 Seven years later the Book of Mormon debuted on Broadway thanks to the tireless work of producer Scott Rudin. The story followed Elder Cunningham and Elder Price as they are sent to Uganda to the ire of both. Cunningham, an insecure, overweight liar, and Price, a handsome and pompous devout follower of LDS, meet a unresponsive village tribe who suffer under the rule of a murderous chieftain, fabricating a happy village life to avoid the consequences. The Book of Mormon (the musical that is) does not seek to disregard religion altogether though. Cunningham makes up much of the book, converting the tribe. When the LDS mission president visits to gauge the success and is appalled by the elements of science fiction inserted into the stories and proclaims the tribe not to be Mormons, the tribe disregards his judgment, taking the stories as symbolic lessons and accepting the religious teachings as redemptive because of their helpfulness and not their literalness. Cunningham has spread the word of God, just paraphrased and Price has seen the true value of religion. OnlineSeats has the Book of Mormon tickets to see this hilarious, but touching and redemptive take on religion, complete with the requisite raunchy musical numbers one has to expect from the creators of South Park and Avenue Q.
|