“The Book of
Mormon”, the wildly satirical musical comedy that won 12 Tony Awards –
including Best Musical in 2011 – will be returning to Montreal for a limited
engagement from April 18 to 23 at Salle Wilfrid Pelletier of Place des Arts.
Created by Matt
Stone and Trey Parker (the duo behind the edgy Comedy Central animated series
“South Park”) and Robert Lopez (who created the equally edgy Broadway musical
“Avenue Q”), “The Book of Mormon” tells the story of Elder Price and Elder
Cunningham, two members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints
(LDS), also known as the Mormons, who are fresh out of the LDS Church
Missionary Training Center, and are eager for their first international posting
as missionaries to spread the gospel of what the Book of Mormon has to offer to
their potential new converts. However, instead of getting assigned to Elder
Price’s dream posting of Orlando, Florida, he and Elder Cunningham are sent to
Uganda, in particular a village that is ruled by a tyrannical local warlord.
“The show is damned
funny. If you tell the average 40-year-old about a musical that deals with
religion, they will run away screaming in the opposite direction. If it’s covered
by the people who brought you South Park and Avenue Q, then it’s a different
story, because people will not sit down and watch a two-hour musical of that
nature without some humour to it,” said Gabe Gibbs, who portrays Elder Price in
this current touring company production of “The Book of Mormon”.
During a recent
phone interview with Gibbs from Toronto, where “Book of Mormon” is about to
wrap up a seven-week run before heading to Montreal, he expressed a great deal
of admiration for Stone, Parker and Lopez for raising questions about organized
religion in general through “Book of Mormon” that normally wouldn’t be brought
to the table during a normal conversation. But he also cited another reason why
he is honoured to be part of the cast of a show that he deemed as “something
special.”
“It’s fun to see
someone sent into an impossible situation, and it’s even more fun to watch
somebody not get it when they are offered something that is not part of their
values,” he admitted. “Basically, it’s fun to watch those missionaries drown as
they try to preach something that doesn’t match or connect with the villagers they
hope to convert.”
Gibbs, a native of
Detroit who performed “The Book of Mormon” on Broadway and joined the national
touring company this past October, admits that going on the road with a hit
Broadway show can be tough, but says that when the show arrives at a certain
destination for a short or lengthy engagement, somehow adapts a small percentage
of it to cater to the city or region where it is playing in. “For example, we
tweaked about 2 percent of the show when we brought it to Salt Lake City, Utah,
because that’s the world headquarters of the Mormons; and the show ended up
being wildly different,” he added.
Tickets for the
Montreal run of “The Book of Mormon” are still available, and cost between
$41.25 and $125.75. To purchase tickets, go to www.evenko.ca.
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