When South Park came out in 1997, I was its youthful target audience and it was the perfect antithesis to The Simpsons. Crude humour and full of vulgar language with episodes based around anal probing and a talking poo, but as the audience grew so did the show, evolving into something far more intelligent satirising everything from politics, race, worldly events and copious amounts of religious based satire. Created by Trey Parker and Matt Stone the show become a cultural phenomenon and twenty-two seasons later the show is still around and due to its ability to tackle current events, it has managed to remain fresh where shows like The Simpsons has waned.
Whilst there was always musical talent on display in South Park, and in Parker and Stones' earlier films like Cannibal The Musical, I personally believe it was the patriotic marionette movie Team America that parodied Michael Bays over the top action films that truly cemented Trey Parker as a brilliant composer. The songs are brilliantly crafted pop that are hilarious and make the movie one of their best works, so when you look at their history of musical ability and subject matter the idea that they would make a musical tackling Mormons, didn’t seem like too far of a stretch.
The Book of Mormon follows the story of Elder Price played by Blake Bowden who’s a kind hearted ego maniac and his lying sloppy side kick Elder Cunningham played by Nyk Bielak. Elder Price has grand thoughts of being sent to do his missionary work in his favourite place in the world Orlando, Florida but is delivered a rather defeating blow when he is sent to Uganda, Africa instead. Together the two meet with the other missionaries in a small village in Uganda where they struggle to convert the locals to the Mormon religion.
As the audience finds their seats they are greeted by a mesmerising back drop on stage reminiscent of what one may interpret as what the gates to heaven might look like, with its beautiful blue skies and sun kissed clouds encased by great roman pillars. The back drop lifts and the opening song “Hello” begins with an almost upbeat take on the Seven Dwarves “Heigh Ho” worker bee number. “Hello, my name is Elder Price, and I would like to share with you the most amazing book”, enter the next Mormon “Hello!”. The infectious song builds and builds till there are almost ten Mormons ringing bells and introducing themselves layering their ding dongs and introductions, it's such a fun song to open the show with.
As we’re introduced to the characters and the story is fleshed out we’re treated to another great song called “You and me (but mostly me)" which is Elder Price’s contagious self absorption opus with lines like “There’s no limit to what we can do. Me and you. But mostly meeeee”. This song in particular puts the spot light on lead actor Blake Bowden’s tenor vocal range, as he commands the attention of the audience and boasts grand physical energy whilst delivering an impressive belting vocal technique.
The cast almost doubles in size when we’re introduced to the African village and the musical style shifts from solo/duo performances to a full choir with African beats and rhythmic influences. It’s a vital moment in the show for our naïve heroes to learn that people in other parts of the world less privileged may not see god as such a positive force in life but perhaps someone to blame and curse their misfortunes towards. Hasa Diga Eebowai is a clear parody on The Lion Kings' Hakuna Matata and the phrase doesn’t translate to anything near as positive as ‘No worries for the rest of your days’ with lyrics like ‘There isn’t enough food to eat, Hasa Diga Eebowai, people are starving in the street, Hasa Diga Eebowai'.
The backdrops and sets are utilised the most in the village scenes where the designer could really unleash their imagination creating grungy shacks for homes and filthy animal cloth like drapes hanging from posts and bones. The African costume designs by Ann Roth are another highlight with the colourful head garments and feather clustered full body attire commanding your eyes attention.
The key to Trey Parker and Matt Stones' genius is that while they make their crass jokes and parody cultural phenomenons, they always have an underlying tale that tells of truth and has heart. The village where the Ugandans live is so important, it tells of hardship and of them struggling to defend their home against warlords, famine, and dysentery from the lack of clean water. They nearly have a moral obligation to be accurate about the events that they parody, whether they’re pointing out our racism or naivety to others' hardships that we so often ignore even when dedicating a full song to dysentery. A perfect musical ridicule to our occasional charitable interest in African hardships is Elder Cunninghams' congratulatory ‘I am Africa’ with lyrics such as ‘Just like Bono, I am Africa, I flew in here and become one with the land, Africans are African but we are Africa!”.
If you’re a fan of Parker and Stones other work then you’re going to love this show, and if you like Musicals and can laugh at dirty jokes then you’re going to love this show also. it is hilariously outrageous from start to end because it is clever, fast and constantly entertaining without any lulls throughout the entire performance. The songs are crafted better than most musicals, the actors are all fantastic and nail their performances and is engaging for the audience right from the start. Quite frankly The Book of Mormon is the best musical I have ever seen and since its debut in 2011 it has won multiple Tony Awards, a Grammy, the Laurence Olivier Award and well need I go on? If you do find it all a bit too blasphemous, well now theres a term for that, its Hasa Diga Eebowai!
16 March - 31 May 2019
QPAC, Lyric Theatre
Thomas Harrison