‘Book of Mormon’ at the Forrest (1st review)

It is good fun, thanks to some catchy songs and excellent choreography. But dig beneath its surface and you find just another odd-couple buddy story (in this case about two unlikely Mormon missionary roommates).

The music, by Robert Lopez of Avenue Q, pokes fun not only at easy targets like the Mormons but also at older show tunes. Songs set in Africa lampoon “Hakuna Matata” and other parts of The Lion King; “You and Me But Mostly Me” borrows from Glinda and Elphaba in Wicked; and “All-American Prophet” copies the pace of “Rock Island” from The Music Man. There’s an effective choreographic send-up in “Joseph Smith American Moses,” where a long silk scarf suggests a body of water similar to Jerome Robbins’s “The Small House of Uncle Thomas” in The King and I. Casey Nicholaw’s excellent choreography employed tap, swing, jive, and fantasy to win over the entire audience, including those who were uneasy about all those four-letter words.

But mostly these numbers are homages more than satire, and they’re hardly as sharp as what we heard in The Drowsy Chaperone or The Musical of Musicals.

The most effective song is “Baptize Me,” in which Elder Cunningham and the Ugandan girl Nabulungi sing about baptism as if it were sexual intercourse. (“This is my first time.” “Me too.”) The opening number “Hello!” introduces us to clean-cut Mormons singing a rondo as they ring doorbells. The ballad “I Believe” hooks us with repeated high F’s on the title’s last syllable.

The Mormon missionaries are so cute and sweet and well-scrubbed that you’ve just gotta like them, and they were very well played by this national tour company. C.J. Eldred (a top-notch replacement who joined the cast Thursday) was the tall and confident Elder Price, partnered with Christopher John O’Neill as the fat and hapless Elder Cunningham and dispatched to Uganda. Grey Henson was hilarious as Elder McKinley, an outrageously stereotypical gay Mormon who insists he’s learned how to “turn it off.” Alexandra Ncube was adorable as Nabulungi, although she never for a moment convinced us that she grew up anywhere near as hellish as Uganda. But then, this goofy musical is not to be taken seriously.

To read Naomi Orwin's review, click here.

For a review by Carol Rocamora, click here.

For a review by Tara Lynn Johnson, click here.

To read Dan Rottenberg’s review of the Broadway production, click here.