A couple of Book of Mormon questions

Cafe Society
1

Recently saw BoM in Chicago. Very enjoyable. Had a couple of questions, tho, and thought I’d start a new thread instead of resurrecting a zombie.

I find it hard to express how surprising - and enjoyable - it was to be sitting in a crowded theater of folk laughing at lyrics such as “F you God.” As a longtime nonbeliever it really shocked me as it is not at all uncommon for believers to - shall we say - lack a sense of humor when they feel their belief/deity is not being shown appropriate deference. Any thoughts about the mindsets of the audiences for this show? Is it mainly nonbelievers? Do christians think it is only mocking Mormon? Or how do believers get their minds around enjoying such sacrilege?

Kind of related - how well is this show doing? How large is it’s audience proving to be? Just trying to get my mind around whether the type of humor/commentary is becoming more widely appreciated/accepted - or whether BoM audiences are just a tiny minority.

I was a little surprised at how much they “gayed up” the missionaries. While it was certainly amusing, I felt it kinda went after an easy target. And I’ve never exactly thought of Mormons as a particularly “flamboyant” group. I realize a significant segment of musical viewers is gay - any insight as to how they view such send-ups?

Final thought - why are musical tickets so darned pricey? Our tix were $175 each, for seats way in the back of the main floor, under the balcony. The high prices are probably the main reason I don’t go to more “big” theater. I realize creating and staging a production like this is undoutably quite expensive, but at this point, haven’t a lot of the costs already been incurred? Is it still really expensive to put on each show, or is the majority of ticket revenue at this point going to profits?

2

The musical is still packing them in on Broadway, but that’s only a small segment of the public. The audience for musicals is small overall. But it’s designed to appeal to those who like musicals – music with humor and drama that results in an entertaining evening.

As for price, the costs are still ongoing. For a road show, you need to pay the actors and crew, which includes living expenses (something that’s not usually a factor on Broadway), travel (it’s expensive to put gas in the dozen or more trucks needed to move the scenery), and, of course, the expenses of the venue (heat, power, etc.).

In addition, since people are willing to pay $175 to see the show, why should the prices be cut?

As for the other questions, I don’t think Mormons are the target audience for the show.

3

I was surprised at that too. Of course, I come from the Bible Belt…ain’t many round these parts that wouldn’t have got up and left, but what can you expect from a bunch of godless heathen Yankees? :smiley:

4

Well, are they laughing at the audacity of the lyric, or the simpleminded native characters who would sing it?

“Heh heh, silly negroes… imagine, cursing God. How foolish they are.”

5

[QUOTE=RealityChuck]

As for the other questions, I don’t think Mormons are the target audience for the show.
[/QUOTE]

Though many have seen it and given it positive reviews. There’s an ad for the Mormon church in the Broadway Playbill that reads something like “You’ve seen the play, now read the book!”

The price of tickets to hit road show productions has risen dramatically in the past decade. I used to be able to get decent (not great, but decent) seats for well under $100- and I’m talking in the 2005-2007 era, not 1989- but today you’re going to pay twice that. I was looking at tickets for the road company of Billy Elliot and the moderate seats are in the $150 range, the good seats range from $200-$400 while the back-of-the-back nosebleed seats at a matinee are $100 by the time you add in the service charges. The seats for the Les Mis tour that were on the dates I could attend started at around $125 and that was for balcony.
I assume that gas prices have a lot to do with it, and of course moderate inflation of any decade and size of the cast and how massive the sets are is going to be an issue, but pure unblemished capitalism is an issue as well: on those rare occasions I do go to a big name musical it’s usually full so, people are willing to pay it. (I always have to go on weekends which is when they’re busiest and haven’t been to, say, a Tuesday night performance, so those might be cheaper or emptier.)
Does anybody know if Equity scale has gone up significantly in the past decade? That might also be a factor.

6

I saw it in San Francisco a month ago (okay, not a representative Bible Belt audience, but still :slight_smile: ) and I got the impression that a lot of the laughter was…uncomfortable in a “fun” way, kind of like what you get when uptight people laugh at fart jokes. I bought the coffee table book which has a lot of really cool commentary from the cast–one thing that stood out for me was that the guy who originally played the character who sang the song (sorry, I can’t remember his name right off) was really uncomfortable at first, because he’s a devout Christian from a devout Christian family. He said, in fact, that a lot of the company playing the Ugandans were uncomfortable with the song, but they were all so excited about the show and loved it so much that they were willing to give it a shot and see how it went. It didn’t take long before they were all singing away with no problems, and enjoying the reactions of the different audiences.

I think the important things to keep in perspective are the reason for the song (as the line goes, “If you don’t like what I say/try living here a couple days. Watch all your friends and family die. Hasa Diga Eebowai”) and the fact that by the end of the play, they’re all singing a different version of the same song that changes “Fuck You” to “Thank You”) because the missionaries have helped them see that there is something worth living for (even though it’s not quite what they went there to teach!) :smiley:

7

Just saw the touring show in Des Moines last weekend. Seats right smack-dab in the middle of the Civic Center (about 30 rows back) were $80 face value for a Saturday matinee. Even though those are prices to make Sampiro envious, it’s still a lot of cash to shell out for a touring show where the actor playing Elder Cunningham was in his very first professional stage show.

He was hilarious, by the way, so I can’t knock that.

Theatre prices anymore are ridiculous, but what can you do? Every seat in the Civic Center had a butt in it. I’m sure the BoM production in Chicago is still selling out, even at $175-$200 per ticket. Why wouldn’t they charge it, as long as people are willing to pay?

As for the audience … in Des Moines it was probably one of the most eclectic audiences you will see. A large gay contingent, of course … but also the usual Midwestern theatre aficianados wanting to see the latest Broadway hit (of 2010, but who’s counting) … and you would be surprised by the grandparents as well. Lots of those. Everybody loved it.

8

(Sorry, had to log out and run before I finished my thought.)

I think in one aspect, the higher ticket prices are self-selecting the audiences to people who have a pretty good idea of what they’re getting. The average Iowan who goes to a show once every five years or something (and is still hoping for a really good Broadway revival of “The Music Man” to go on tour) isn’t going to pay close to $200 for two seats to a show they don’t know anything about. You can bet nearly everyone at that show knew it was created by the South Park guys, that it was irreverent and foul-mouthed, and would be poking fun at many cherished beliefs. You kind of screen out the folks who would be offended that way.

Personally, I found the show very cleverly written, with catchy songs and funny lines. Some of the stuff that would seem juvenile and puerile on South Park (the General’s name, for example) somehow was much funnier onstage. It does poke fun at Mormon beliefs (the entirety of “I Believe,” for example), but it also shows how faith can save, faith can be a good thing. Elder Cunningham’s “Mormonism” ain’t exactly what’s in the book, but by Kolob it works for the Ugandans. In that way, I find parallels to Kevin Smith’s Dogma - Christians attacked it for being blasphemous and anti-religion, but if you paid attention it was a celebration of faith and God. It was also a scorching indictment of organized religion, but Smith was pointing out the difference.

9

Hasa Diga Eebowai gets its reactions from a variety of human responses. I can only speak for myself, but I imagine I’m not that unusual in the theatre-going population…

First off, the essence of comedy is the unexpected. It’s a peppy, upbeat number and for the first half, we’re set up to believe it’s similar to Hakuna Matata from Lion King. As with any punch line, the twisted meaning makes us laugh.

Second, even the most devout believer (no matter what religion) has had those days when you just look up in the sky and say, “Really? That’s a shitty thing to do me, deity-of-choice.” So, even without being plagued with AIDS and starvation, we can identify with the Ugandans.

Also, even after we learn the translation, there is much humor to be mined in the reactions of Elder Price.

Finally, it’s a really well-crafted song. Even with all the profanity, it’s remarkably singable, which can be a problem when it comes on in my running playlist.

As far as ticket costs go, I don’t know of any producer who is going to drop ticket prices simply because they’ve managed to pay off the initial production costs. That said, you saw a touring production in Chicago which has slightly different economics. The theatre pays the tour a set rate, plus a portion of ticket sales. The theatre then has to set their prices high enough to earn back the production costs, plus something to actually make money for themselves.

Being in Chicago, you also pay a premium for being Chicago. You could see the tour in Toledo, and it would probably be less because people don’t see Toledo as being part of the destination. Case in point the poster who saw it for $80 in Des Moines. No one’s saying, “Hey, let’s go to Des Moines for a great weekend of shows and dining.” :slight_smile:

10

Aside from being remarkably singable, I submit that it is one of the biggest and most insidious earworms ever to grace Planet Earth. Once you get this thing stuck in your head, it will not go away!

11

AThanks, all. It just was a shock for a guy who was brought up in a not-all that-conservative family where phrases like “gosh darn it” were disapproved of, because you know what it is a substitute for. And I spent college and currently live in areas that make my big city catholic youth look like crazy liberal radicalism. And as a nonbeliever, I’ve had many an instance when folk clearly conveyed that my lack of belief outweighed any other acts and beliefs of mine.

Given that, it was a thrill to see a couple of thousand folk enjoy a song saying “fuck you god!”

So, how about the gayness. Not offensive? Necessary to the show or just an easy target?

And I have nothing against anyone associated with a show making money. It’s must that there are very few shows I’m gonna plunk down $350 a yeah and a half before I go to the show, and to find my seats aren’t even all that great. Fortunately, this was one I’m glad I did.

12

(changing my reply because I’d forgotten you’d already seen the show! :))

I don’t think the gayness was offensive. I thought the one song from the gay Elder (“Turn It Off”) was a nice description of how a lot of gay Mormon kids who want to stay in the church handle things. And the dance number at the end was great! :slight_smile:

And besides, after “Hasa Diga Eebowai” it’s gonna be real hard to get any more offensive! If they haven’t left by then, they probably aren’t gonna. :smiley:

13

We only have the album, and I’ve got a question about “Hasa Diga Eebowai.”

When the village leader begins encouraging Kevin and Arnold to say it, everyone in the village starts laughing and hooting like some great fun is about to transpire. I’m beginning to wonder if the village simply has a passive-aggressive tradition of tricking missionaries into cursing God on their first day.

I note that Kevin and Arnold have apparently not yet reported to the local mission leader. Are those guys just feeling so defeated by their failure to date that they’re okay with the new guys undergoing the same experience?

14

If that was the intention, I completely missed it from that song and the subseq meeting of the other missionaries.

One of my favorite lines was when the goofy guy said (paraphrase) “Holy schnikies - I said it like 15 times!” One of MANY laugh out loud spots.

Back to the “flamboyance.” I guess one thing that really impressed this straight-middle-aged-white-guy is that such a large portion of the gay community seems willing to join in on jokes aimed at it. Thinking about it, tho, I guess I can think of many examples of self referential jewish or black humor.

15

I didn’t get that impression from watching the show (though I can’t say for certain). My impression was that the Ugandans were friendly to the missionaries but didn’t think they had much to offer due to the fact that the ones already there were sticking hard to the Mormon “party line” which the Ugandans considered pretty much irrelevant to their situation and therefore of little or no use to them.

I think they were having a little good-natured fun with Kevin and Arnold but I didn’t get the feeling that they were trying to trick them into cursing God.

16

I got that vibe from the original cast album. Especially whenever we heard from that poor bastard with theMAGGOTS in his SCROTUM :eek:who NEVER got any help.

Oh, okay then. As I mentioned, we only have the album, and there’s just so much you can interpolate from that.

17

Yeah, there were a few things that didn’t become clear to me from frequent listens to the album until I actually saw the show. Things like:

The “maggots in his scrotum” guy was the town doctor. :eek:

When Nabulungi kept talking about “texting” she was referring to typing out paper notes on an ancient portable typewriter and giving them to everyone.

I didn’t really understand the whole thing with the other Elders and who/where they were–I didn’t realize that they too were in Uganda and already had a little mission set up there. (Seemed a little weird to me that an area with so few people had like 10 missionaries assigned to it).

The album does a pretty good job of telling the story, but naturally some of it comes through in dialog that’s not included there.

18

For me the “All American Profit” is the best song.

Or maybe the second version done by the “converts”.

God wants us fucking!

19

Saw the show in it’s final week in L.A… Spent 90 bucks a ticket and sat in the back, and I mean the very last, row.

Seems it was a big hit in LA. The show I saw was sold out and everyone enjoyed it.

20

You should also realize that the play does not “just make fun of Mormons or even Believers”. It makes fun of musicals. There are many musical jokes in the songs. Fans of musical can laugh at those as well.
Actually I fine the soundtrack, haven’t seen the show, to be, in it’s own twisted way, praising faith. Even though it is all made the Ugandans do have a better life because of the prophet.