it leaving an indelible impression on the audience. Rowan Witt also stands out as the sexually repressed Elder McKinley and his expert comic timing and rubber-limbed body illicit howls of laughter. Prolific local actors LaBonté and Newman impress in their respective roles and the latter finds a sparkling humanity amongst the crass one-liners and potty humour, particularly in her brief but surprisingly emotional reprise of ‘Hasa Diga Eebowai.’
The ensemble must be having an absolute ball on the stage of the Princess and it shows. Each actor plays multiple roles throughout the show and their incredible energy and sense of playfulness is infectious. These performers go from playing missionaries, to biblical figures, to demons from Hell and back again in a dizzying display of dexterity that is quite phenomenal.
The Book of Mormon is a slick and almost unbearably enjoyable show and why wouldn’t it be? With multiple successful productions across the globe the creative team, which must be said includes the composer Robert Lopez (of Avenue Q and Frozen fame), haven’t messed with perfection. The show works because it has a solid book and a brilliant score. It is also the funniest musical you will ever see. Having seen the show on Broadway this reviewer can attest that this Melbourne production is even better and these missionary brothers will be spreading the word to rapturous Australian audiences for months or even years to come.
Rating: 5 stars out of 5
The Book of Mormon
By Trey Parker, Robert Lopez and Matt Stone
Directed by Casey Nicholaw and Trey Parker
The Princess Theatre, Melbourne
From 4 February 2017
bookofmormonmusical.com.au
