furtech: (Broadway!)
furtech ([personal profile] furtech) wrote2012-09-27 10:12 am
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Book Of Mormon FTW!

Saw Book of Mormon last night at the Pantages. Winner!

BoM

Those unfamiliar with the Mormon Church will see a very entertaining musical- songs you can hum (but probably shouldn't), great singing and acting, lots of humor. Those familiar with the Mormon Church will probably just die. Like the Weasels and Hyenas from Roger Rabbit.

For those familiar with the mockery and even-handed ridicule on South Park, BoM is just as skillfully devised. I even think many Mormons would find it amusing because it's so perky and enthusiastic. It's a kind of blasphemous Hope and Crosby buddy piece. I might go to see it again-- I think if I squinch my eyes a bit, I can totally see it as a long episode of South Park.

"I Believe" is a show-stopper (and I can't wait to hear it on Muzak) and "Hasa Diga Eebowai" is just...perfect. Especially these days.

Possibly the most surreal part of the show was in the Playbill:

BoMPlaybill

The Mormon Church put 3 full page ads in the Playbill. Three. My favorite is "You've seen the play...now read the Book". Weird. The only negative to this is with so many extra ads, Playbill bumped the song list from the program. But hey-- I'm happy Playbill got extra ad-revenue. Good organization (check out PlaybillVault.com for an amazing archive!)
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[identity profile] frysco.livejournal.com 2012-09-27 05:28 pm (UTC)(link)
Ah,religions and how they differ. :P

Book of Mormon the Musical - generates a 'measured' reaction by the religious group being parodied.

Innocence of Muslims film - generates a Fatwa against the persons who made it, and is used as the cause of riots across the Muslim world.

[identity profile] pogo101.livejournal.com 2012-09-27 09:03 pm (UTC)(link)
Well, kudos to the LDS Church, at least, for showing the al-Qaeda types how to respond to criticism of one's religion: With a smile and a suggestion of a counter-argument, not with violence and demands for censorship.

[identity profile] ladyaxum.livejournal.com 2012-09-27 09:31 pm (UTC)(link)
man i wish i could afford to go see it when it comes to SF... tickets are so expensive. I love the music from it!

[identity profile] tori04.livejournal.com 2012-09-28 08:39 am (UTC)(link)
The photo drew my eye first as I scrolled down my friends page, and immediately an earworm of Magic Foot got started, which took my brain a second to even process the WHY of.

[identity profile] bladespark.livejournal.com 2012-10-01 09:30 pm (UTC)(link)
Hee. This made me smile. :) (I'm Mormon myself. I haven't seen the show yet, but I really want to!) Though re. the discussion below, I think also part of the difference is that the Mormon Church is a relatively monolithic thing, it can give a single response to all issues which may not necessarily reflect the first instincts of all the members. I'm sure many individual Mormons are uncomfortable with this, but once "The Church" has come out with a stance, most of the members fall in line with it. (Though I differ from "The Church's" stance on a few things myself!) But anyhow, Islam isn't one thing, any more than Christianity is one thing, and individual members and smaller groups within it will react in a wide variety of ways. Don't forget that *most* Muslims haven't rioted or committed any acts of violence or hatred at all, it's just been a very few. And there are more Muslims than Mormons out there. Maybe if there were a billion or so Mormons, a few of them might have rioted over this.

[identity profile] millencolinf0x.livejournal.com 2012-10-05 01:21 am (UTC)(link)
I keep hearing such great things about this one, even from people who don't normally enjoy plays.

The Mormon advertising in the playbill is humorous and unexpected! I wouldn't have thought that a religion would embrace this sort of thing.
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