It’s true you can get Book of Mormon
tickets for just 25 bucks. Before each performance, a limited number of
tickets will be available via lottery. To be eligible, you need to
print your name and the number of tickets (1 or 2) you’d like to buy on a
blank card and submit it to the Hippodrome
box office. Submissions will be accepted two-and-a-half hours before
show time, and the drawing will be held 30 minutes later (two hours
before curtain). Winners must be present for the drawing.
It’s worth a shot, because the show definitely lives up to the hype. Its bawdy humor, snappy songs (some of them reminiscent of Hairspray), and overall irreverence make for an electrifying evening of musical theater. The show’s creators—South Park’s
Trey Parker and Matt Stone—exuberantly embrace the genre, while
simultaneously poking fun at its conventions and overall earnestness.
And the jabs aren’t limited to musicals—they also target organized
religion, homophobia, stereotyping, American exceptionalism,
colonialism, racism, and more. It all leads to the rousing conclusion
that we’re all latter day saints, and the play makes that point
incredibly well.
And it seems the Mormons are being good sports about it. In fact, the church took out three full-page ads in Playbill that, instead of criticizing the show, simply encouraged theatergoers to read the other Book of Mormon, the one without the penis jokes and “f-you, God” chant.