Back in L.A. for the fourth time, The Book of Mormon continues to draw big audiences and big laughs, thanks to its cheeky satirical attack on the Mormon religion and African superstition. The national touring company also features a superb cast, led by Liam Tobin (as Elder Price), Jordan Matthew Brown (as Elder Cunningham), and Alyah Chanelle Scott (as Nabulungi). Those three performers, backed up by a two-dozen-strong ensemble, sing, dance, and clown with manic intensity and glee for two and a half hours, eliciting laughs and cheers from those in attendance, many of whom seemed to know the show’s lines and lyrics by heart. Now a decade old, The Book of Mormon tells of two young Mormon missionaries (Tobin and Brown) who have been sent to Uganda to proselytize the natives. Full of righteousness and zeal, the buddies are brought up short when they come face to face with African reality: poverty, superstition, violence and AIDS. They are forced to toss away the book of Mormon and make their own rules in an attempt to reach the villagers. The Book of Mormon has been criticized for its stereotypical portrait of the Africans, but because everyone else in the show is satirized just as rudely and crudely, one can’t take the complaint all that seriously. The lowbrow humor is also reflected in the songs (one of which tells God to fuck off) and in many of the dances. Bad taste rules the day in Mormon; it is a paean to the dirty joke and it laughs like hell at mankind’s follies and foolishness, especially where religion and community are concerned. But the show also has heart and compassion in its DNA, and it is directed and performed with such skill and flair that it’s hard to speak ill of it.
