Broadway musical ridicules Mormon church

The folks who brought you “South Park” have a new target for ridicule and “humor” in their upcoming Broadway musical: the Mormon church.

A Reuters article appearing four days ago described how the musical, “The Book of Mormon,” will have “jokes about Mormons discriminating against black people and repressed gay longings.” The article by Christine Kearney said Trey Parker and Matt Stone’s musical “satirizes the history of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, sexualizes the ritual of baptism and has plenty of politically incorrect jokes.”

Are you laughing yet, dear readers? Wait — it gets really hilarious now. Parker and Stone declare, confidently, that it won’t “attract the sort of religious controversy they are famous for.” Presumably because they’ve created what the article calls “a heart-warming story of two young present-day Mormon missionaries sent to Uganda who grapple with the relevance of their beliefs for Africans dealing with AIDS and the character of brutal warlord General Butt Naked.”          

Sounds like real rolling-in-the-aisles material, doesn’t it?

Stone and Parker obviously have written a musical tailor-made for a secular, bleeding-heart liberal, New York Broadway audience.  As such, it will draw rave reviews, appreciative laughter and applause, and a warm and fuzzy sense of being superior to all those weird, racist Mormons.

On Broadway it will, that is. How it will play in Peoria is another question entirely. And don’t look for Parker and Stone to attend the premiere in Salt Lake City. Prior commitments, you know.

I say that in jest, but on second thought, it might well be put on in Salt Lake City, if they take it on the road. Devout Mormons would frown, and criticize it, but I doubt if they’d try to keep it from being enacted. You see, they know something about “discrimination” and “persecution.” The ancestors of many Utah Mormons were victims of both.

As Stone and Parker have a right to make a living, just like everyone else, I hope their play is a success. It will give social critics a chance to dump on a Christian religion that actually stands for something, in this age of mushy political correctness. And I suspect that the vast bulk of LDS members will go on with their lives, as they always have done.

But here’s a suggestion for Mr. Parker and Mr. Stone, for a couple of future musicals roughly based on “religion.” How about  the story of a spell-binding, rabble-rousing preacher who plagiarized his doctoral thesis, was a serial philanderer, and an occasional binge drinker? They could call it, “Big Marty and His Illegitimate Legacy.”

Or, here’s another: A guy living in the desert claims he has a mission from God; marries a 9-year-old girl; and founds a religion that forces millions of people to convert to it, or be put to the sword. My suggested title? “Mohammed, Mo’ Murders.”

Yes, those musicals would get a lot of attention. Stone and Parker would be beaten up by a mob on opening night, and the theater would be burned down, with Jesse and Al cheering them on, for the first. For the second, a fatwa would be issued ordering the playwrights’ deaths, preferably by a suicide bomber who would also kill, oh, at least a hundred other Americans at the same time.

You’re right: There’s no way Parker and Stone would ever write those two — even if their political beliefs swung in that direction. But it’s safe to pick on the Mormons: They’re mostly White, and they’re adults.