Review: THE BOOK OF MORMON at Broadway In Thousand Oaks

The current tour of the hit musical The Book Of Mormon solidly preserves everything that makes the show an audience pleaser. A talented cast delights Ventura audiences at Broadway In Thousand Oaks.

Elder Price (Sam McLellan) has dreamt of his mission for the Latter Day Saints since he was a kid, to be sent to the mythical Orlando, home of Epcot Center. His big day arrives, and after watching colleagues sent to exciting destinations like France and Norway, his fantasy shatters when he’s shipped off to Uganda with an insecure, pathological liar, Elder Cunningham (Diego Enrico). The villagers are despondent, the hostile gangsters shoot innocents in the head, and no one wants to convert. While Elder Price sinks into his self-centered despair, the goofy Cunningham gains the trust of the local villagers, by relying on the book…of Mormon, of Star Wars, of MCU and of any invention he can contemplate. He gains the villagers’ trust but what will happen when the church elders arrive for a presentation?

Why is a raucous, raunchy, globally offensive musical comedy still a humongous hit on Broadway, the West-End, and endless tours? Because at the core, buried beneath the four lettered words, brash jokes, and insane characters is a lesson about faith.  Master satirists of the 21st Century, Trey Parker and Matt Stone, manage to touch the heart while turning the stomach. The Book Of Mormon characters value their faith (universally, this doesn’t have to mean purely religious faith) to keep their spirits alive, even when the world seems hopeless.

The script is hilariously repugnant, shocking audiences into laughing, despite subject matter that would normally horrify. Parker and Stone, whose South Park is still on television 30-years-and-counting, cut to the bone when it comes to human pretense. The score, by Parker, Stone, and EGOT winner Robert Lopez, is a pastiche of past great musicals such as The King And I, The Sound Of Music, and The Lion King.

McLellan is hilariously pompous as a 19-year-old who has been taught he’s invincible and due riches for his hard work. As the storyteller who drifts into fibbing, Enrico is both naïve and cunning. Keke Nesbitt as the love interest, becomes the beacon for the missionary’s infiltration into the village, due to her earnest love for her neighbors and desire to better herself and them.

The cast has great voices to handle the infamous songs, and Jennifer Werner, as choreographer and director, keeps the pacing moving, while upholding Casey Nicholaw’s energetic movements from the original production.

Classy, The Book of Mormon is not. But it is a musical delight, naughty, spirited, and provocative.

The production runs till Sunday, February 9.

Buy Tickets to The Book of Mormon (Non-Equity)