No matter your opinion about that profane, sweet little "Book of Mormon" musical — perhaps you've heard of it — there's a special thrill to a story about Mormon missionaries unfolding in front of a Broadway set depicting the Salt Lake LDS Temple spires that exist just two blocks away from downtown's Capitol Theatre.
"Clearly it's a little bit fraught and exciting to bring the show to Salt Lake City," says Megan Sanborn Jones, an associate professor of theater at Brigham Young University. After all, Salt Lake City, or in the musical's parlance, "Sal Tlay Ka Siti," isn't often referenced in the contemporary musical-theater canon.
On Broadway, the Salt Lake City set for the show's first scenes includes that visual exaggeration of the temple, as well as local jokes such as the signs for Crown Burgers and Main Street's Bonwood Bowl. Later, when Ugandans present a pageant about their new religion, a parody of the church's Hill Cumorah Pageant, the set features visual elements of Mormon temples, topped by a corn-husk representation of the Angel Moroni.
But it's "Sal Tlay Ka Siti" — with lyrics about a magical place of waterfalls and flying unicorns, where the warlords are friendly, flour is plentiful and "roofs are thatched with gold" — that will be particularly rich for Utah theatergoers, says Clark Johnsen, a BYU graduate who was the only returned Mormon missionary in the show's original Broadway cast.
"Particularly delicious" for Utah audiences, he predicts, will be the moment when a character announces that Sal Tlay Ka Siti isn't a real place but a metaphor.
There's also the dramatic spell cast by watching a show about optimistic LDS missionaries in a theater filled with returned missionaries and the people who live and work with them. That begins with the opening number — "Hello!" — featuring new missionaries practicing door approaches, which will feel familiar to anyone who trained at the LDS Church's Missionary Training Center, Johnsen says.
"The inside jokes, of course, people will get those here," Jones says. "It's got a lot of Mormons doing Mormon things," in contrast to shows about polygamy, like HBO's "Big Love."
What should have special significance for Utah theatergoers are the idiosyncratic staging details. For example, she was delighted at seeing a prop of a blue trifold notebook, which recalled her mission, as well as a painting depicting Jesus Christ wearing a red robe.
"I was fascinated by this keenly observed outsiders' look at what they thought serving a mission would be like," she says, recalling seeing the show on Broadway during opening week in March 2011. "Clearly, great license was taken because it is a musical, and they are heightening everything for effect, for humor, for the sake of the musical story they're trying to sell."
The back story of the satirical musical by Trey Parker, Matt Stone ("South Park") and Robert Lopez (co-lyricist and co-composer of "Avenue Q" and "Frozen"), has a kind of "Hey, kids, let's put on a show" charm. The writers aimed to lampoon what they consider the ridiculousness of institutional American religions, while penning a love letter to musical theater, with songs nodding to "The King and I," "The Sound of Music," "West Side Story," "Wicked" and "The Lion King."
"But I also hoped the story could contain a lot of emotion — if not a love story, then a religious one," Lopez writes in the introduction to the musical's script. "After all, what is a church service but life stories and music in front of an audience?"
The show broke Broadway box-office records — with its aggressive pricing, seats sold for as much as $477 during high-demand seasons — and bowled over critics, as well as earning nine Tony Awards, including Best Musical, and a Grammy Award for Best Musical Theatre Cast Album. The phenomenon has continued with record-breaking sales on two national tours, an extended Chicago run and, in 2013, a London production.
"The Book of Mormon" is noted for its unusual mix of vulgarity and hopefulness. "They've done a neat balancing act between making some fairly sharp criticism and keen observations about the limitations of institutional Christianity," Jones says. "They are also delighted by the possibilities of the same."
Since the show is more than 4 years old, Salt Lake City audiences will be self-selected in what might be considered a holy theater war.
Of course, many Utah theatergoers, who show their taste for cultural satire by supporting Salt Lake Acting Company's popular Utah-centric musical, "Saturday's Voyeur," quickly snapped up tickets to "Book of Mormon," for which single tickets sold out in just over two days.
The decision to see the show is more problematic for Mormons who might be offended by the show's brand of sacrilegious humor or the coarseness of its language. Even if they choose to stay away, the idea of a Utah run might seem troubling to some members. That's because the show is talking about their own people, says Jones, who studies the characterization of Mormons in historical and contemporary theater.
"The conventional idea of theater is that it provides catharsis," says Holly Welker, a writer who is editing a collection of essays about the musical. "I think the catharsis for a Mormon audience will be that much greater. But I seriously doubt that very many active members will attend."
That's also the opinion of Tim Threlfall, a BYU acting professor, who is knowledgeable about the musical, but chooses not to see it. He has read the script and listened to the soundtrack, and describes its tone this way: "Mormons, we seem kind of dumb, but we seem kind of lovable."
Yet Mormons who attend the show will find only a handful of inaccuracies about doctrine or culture, says Bob Nelson, a University of Utah theater professor who previously taught at BYU. What's remarkable is how many things the creators got right about LDS culture, with fewer errors than Tony Kushner's Pulitzer Prize-winning "Angels in America," the other most prominent dramatic representation of Mormon characters in recent years.
The measured response to the musical by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints received attention for its public-relations savvy, which included buying billboards in New York's theater district and Playbill ads in some tour cities.
"The production may attempt to entertain audiences for an evening, but the Book of Mormon as a volume of scripture will change people's lives forever by bringing them closer to Christ," LDS officials said in a much-quoted statement.
For the Salt Lake City run, the Utah-based LDS Church "will run the Playbill ads as we do in other areas where the play runs," says spokesman Eric Hawkins. "We have no plans for a billboard or for missionaries outside the theater."
Perhaps mirroring that restrained response, "Book of Mormon" tour officials declined requests for preview interviews with cast members or the artistic staff before the long-anticipated Salt Lake City run.
While performing "The Book of Mormon" on Broadway, Johnsen says he could tell when a contingent of Latter-day Saints was in the audience by how loud the laughter was at the lyrics in "I Believe," which offers witty, shorthand versions of some thorny LDS beliefs and doctrinal misperceptions. On those nights, Mormon theatergoers often would meet him at the stage door after the show and forge connections by saying they were from Utah or former missionaries.
Johnsen, who is gay, already had left the LDS Church when he took on the role, and he discussed that background last year in a "Mormon Stories" podcast. Johnsen acted in the show for 3½ years, and in prominent media interviews, recalled his memories of his own days as a Mormon missionary in northwestern Mexico. Cast mates were fascinated by his stories and photographs, as well as the entries in what he described as his thorough missionary journal.
Through the years, the show offered him a chance to reconcile his 30-year history in the church with "a new faith paradigm" that allowed him to embrace his homosexuality and find a partner. Performing in the show was "the most meaningful, most significant and longest-performing experience" of his 12-year acting career, as well as his swan song.
His "Book of Mormon" salary set up a new path in his life, helping to finance his application and entrance into medical school.
"I love the show," he says. "I love what it was in my life. I love what kind of conversations it allowed me to have with people. I love that it has given me a sort of platform that I consider a bridge-building philosophy to people who don't believe the same things."
One way to judge Utah audiences' response to the show will be to see which songs, if any, prompt people to walk out. Will the musical's Salt Lake City run build bridges or create more cultural divides? Will Utahns say "Hello" or goodbye?
Tribune reporter Peggy Fletcher Stack contributed to this story.
ellenf@sltrib.com, facebook.com/ellen.weist
—
This ticket lottery might change your life
"The Book of Mormon" opens its first Salt Lake City run this week. Tickets are sold out, but a lottery will be held 2 ½ hours before every show.
Where • Capitol Theatre, 50 E. 200 South, Salt Lake City
When • July 28 through Aug. 9: Tuesday-Thursday, 7:30 p.m.; Friday, 8 p.m.; Saturday, 2 and 8 p.m.; Sunday, 1 and 6:30 p.m.
Lottery • Sign up at the Capitol Theatre box office for a ticket lottery 2 ½ hours before a performance; only one entry per person. Two hours before curtain, names will be drawn at random for one or two tickets. Winners of the cash-only tickets will pay $26 each.
For more locally flavored satire
"Saturday's Voyeur" • Salt Lake Acting Company continues annual musical satire of Utah culture.
When • Wednesdays-Saturdays at 7:30 p.m. and Sundays at 1 and 6 p.m., through Aug. 30; additional performance Saturday, Aug. 29, 2 p.m.
Where • Salt Lake Acting Company, 168 W. 500 North, Salt Lake City
Tickets • $45-$55 (depending on seating/group discounts available), at 801-363-7522 or saltlakeactingcompany.org