#1
Posted: 3/22/11 at 2:11pm
Screw what Brantley may or may not think...Sarah Vowell LOVED it!
"I just saw The Book Of Mormon in previews on Broadway, which is the new musical about Mormons by the South Park guys. I haven’t been that excited about any cultural artifact in years. I was so bedazzled by it, and it’s just so funny, I think I got motion sickness, because I was laughing so hard for so long. Pretty much the entire time. The jokes are great, but the story of it is these missionary kids from Utah go on a Mormon mission to Uganda. All of the historical asides are very informative and kind of doled out in the most casual, beguiling way. You leave learning things about Brigham Young and Joseph Smith and the history of Mormonism, but in a toe-tapping way.
"The whole thing is incredibly profane. There is this one number using an expletive and a deity that I’m sure is going to ruffle some feathers. But it’s such an old-fashioned classical musical, with impeccable choreography and real songs. If you didn’t speak English, you would think it’s Guys And Dolls or something. It’s only when you are listening to what they’re saying that it’s shocking, and wonderfully so. But part of the humor of it comes from how happy Mormons are. In a way, even though it basically ridicules all of their most fundamental beliefs, there’s a real kind of affection for actual Mormons and their happy-go-lucky pluck, and how genuinely sprightly people they are. The whole thing was really sophisticated. I haven’t been that excited about anything in I can’t remember how long."
SV interview
"I just saw The Book Of Mormon in previews on Broadway, which is the new musical about Mormons by the South Park guys. I haven’t been that excited about any cultural artifact in years. I was so bedazzled by it, and it’s just so funny, I think I got motion sickness, because I was laughing so hard for so long. Pretty much the entire time. The jokes are great, but the story of it is these missionary kids from Utah go on a Mormon mission to Uganda. All of the historical asides are very informative and kind of doled out in the most casual, beguiling way. You leave learning things about Brigham Young and Joseph Smith and the history of Mormonism, but in a toe-tapping way.
"The whole thing is incredibly profane. There is this one number using an expletive and a deity that I’m sure is going to ruffle some feathers. But it’s such an old-fashioned classical musical, with impeccable choreography and real songs. If you didn’t speak English, you would think it’s Guys And Dolls or something. It’s only when you are listening to what they’re saying that it’s shocking, and wonderfully so. But part of the humor of it comes from how happy Mormons are. In a way, even though it basically ridicules all of their most fundamental beliefs, there’s a real kind of affection for actual Mormons and their happy-go-lucky pluck, and how genuinely sprightly people they are. The whole thing was really sophisticated. I haven’t been that excited about anything in I can’t remember how long."
SV interview
"Impossible is just a big word thrown around by small men who find it easier to live in the world they've been given than to explore the power they have to change it. Impossible is not a fact. It's an opinion. Impossible is not a declaration. It's a dare. Impossible is potential. Impossible is temporary. Impossible is nothing.”
~ Muhammad Ali
Updated On: 3/22/11 at 02:11 PM
