By Steven Suskin
Yes, the lyrics are overloaded with language that might be considered profane or sacrilegious. I consider The Book of Mormon neither, although I certainly understand how people who find their core beliefs attacked might think otherwise. The show makes a jumble, certainly, of the scriptures of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. (That is the formal name of the religion — as The Book of Mormon, on stage and CD, helpfully instructs us.)
A jumble, yes. However — and don't read this paragraph if you're sensitive to potential spoilers — the plot concerns teenaged missionaries sent to a brutal and lawless land to bring faith and hope to an impoverished natives. And while these teenaged missionaries don't follow the rules exactly, by the time the curtain falls they have — yes! — brought faith and hope to these impoverished natives. The Messrs. Parker, Lopez & Stone don't sanctify the Mormons, exactly; but their soldiers of the army of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints believe, and they are triumphant. Which kinda makes the sacrilegious Book of Mormon sweetly pro-Mormon.
There is no need to here commend performers; they've been so highly praised thus far, by critics and audiences, that they don't need to be told how good they are. Let's just say that it is encouraging to find four actors in the Tony Awards spotlight — Andrew Rannells, Josh Gad, Nikki M. James, and Rory O'Malley — who months ago were all-but-unknown along Broadway. We hear about star casting all the time, and how impossible it is for talented newcomers to get a decent break. The producers and authors and directors of The Book of Mormon gambled on newcomers, and I think they — the producers and authors and directors and the newcomers — will come out all right.
29 May 2011
Andrew Rannells
photo by Joan Marcus
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| Nikki M. James | ||
| photo by Joan Marcus |
Listeners will observe that the orchestrations sound considerably better than they do in the theatre. There is a reason for this: the CD does not use the show orchestrations. The pit orchestrations by Larry Hochman and Stephen Oremus are canny, amusing, and thoroughly functional; but they are written for and performed by nine musicians, not the 23 on the CD. Consider the string section: the show has one fellow switching between violin and viola; the CD has six violinists, two violists and two cellists. That's ten times as many strings on the cast recording as in the theatre, plus triple the reeds and double the brass.
Hochman is one of our finest contemporary orchestrators, mind you; but there's only so much you can do with nine pieces. (She Loves Me, at the same Eugene O'Neill Theatre back in 1963, had 21 pieces. But, then, economics were different — and She Loves Me wound up losing money. Which will not be the case with Mormon.) Two electronic keyboards and one drummer make up a full third of the Mormon pit band; under these conditions, even the most talented orchestrator isn't going to get much orchestral color. Splurging on a larger orchestra for the CD makes perfect sense, mind you, when the producers can afford to do so, and is certainly not unheard of (though usually to a much smaller extent). The results, here, sound great; but what you hear on the cast album should not be mistaken for the Tony-nominated orchestrations.
All of this Mormon discussion leaves us with a fundamental question. Given the vast number of surprises, plot and otherwise, to be found on the CD — and considering the difficulty most theatregoers will have in scoring Mormon tickets in the near future — will listening to the CD in the meantime spoil the experience? Absolutely not, sez I. Why deprive yourself of the fun? And this score is plenty of fun, whether on stage or CD. If you have tickets next week, or maybe even next month, you might want to wait. Otherwise, go ahead and enjoy Mormon now. A good chunk of the humor is visual, from the many dozens of sight gags and the nifty choreography by Casey Nicholaw. Which is to say that even if you have listened to the score a dozen times, you're first viewing will be — there's that word again! — explosively funny.
The CD booklet merits a word or three. Nowadays, face it, many people just download their music. Easy, quick, and no trip to the CD store or whatever passes for a CD store nowadays. (The closest thing I have to a local CD store, which is to say one of those big bookstores with a large CD section, just went bankrupt and sold the fixtures.) Easy to buy digitally, yes; but the Book of Mormon CD comes with a first-class and altogether snazzy booklet. An essay by Frank Rich, who I must say is pretty good at this sort of thing; a detailed synopsis; and full lyrics, accompanied by dozens of delicious full-color photos. These from Joan Marcus, who has been giving us fine show photography for more than 20 years now.
What's more, the booklet has been especially well designed, with handy lyric quotes emblazoned on most of the photos. The liner notes are a joy to look at, really. The CD is a joy to listen to, too. And the show? Musical comedy rapture.
(Steven Suskin is author of the recently released updated and expanded Fourth Edition of "Show Tunes" as well as "The Sound of Broadway Music: A Book of Orchestrators and Orchestrations," "Second Act Trouble" and the "Opening Night on Broadway" books. He also pens Playbill.com's Book Shelf and DVD Shelf columns. He can be reached at Ssuskin@aol.com.)
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