South Park and Broadway

And what exactly does South Park have in common with one of the best Broadway musicals of the decade? Trey Parker and Matt Stone, that’s what.

Trey Parker and Matt Stone partnered with Robert Lopez to write the Book of Mormon, the Broadway Musical, The Book of Mormon (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Book_of_Mormon_(musical)). This play is spectacular and intelligently hilarious. In true South Park style Parker and Stone don’t shy away from highly controversial subjects framed in side wrenching satire.  

You wouldn’t think it but seeing the South Park humor acted out by actual real life humans, as opposed to round silly drawings in a cartoon, was actually more surreal than the cartoon. The actors did an amazing job of bringing that cartoon animation type element to the live performance—something that added a level of intensity to the characters that is rare in live performances.

The thing that I really loved about the play was how the writers wove so many “stranger than fiction” types of realities into the story. For example, there was one line where according to the Book of Mormon, black people became people that could be saved by Jesus in 1976. This also happened to be the year that the state of Kentucky signed the Proclamation of Emancipation that declared African Americans were not only free, but persons (http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/featured_documents/emancipation_proclamation/transcript.html).

The actual Book of Mormon really does just ask to be poked fun at because the book itself is so filled with moronic ironies. This made it perfect material for a satire of this sort. After all, their founder got his messages from a hat, which the play didn’t even touch on. Nor did it go anywhere near the special underwear. They also steered clear of the polygamy issues. But really why are all the modern religions about polygamy instead of polyandry. Why?Why?

Mormonism and all of its oddities aside, it was a lovely play and a lovely day. I went with my dear friend Judith Murray. It was performed at the Palace Theatre in Cleveland, Ohio. Just seeing the theatre itself was worth the trip! Built in the 1920’s this theatre really embodies all the glamour of that era. Ms. Murray and I immediately began snapping up the pictures you see here until some nice usher-type person, told us that everything in the theatre was copyrighted and we had to stop. It was really too late by then. 

The drive down was uneventful. The drive back we outran a major storm – not a tornado this time, but a real torrential down pour, which finally caught up with us shortly after we arrived home.  Regardless of the weather, the elegance of the theatre, the engrossing satire and surrealness of the play, all made for a wonderful day. However, I really can’t shake this absence of polyandry in our modern world.