Book Of Mormon Musical

You can get the soundtrack for $2 through Monday!

I'll no doubt be posting about this show (and about Mormons) quite a bit.
Here's my attempt at a spoiler-free highlights reel from the show:

Some songs I LIKED:

• Hello
• You And Me (But Mostly Me)
• Hasa Diga Eebowai
• Turn It Off

Hello introduces the show. You And Me (But Mostly Me) is a really funny buddy song between the golden boy missionary, and his goofy companion who doesn't know what he's doing. Hasa Diga Eebowai is probably the most controversial / most talked about song from the show, and you'll see why.

Finally, Turn It Off is a great song addressing Mormons' Prop 8 attitudes toward homosexuality: that it's a bad feeling or choice you should turn off like a light switch. To clarify, Mormons believe homosexuality is a choice or trial to be overcome, otherwise it wouldn't explicitly be called an abomination in the Bible - and that's very accurately presented in the musical.

Songs that address real Mormon beliefs:

• All-American Prophet
• I Believe

I'll no doubt refer to these in future blog posts. It's really interesting to me how people are reacting to this musical, namely good-hearted religious folks who feel the musical is hurtful or inaccurate (but don't know anything about what Mormons believe), and Mormons who backpedal or point fingers when actually, the musical is very fair and accurate about what Mormons believe.

For example, one criticism of the musical seems to be that: Mormons are portrayed as racist. In reality, the musical simply addresses the racist part of the Book of Mormon, and then there's a clarifying line in "I Believe":

And I believe that in 1978 God changed his mind about black people!

So yes, they're making fun, that Mormons have been slow to address human rights issues. That the racist part of the Book of Mormon is still there. That "God revealed" that blacks could hold priesthood authority, quite a few years after the civil rights movement. And of course Mormons will defend, that God's ways are greater than we could understand, that the prophet is the mouthpiece of God and so on. But THAT's poked fun at in the musical too with lines like (also in "I Believe"):

I believe that God has a plan for all of us
I believe that plan involves me getting my own planet
And I believe that the current president of the church,
Thomas Monson, speaks directly to God
I am a Mormon, and dang it! A Mormon just believes!

...and yes the planet thing is real! We are all children of God - and can become like him in the spirit world after death, Jesus Christ is our brother, sooo we can become gods and get our own planets.

The rest of the songs are great too, but I think they give away the plot / progression of the musical quite a bit.

Tony Awards are this weekend, and I expect the Book of Mormon will clean up. The show really is that good!