The Book of Mormon

I’m not a theater type of guy. Especially musical theater. The entire genre basically does nothing for me.

I remember back in high school when Pete Townshend staged a musical version of Tommy, most of my friends couldn’t wait to see it. I couldn’t have cared less. As an adult I can only think of three times that I’ve seen a theatrical production.

In 2007 we took my step daughter to see The Nut Cracker. A couple of years ago we were in New York and went to see Wicked. I enjoyed it, but it didn’t exactly rock my world. The reason we went had more to do with just being able to say we saw a show on Broadway than anything else. Back in 2008 or so, Jen and I went to see Spamalot in Boston. That was different. That was a Monty Python production. I’d do almost anything to see a Python show, even one that doesn’t actually have the members of Monty Python acting in it. I’d face down the vicious chicken of Bristol, the Judean People’s Front, and an army of wafer thin mints to see a real Python show.

So when I heard that South Park creators, Trey Parker and Matt Stone had launched a Broadway musical called The Book of Mormon, my first thought was to wish them good luck but continue to save up for Team America World Police part deux. I’ve seen just about everything they’ve done. All of South Park, Team America, Orgazmo, Cannibal the Musical. Hell, I’ve probably seen Baseketball 100 times! These guys can do no wrong in my book. But a musical on stage? Well, have fun with that, gentlemen. I’ll catch the next thing you do. At least until…

My wife. My beautiful wife. My amazing, genius, brilliant wife bought the original cast recording on iTunes.

She told me I had to listen to it.

We sat in the living room and listened to it together.

The recording only includes the songs, and they are out of context, and none of the stage production is even hinted at… But it was the funniest thing I’d ever heard. I told my wife that we had to see the show. It’s imperative that we see the whole show. We looked into going to New York to see it, but it never happened.

Fast forward to last weekend.

As we were driving to Keene for the state geography bee, tickets for Paul McCartney at Fenway Park went on sale. While I drove, my wife and her mother both tried to get tickets. The Fenway site was sold out before they got out of the virtual waiting room so they both started surfing reseller sites. Jen was in the front seat next to me and after looking for McCartney for a little while she whispers, “want to go see The Book of Mormon next weekend?” And she bought two tickets. Hell yes!

Fast forward another week, and the love of my life and I are going to see the Boston production of The Book of Mormon tonight. For only the second time ever, I’m really excited about going to see some musical theater.