On Tuesday, “The Book of Mormon” opened in Salt Lake City without members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints picketing in front of Capitol Theater.
However, not all Mormons are happy that it has come to the same city where the Church headquarters is located. Lisa Nelson from American Fork said she made her decision to not see it after hearing “South Park” creators, Matt Stone and Trey Parker, wrote it. Though she has never seen the TV show, Nelson says she has heard it is raunchy.
“I’ve also felt they’re making fun of the Church, and I just don’t support anything that’s going to make fun,” Nelson said. “But I also wouldn’t see a musical that was making fun of the Catholic Church either or the Baptist Church or any other religion. I don’t support that kind of entertainment.”
Another Mormon, Jordan White, who goes to school at Brigham Young University in Provo, said it does not so much mock the Church as it mocks aspects of LDS culture.
White said one example is a song called “Turn it Off,” which makes fun of the tendency to avoid talking about bad or sad things that happen.
“I’ve literally seen that in some of my classes, where we’d talk about something going on in the world and someone says ‘Can we just stop talking about it because it doesn’t bring good feelings,’” White said. “And so that song I always think is kind of funny.”
White said the play has a positive message that religion is good if it is actively causing people to be better. He said he has a friend who started investigating the LDS Church because of the musical, and it has personally helped him with his faith during a time he had doubts about it.
In a February 2011 interview with David Letterman, Stone and Parker said they have received positive feedback from Mormons.
“They’re just crazy nice,” Parker said. “And that’s why, it was like, ‘Well you got to make a musical about them, because they’re so happy.’”
“And they always look like they’re just about to break into song anyway,” Stone added. “That’s the hardest part about doing a musical.”
“The Book of Mormon” tells the story of Elders Price and Cunningham as they serve a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in Uganda.
It opened on Broadway in 2011 and won several Tony awards including best musical.