“The Book of Mormon,” the 2011 Broadway blockbuster and winner of virtually every theater award, is back in San Francisco. And welcome as ever!
The North American tour of the musical onstage at the Orpheum Theatre is terrific. In the 21st century, the show remains wonderfully riotous, relevant, resonant and irreverent. It simply makes magic as it simultaneously skewers religion and society; serves up plentiful profanity; showcases actors, singers and dancers performing undeniably catchy numbers, and even offers hope and sweetness.
And, for anyone not initiated: It addresses topics from proselytizing, plague and poverty to female genital mutilation. (Apparently, there have been a few theatergoers through the years who were not amused. Too bad!)
Matt Stone and Trey Parker of TV’s “South Park” and Robert Lopez, co-creator of the musical “Avenue Q,” the delightful sendup of “Sesame Street,” created the dazzling book and score, which have no fat. The two-hour, 45-minute show, including intermission, speeds by.
The appealingly straightforward plot tells the story of hot Elder Price (Sam McLellan) and geeky Elder Cunningham (Jacob Aune), young Mormon missionaries who are sent to a village in Uganda, where they encounter AIDS, an angry warlord threatening young women, and fellow Mormons who have failed in their efforts to convert the Africans.
Every single number is a winner, from the hilarious and obscene “Lion King”-“Hakuna Matata” spoof, to the “Spooky Mormon Hell Dream,” reminiscent of the nightmare scene in “Fiddler on the Roof,” to the Ugandans retelling, with a humorously profane twist, the Mormons’ origin story in “Joseph Smith American Moses.”
McLelland and Aune offer booming “American Idol”-like vocals, while Charity Arianna shines as Nabulungi, the village leader’s daughter who lights up the stage, yearning for a better life in the ballad “Sal Tlay Ka Siti” and charms with Aune in the double-entendre duet “Baptize Me.”
Choreographer-director Jennifer Werner closely follows the original scheme by choreographer Casey Nicholaw, who co-directed with Parker, all clearly lovers of classic musicals. Under musical direction by Stephen Oremus, the players, particularly the chorus, pay tribute to the form. The missionaries tap dance up a storm as closeted Elder McKinley (Craig Franke) promotes repression in “Turn It Off,” and the penultimate “Tomorrow Is a Latter Day” offers the optimistic bouncy beat of “Hairspray.”
Still fresh, and still a gleeful equal opportunity offender, “The Book of Mormon” even educates (just a bit!) as it entertains. Along with the numerous pop references and insults of/for all, it offers a real message, too, about the dangers of religion that loses its humanity.
“The Book of Mormon” continues through Feb. 1 at the Orpheum Theatre, 1192 Market St., San Francisco. Tickets are $63 to $298 at broadwaysf.com.