The Book of Mormon runs on cartoonishly antic energy — and feels mostly heaven-sent
To those feeling crusty about PC culture, fear not: The Music Hall has an antidote. For the next four days, the Broadway tour of The Book of Mormon is here to evangelize to Kansas City audiences. And If you’re not easily offended, you’ll have a pretty great time.
The Tony Award-winning musical puts the outrageous parody and irreverent gags of South Park co-creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone into a subatomic supercollider with the snaking, infectious hooks of Avenue Q and Frozen songwriter Robert Lopez. The ensuing two hours is aggressively hilarious, freezing your face in a perma-grin. From Casey Nicholaw’s buoyant choreography (elbow-led, in true white-boy fashion) to understudy Bryce Charles’ performance as Nabulungi (earnest and Broadway-grade), nearly every aspect of this production runs on cartoon energy.
The bulk of the plot follows squeaky young missionaries Elder Price (Gabe Gibbs, phenomenal) and Elder Cunningham (standby Chad Burris, endearing) as they attempt to recruit Ugandan villagers to the Mormon faith. As you might expect, the villagers are somewhat reluctant to embrace a God that has allowed their community to be ravaged by AIDS, drought and scrotum maggots. So Elder Cunningham takes some … creative liberties with the text, selling them a vision of the faith that includes Boba Fett, warlord-fighting hobbits and miracles by way of frog rape.
Abetting the resulting antics is an exceptional production design. Scenic designer Scott Pask anchors the touring show with cuddly, Thomas Kinkade-issue landscapes (framed by the spires of the Salt Lake Temple) that give way to bloody, photorealistic Ugandan sunsets. Overlapping scrims resembling animal hides add ample texture and cloak scene changes.
Wednesday night’s performance was marred by poor sound mixing and muddled vocal lines from a less confident Elder Cunningham. (Burris appeared noticeably out of breath during high-energy tunes.) And the musical drags a bit as it nears the finish line. Act II is structurally looser, with more predictable and occasionally repurposed gags.
But the second act also contains two of the show’s most memorable numbers — “Spooky Mormon Hell Dream” and “Joseph Smith American Moses.” The latter is a subversive highlight, slyly upending dusty narratives about “primitive” Africans and Christian colonialism.
If you’ve never seen The Book of Mormon before, this production is worth the ticket price. Even if you have, it’s worth revisiting for the holiday season. After all, there’s nothing like a “magical AIDS frog” to put you in the Christmas spirit.
The Book of Mormon
Through December 11 at the Music Hall, Kansas City Convention Center (301 West 13th Street), 816-513-5000. Times and tickets here.
