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Original poster

To just not get 'the book of Mormon' spoiler alert

102 replies

storminabuttercup · 06/05/2022 22:57

So the Book of Mormon hit our city last month, think it's on a 4 week run. I love the theatre, love musicals, so when my friend asked me to go when the tickets got released 3 years ago I just said yes. Knew little about it. Did a bit of reading before we went this week, was expecting adult humour etc. Everyone kept saying I'd love it, it's amazing, so funny.
Now don't get me wrong, I laughed at some bits, but none of the songs were great and to be honest the 'sex with a baby' gag turned My stomach.

I can't be the only one who thinks it's overhyped and a bit crap? To me it was trying to be controversial!

OP posts:
Gingernaut · 07/05/2022 00:17

I saw it in Birmingham

Left me feeling very uncomfortable and was stunned to see a genuine ad for The Church of the Latter Day Saints in the programme.

Iamfour · 07/05/2022 01:31

I didn't like it.

EachandEveryone · 07/05/2022 02:26

I did find myself checking the room to see how many Africans where there. None. Thank god I think because I bet everyone was doing the same. It was so offensive to them it made me cringe. However I loved everything else about it and I bet the original with Mathew Broderick was amazing on Broadway.

LimeSegment · 07/05/2022 05:21

If I had known it was written by the same people as South park I'd never have gone.

How could you possibly have missed that?

DangerouslyBored · 07/05/2022 05:37

OllyBJolly · 06/05/2022 23:09

Waste of an evening in London in my opinion! So many friends raved about it. Had we not been jammed into the middle of the row we would have left. Totally unfunny, contrived, try too hard nonsense. DH and I have very different senses of humour but neither of us thought it was any good.

All of the above. Overhyped and as you say, painfully try hard

SmugOldBag · 07/05/2022 05:40

I would really rather do anything than watch a musical. I seriously can't stand them. BOM was incredible though. At various points I could barely breathe through laughing but I love Viz, South Park, Family Guy etc.

We were sat next to some stuffed shirts who kept hoiking their bosoms and didn't return after the interval. They were Americans who had visited a London ticket office and asked for tickets to the most popular show and knew nothing about it and were expecting something like a religious Cats. 😂

blubberball · 07/05/2022 05:44

I really like it, but then I love South Park. The South Park movie was genuinely one of my favourite musicals.

In the show, they are in a rural African village, and there's a line in the musical that says "If you don't like what we say, then you try living here for half a day..."

blubberball · 07/05/2022 05:47

I love that the song is a parody of the lion King musical as well. The writers are clearly big fans of musicals, as there's a parody of Les Mis in the South Park movie.

Mercurial123 · 07/05/2022 05:49

I hate musicals. MoM was the exception, I loved it.

Mercurial123 · 07/05/2022 05:50

BoM...

LaMarschallin · 07/05/2022 05:50

We were sat next to some stuffed shirts who kept hoiking their bosoms

This is just such a random mixed metaphor.

TokyoTen · 07/05/2022 06:10

I saw it with DH and our 2 adult sons. I thought a lot of humour was close to the bone and we loved it. From reading the above comments it's a love it ir hate it thing it seems.

lborgia · 07/05/2022 06:22

I have a friend who is LDS. She isn't angry about it, but so, so hurt.

Honestly, there are some big issues we just can't discuss because our views are so opposite, but I cannot understand why this is OK.

It's a bit like banal bullying to me.

If it was a documentary, or a "dramedy" which actually highlighted the problems, that would be one thing. But just an evening of taking the piss out of a minority religion is pretty facile.

There are times when I even think it's more of a cult, but I've met a lot of her congregation, and they're entirely normal and generally not evil or unpleasant.

Can you imagine if this was about Hindus, or Methodists?

I have no idea why it's OK.

Rosebud21 · 07/05/2022 06:24

I loved it even though I winced at times. Some of the script is horrific but it references a time in recent history. I think people don't realise or remember that the virgin cleansing myth was advocated by traditional healers during the HIV/AIDS epidemic.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virgin_cleansing_myth

CorneliusVetch · 07/05/2022 06:26

I think it’s a very clever musical and very entertaining but I agree it is really offensive. Just makes me ponder that we are raging en masse with our pitchforks at someone if someone digs up a 12 year old tweet with an offensive joke on, but no one bats an eyelid about this.

society really needs to decide where it stands on bad taste humour

FitAt50 · 07/05/2022 06:27

I totally love it and I speak as a former Mormon missionary who left the church for being gay. It's incredibly funny and actually portrays Mormons in a good way.

FitAt50 · 07/05/2022 06:33

lborgia · 07/05/2022 06:22

I have a friend who is LDS. She isn't angry about it, but so, so hurt.

Honestly, there are some big issues we just can't discuss because our views are so opposite, but I cannot understand why this is OK.

It's a bit like banal bullying to me.

If it was a documentary, or a "dramedy" which actually highlighted the problems, that would be one thing. But just an evening of taking the piss out of a minority religion is pretty facile.

There are times when I even think it's more of a cult, but I've met a lot of her congregation, and they're entirely normal and generally not evil or unpleasant.

Can you imagine if this was about Hindus, or Methodists?

I have no idea why it's OK.

Nothing they say in the musical is untrue, that's what makes it so funny. I was a Mormon (LDS) until I was 30. Saw this with my husband and laughed throughout it, mainly because I used to believe everything they mocked. It's okay because nothing in it in untrue.

helloisitmeyourelookingfor · 07/05/2022 06:45

I really liked it but I was a bit shocked that when you come out of the theatre you are greeted by some Mormons

That was very surreal

SW1amp · 07/05/2022 06:50

I really enjoyed it
A friend and I still sing the ‘turn it off, like a light’ song at each other to get through shitty work situations..!

And having once been to Accra in Ghana, and seen the LDS churches sticking out like sparkling glass sore thumbs on a street of crumbling buildings, I don’t think there is anything wrong with pointing out that the church has a history of imposing its pay-to-pray cult in developing countries

sparechange · 07/05/2022 06:51

helloisitmeyourelookingfor · 07/05/2022 06:45

I really liked it but I was a bit shocked that when you come out of the theatre you are greeted by some Mormons

That was very surreal

Was that in Leeds?

We didn’t have Mormons waiting for us in London but I saw someone say on Twitter that they were waiting outside the Leeds shows

hanahsaunt · 07/05/2022 07:19

We saw it in Leeds a couple of weeks ago and there were Mormons waiting outside the theatre at the end hoping to engage people in conversation.

As Christians we found it a searing indictment of white Western missionaries - the sort with which we grew up 30-40 years ago (thankfully not in recent years - there has been a bit of an awakening in that regard). Close to the bone? Yes - but that's ok. It was absolutely brilliant and thought provoking in so many ways.

Shoxfordian · 07/05/2022 07:23

I loved BoM, seen it twice now- I think it seems to be either a love it or hate it type show

IwaswhoIam · 07/05/2022 07:32

I love it ! The songs are super catchy and the humour is hilarious!

Queenoftheashes · 07/05/2022 07:49

I love it I’ve seen it 9 times
a warlord who shoots people in the face
what’s so scary about that
(speaking of their referencing other musicals)

Ilikeviognier · 07/05/2022 07:54

I went last night! Didn’t see any Mormons outside though! Loved the songs, characters and costumes. I couldn’t get on board with the baby reference (too far) but I thought the characters were very good.

I wouldn’t say it was up there for me with wicked, phantom or les mis but I enjoyed it and am glad I’ve seen it.