Book of Mormon Musical opened in Salt Lake!

[_Chap]

"So let's get this straight: In the consensus view of modern American liberalism, it is hilarious to mock Mormons and Mormonism but outrageous to mock Muslims and Islam," he wrote. "Why?”

I really doubt that. It is however physically dangerous to mock Islam.

That does not mean we should stop mocking those aspects of other religions that deserve mockery because there is one that it is dangerous to mock. It means we should find safe ways to mock the mock-worthy aspects of Islam.

The internet is great for that.

[_Phaedrus Ut]

I'm seeing it tonight. My many former Mormon friends say it's filled with a lot of inside jokes that the general public misses. One thing I know for sure. The play will be better than the book.


Phaedrus

[_Chap]

I'm seeing it tonight. My many former Mormon friends say it's filled with a lot of inside jokes that the general public misses. One thing I know for sure. The play will be better than the book.


Phaedrus

I saw it on Broadway, and was delighted to get the jokes! Thanks, MDB. With tickets that price, I needed to be sure I had not missed anything I had paid for.

It was a very broad parody in South Park style, but I would say it was almost affectionate in its attitude to the poor missionaries in an impossible predicament.

You could hear the audience reaction after the first few lines of the young MTC guy's passionate declaration of faith:

" I BELIEVE that the Lord God Almighty created the universe ..."

"And I BELIEVE that he sent his son Jesus Christ to die for us ..."

OK, heard that before. But next they got:

"And I BELIEVE that ancient Jews built boats and sailed to America ..."
"I am a Mormon, and Mormons just BELIEVE."

You could see the "WTF" icons over peoples' heads.

[Guest]

I wrote up a lengthy post at NOM about the musical. I guess I will cut and paste it here just to piss of the Blutos and Faqs and such...

Book of Mormon Musical July 27, 2015

Hey fellers. I'm sure the Book of Mormon Musical has been discussed to death. But I'm going to write my feelings on this anyway.

I have seen the pirated version. I've listened to the sound track many times. But I still cannot say just how emotionally powerful event this was for me to see the musical this weekend. Wow. So powerful. Brilliantly done. It was three hours of intermittent bouts of gut busting laughter, and teary eyes.

There were three moments in the play that caused me to, well, perhaps do more than just get a teary eye. They were extremely profound and emotional messages that is hard for me to describe without folks being there with the music and the storyline and the energy from the setting. Here they are...the theme, the messages, that made seeing the Book of Mormon musical one of the most memorable moments in my faith journey.

I absolutely can say in my opinion this was the most brilliant and funny play/musical I've ever seen. Phenomenal. The energy. The comedy. The moral themes and messages...I cannot explain it. It was truly a spiritual experience. I'm already planning my trip to Portland this winter to see it again, this time with my teenage boys.

Wald's Theme 1
ELDER MCKINLEY:
We are sorry, Mission President! We had no idea-

MISSION PRESIDENT:
YOU KEEP YOUR MOUTH SHUT! YOU'RE IN ENOUGH TROUBLE AS IT IS!

ELDER CUNNINGHAM:
Sir, I was just trying to help the villagers! They all really wanted to learn…

NABULUNGI:
Elder! ? Elder, I wanted to give you this! It’s the entire play written in text! What’s going on?

MISSION PRESIDENT:
What's going on is you have all brought ridicule down onto the Latter Day Saints!

NABULUNGI:
But we are ALL Latter Day Saints now, right?

MISSION PRESIDENT:
YOU AND YOUR PEOPLE ARE ABOUT AS FAR FROM BEING LATTER DAY SAINTS AS IT GETS! YOU ALL ARE!


This caused me an audible gasp and even writing this post it causes me great sadness and shame and guilt. I had felt this way for so long about others...and then to have this encounter with with family...this is more or less what happened to me from my own family and friends.

I remember being in tears saying almost those exact words to family and leaders, "I'm still a Mormon...I'm still a member..." and having those closest to me say they were ashamed of me and embarrassed that I called myself a Mormon, and that they would rather I resign and quit the church...It was made so very clear that I was no longer welcome in this tribe...or at least I was no longer welcome as long as I continued to talk and speak out how I felt and believed and talked about how I understood the gods and universe. The only way I would ever be welcomed back is if "I just kept my mouth shut" and towed the company line.
I had a very difficult time in the play during this scene.


Wald's Theme 2

ELDER PRICE:
I mean, it was a bunch of made up stuff but it POINTED to something bigger, and you were the one -- wait a minute… You’ve been trying to teach me something all along haven’t you?

ELDER CUNNINGHAM:
What?

ELDER PRICE:
I thought I could fly in here and change everything. But I made it all about ME. I was losing faith, but you went out and did-- SOMETHING INCREDIBLE. YOU DID SOMETHING INCREDIBLE FOR A PEOPLE WHO HAD NOWHERE LEFT TO GO I THOUGHT THEY WERE UNREACHABLE – BUT THEY WERE HAPPY AND HOPEFUL AND WEARING COSTUMES IT WAS ALMOST LIKE... ORLANDO...

I’m sorry it took me so long to realize what you were trying to teach me, Elder.




It just breaks my heart that we have allowed LDSinc and corporation, that focuses more on loyalty to leadership and adherence to rules, to all but destroy our tribe. Why? The church could do so so much good in this world. Yet they are so threatened by anyone, like you, and me, anyone who dares question or speak out about the issues of the day or the problems within the tribal leadership and organizational policies and practices.

I remember so vividly the optimism. The idealism I had...I had so much hope and faith in the church and it's potential...I was going to change things...even as a heretic...to stay LDS and make it work and help reform to make this machine such a great tool to build and strengthen families and my communities.

That all came tumbling down in 2011.


Wald's Theme 3
I'm a pretty hard man...and I haven't shed many tears in my life, but this part of the musical caused me bust up pretty bad.

AND, I must say, this is EXACTLY what caused me to get excommunicated from the stayLDS website recently. I didn't use the f-word, but I more or less did...I basically told the people on stayLDS they need to stand up and say enough is enough. Quit allowing the church leadership and hierarchy to pile this kind of emotional and spiritual abuse on it's faithful members. Stop it. Stand up to your leaders and stop allowing these people to dictate every detail of our lives and destroy the good things we were able and still are able to find within our heritage and tribal culture religion. We, the church, have so missed the mark...and it's a travesty.

And this church ran me out for saying so.


ELDER PRICE:
Woa- Woa Elders where do you think you are going?

ELDER MCKINLEY:
What do you mean 'where are we going'? We've been shut down!

ELDER NEELEY:
Yeah we have to go home!

ELDER PRICE:
Who says we have to?

ELDER ZELDER:
What?

ELDER PRICE:
Look, we all wanted to go on a mission so we could spend two years of our lives helping people out?! So let's DO it!

ELDER NEELEY: But the Mission President said we're all as far from latter day saints as it gets!

ELDER PRICE: No... You know what guys? F* HIM. We are STILL Latter Day Saints. ALL of us. Even if we change some things, or we break the rules, or we have complete doubt that God exists... We can still all work together and make THIS our paradise planet

[_moksha]

Cwald, that was a joy to read.

[_Res Ipsa]

Cwald, that was a joy to read.

Yeah, what the penguin said.

[_Jonah]

Thanks Cwald.

I have seen the play twice, the last time two weeks ago in Fresno. It seems that those who go to see it (or don't) with some sort of agenda based on perceived offenses against the church, or the language (I heard worse playing pick-up basketball games at BYU against the football players), or the "pedophilia" (Really??), seem to totally miss the point you quoted below. Too bad for them.

ELDER PRICE: No... You know what guys? F* HIM. We are STILL Latter Day Saints. ALL of us. Even if we change some things, or we break the rules, or we have complete doubt that God exists... We can still all work together and make THIS our paradise planet

On another note, yesterday the hand I had tied to the bedpost broke free and I just couldn't help myself. I couldn't resist reaching down, whipping out my....Book of Mormon Musical playbill, and manning up all over the LDS church ads that they spend big bucks on to support the play. I wanted to see how the ads would look with actual quotes from the play. So...here is my fun time -

[_zeezrom]

I'm seeing it tonight. My many former Mormon friends say it's filled with a lot of inside jokes that the general public misses. One thing I know for sure. The play will be better than the book.


Phaedrus

My BIL says he tells all his friends the book is much better than the show. My SIL pointed out that "they joke about this show in Meet the Mormons". I think she was trying to tell me that Mormons can handle it and don't let it get under their skin.

[_Maureen]

That was a great song.

I saw the musical in my city in March.

We got a kick of the African lady who pronounced SLC as Salt-a-Lake-a See-tee and found it very funny when one of her fellow Africans said, “Salt Lake City isn’t an actual place. It’s a metaphor.”

M.