How to Go:
What: “Book of Mormon,” the musical
When: Tuesday, Aug. 18, through Sunday, Aug. 23
Where: Benjamin & Marian Schuster Performing Arts Center, Dayton
Tickets: Priced from $43 to $132, tickets are available at the Ticket Center Stage box office located in the Wintergarden of the Benjamin & Marian Schuster Performing Arts Center, by visiting www.ticketcenterstage.com or by calling (937) 228-3630, or toll-free (888)228-3630.
Note: Contains explicit language. Children under 6 are not admitted.
Lottery: A pre-show lottery at the box office will offer a limited number of tickets for $25. Entries will be collected in the Wintergarden of the Schuster Center beginning two and a half hours prior to each performance; each person is asked to print their name and the number of tickets (1 or 2) they wish to purchase on a card that is provided.
Two hours before curtain, names will be drawn at random with only one entry allowed per person. Winners must be present at the time of the drawing and show valid ID. There is a limit of two tickets per winner. Tickets are subject to availability.
When the popular and irreverent musical “Book of Mormon” opened on Broadway in 2011, it captured nine Tony Awards — including Best Musical — and won the Grammy for Best Musical Theater Album. The New York Times called it the “Best Musical of the Century” and Rolling Stone dubbed it ” the new gold standard for Broadway.”
Fans of “South Park” and “Avenue Q” will love it.
But in case you hadn’t heard, be forewarned: “Book of Mormon,” is not for the easily offended. There’s lots of profanity, and plenty of shocking songs and scenes. That’s not surprising when you know that it’s the first stage musical by South Park partners, Trey Parker and Matt Stone. The show is written in collaboration with Robert Lopez, co-creator of “Avenue Q.”
The touring troupe rings the doorbell at Dayton’s Schuster Center on Tuesday, Aug. 18, and will be in town through Sunday, Aug. 23. Good seats are still available.
“It’s incredibly creative and there are surprising moments that make you smile,” says Marilyn Klaben, education director of The Human Race Theatre Company, who saw the show when it first opened on Broadway and loved it. Joe Deer, who heads Wright State University’s musical theater department, calls it a great night of musical comedy and believes the show has become immensely popular because it appeals to a genuinely contemporary sense of humor.
“Shows like ‘South Park’ and a lot of those on Comedy Central have this exact same sensibility,” Deer says. ” It is irreverent, politically incorrect, and just plain funny. The writers aren’t concerned with being overly careful, they are just creating a good new-fashioned musical comedy. I guarantee you will laugh out loud at the show. “
“Book of Mormon” has been touted as a blend of old-fashioned Broadway musical — the kind where you leave the theater humming a favorite tune — and a new kind of production that’s fresh and inventive. The plot revolves around two naive 19-year-old Mormon missionaries who are assigned to a remote village in Uganda to spread the word about their faith. Elder Price is a gung-ho go-getter committed to his faith; his partner, Elder Cunningham, is a socially awkward but well- intentioned nerd who tends to exaggerate the truth.
Cincinnati native Ron Boehmer, who has toured with the show playing multiple roles, believes the play is a hit because it’s both “brilliantly funny” but at its core has what many recent musicals have been missing. “It has heart,” he said. “You care about the characters.”
Meet Elder Price
Actor David Larsen has been on the road with the touring company for more than a year and will come to town as Elder Price, one of the show’s two leading roles. He’ll never forget his first time in Dayton when he came to judge a dance competition.
“I was on the last flight to get into Dayton because of a snowstorm and the dance competition was cancelled,” he explains. “So I spent the weekend snowed in and didn’t get to experience the city. The only thing that was open was Denny’s and we had to walk a mile to get there.” He’s looking forward to seeing more of the city this time around.
Larsen, 35, first saw the show on Broadway shortly before it won the Tony award.
“I grew up on “South Park” so I loved it!” he remembers. “But I never expected to be playing Elder Price, I think it’s one of the most vocally demanding roles on Broadway.”
Larsen grew up as a dancer in Oregon and got into musical theater, accidentally, in high school. He liked it so much he went on to study music theater at Carnegie Mellon in Pittsburgh. He describes his current character as a Type A personality who has always succeeded at everything he does.
“He’s a good kid, the ultimate Mormon,” says Larsen. “He’s a by-the-book, go-get-em kinda guy and he’s always gotten everything he wanted in life and doesn’t see why going on his mission should be any different. He’s hoping to go to Orlando and ends up going to Uganda where hilarity ensues because the two Mormons are out of their element.”
The missionaries find themselves dealing with issues ranging from robbery and famine to AIDS and female circumcision.
“I think people will put up with un-political correctness if it’s well written and has a good message,” says Larsen, when asked how the play has survived in this era of political correctness. “The message is that religion can do great things for people.”
Is the show anti-Mormon?
Larsen insists “The Book of Mormon” isn’t at all anti-Mormon. ” I would say it’s very sarcastic and a great comedic take, but it doesn’t bash anything and when people come to see it, they realize it’s not bashing a religion. It’s poking fun at it,” he said. ” People have been poking fun at Catholicism for years.”
Wright State’s Joe Deer would agree: “It is not anti-Mormon,” he says. ” It is more a situation comedy that involves characters who are Mormon, and who are wrestling with how to navigate the world while carrying a very rigid set of beliefs.”
Larsen didn’t need an education about Mormonism; he grew up in Oregon, had a lot of Mormon friends. There was a Mormon seminary at the entrance to his high school.
He said the reaction from Mormons who’ve seen the show is typically positive. Among the cities where he’s appeared as Elder Price is Rochester, New York.
“Every single year they throw a huge production — the Hill Cumorah pageant — and thousands of people come,” Larsen explains.” It takes place on the hill where Joseph Smith discovered the golden plates which he later translated into the Book of Mormon. I got to meet the woman who is the costumer for the pageant. “
He said both the costumer and the head of the pageant, both devout Mormons, came to see the musical and enjoyed it. “We constantly have Mormons or former Mormons coming to the stage door in various cities, and they really get the jokes because they understand the dogma of the church,” he says. “We’ve never had any protesters and I speak to a lot of Mormon missionaries when we see them in different cities. Even though they haven’t seen it, they say it has been a great ice-breaker for them.”
Larsen says the Mormons he’s met are smart enough to know the difference between sarcasm and blatant meanness.”And blatantly mean isn’t at all what this show is. Honestly, I think the only Mormons who don’t like this show are the ones who haven’t seen it.”
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