An old friend of mine turned Mormon on me a few years ago to the extent that I no longer know who this woman is.  I felt like I was watching a perfectly intelligent person be kidnapped by people who believe that God lives on a planet called Kolob, an angel called Moroni delivered golden tablets to Joseph Smith in upstate New York that are the secret basis for this religion, and oh yeah – there is the hair shirt thing.  So it was with some trepidation that I saw this show.  Even though everyone has been raving about it, I was still cautious.

The good news is that this production bowls you over.  You don’t have a chance to not like it because it, like the Mormons it depicts, is positive that something good will happen if you just hang around for awhile.  And the message is that, in the words of Dr. Seuss, “We are all a little weird, and life's a little weird, and when we find someone whose weirdness is compatible with ours, we join up with them and fall in mutual weirdness and call it love.” 

Two little Mormon Missionaries – are they all white men?  Just curious. – are paired up together and sent to Uganda.  Elder Price (Andrew Rannells), who could be the Ken to anyone’s Barbie was hoping for Orlando.  Elder Cunningham (Josh Gad) is a Sad Sack grateful to be chosen for anything at all.  Disappointment and Enthusiasm are thus bound together and shipped East, way east.

Upon their arrival they meet villagers who are suffering from Aids, drought, disease and dictators.  The villagers teach the two missionaries their favorite uplifting song Hasa Diga Eebowai.  As life batters them in the head over and over again, it is this song that keeps them going.  Price and Cunningham join in with that old-fashioned Mormon enthusiasm, only to find out that this song means “Fuck You, God.”  Welcome to the world, boys. 

At missionary HQ they meet a randy bunch of also white boys led by Elder McKinley (Rory O’Malley) who have nothing to show for their time in Uganda – no Baptisms, no nothin’.  But they do have one thing – their own musical theme song to aid them in times of question and doubt – Turn It Off – as in turn off anything that makes question the Mormon path: thoughts of homosexuality, memories of abuse, guilt of any kind.  Welcome to another world, boys.

What follows is a love story where Price and Cunningham have to find their own paths without the other’s help.  Price tries to flee his fate while Cunningham deals fast and loose with his prosthelytizing.  On the other side of the story, the villagers are caught between swallowing the Book of Mormon (The Third Book of the Bible) as told by Cunningham, and making it through another day without being killed or having a clitorectomy.

As a matter of fact, the clitoris is a focal point of this story and is mentioned, oh, about 30 times as a point of focus in Uganda.  Where girls are raped and then circumcised (read genital mutilation) to keep them from getting any ideas or pleasure for the rest of their lives.  This subject is bandied about like a beach ball throughout the show along with child rape, frog rape, Aids, maggot infestation, Spooky Mormon Hell, and Jesus.  It is mentioned just enough to get people’s attention,, but I hope not so much that it will be dismissed as incidental or worse, a myth.

In the end everyone here is gullible and worthy of a dope-slap.  From the Mormons to General Butt Fuck Naked (Brian Tyree Henry) to the young woman Nabulingi (Nikki M. James) whose name Cunningham never gets right in a running joke that somehow works every time.  The Mormons will figure out an answer to any argument.  The General would rather kill than argue and wants everything and everyone to belong – to him.  Nabulungi – kind of like the Little Mermaid – wants to get out of Dodge and go to Salt Lake City (Sal Tlay Ka Siti ).  Like the rest of us, the gal just wants to belong, period.

Ain’t no one or nothing safe in The Book Of Mormon, least of all the audience.  This show makes you realize that when you are pointing one finger to make fun of someone, there are three fingers pointed back at you.  And this news is delivered with a smile – a real one.  Parker, Lopez and Stone have a laser beam precision with the aim of a 10 year old boy just discovering he can write his name in the snow when he pees.  You don’t know whether to laugh at the boy’s delight or duck and cover.  No matter.  Either way, you’re going to get some on  you.

THE BOOK OF MORMON book, music and lyrics by Trey Parker, Robert Lopez and Matt Stone. Choreography by Casey Nicholaw 

WITH Josh Gad (Elder Cunningham), Andrew Rannells (Elder Price), Nikki M. James (Nabalungi), Rory O’Malley (Elder McKinley), Michael Potts (Mafala Hatimbi), Lewis Cleale, Scott Barnhardt, Justin Bohon, Darlesia Cearcy, Kevin Duda, Asmeret Ghebremichael, Brian Tyree Henry, Clark Johnsen, John Eric Parker, Benjamin Schrader, Michael James Scott, Brian Sears,  Jason Michael Snow, Lawrence Stallings, Rema Webb, Maia Nkenge Wilson and Tommar Wilson. The production will also feature Graham Bowen, Ta’Rea Campbell, Jared Gertner, Tyson Jennette and Nick Spangler.

Set design by Scott Pask, costume design by Ann Roth, lighting design by Brian MacDevitt and sound design by Brian Ronan.  Orchestrations are by Larry Hochman and Stephen Oremus.  Music direction and vocal arrangements are by Stephen Oremus. 

Producers Anne Garefino, Scott Rudin, Robert Berlind, Scott M. Delman, Jean Doumanian, Roy Furman, Important Musicals LLC, Stephanie P. McLelland, Kevin Morris, Jon B. Platt, Sonia Friedman Productions; Executive Producer Stuart Thompson.  Tickets ($142.00 - $59.00) are available at Telecharge.com, by calling Telecharge.com at 212-239-6200 or in person at the Eugene O’Neill box office (230 West 49th Street).   Performance schedule: Monday through Saturday at 8:00 PM, with matinee on Saturday at 2:00 PM. Beginning March 28 Tuesday through Thursday at 7:00 PM, Friday at 8:00 PM, Saturday at 2:00 and 8:00 PM, Sunday at 2:00 and 7:00 PM.  Beginning May 30 Tuesday through Thursday at 7:00 PM, Friday at 3:00 PM & 8:00 PM, Saturday at 2:00 PM and 8:00 PM, Sunday at 3:00 PM.  Beginning September 5 Tuesday through Thursday at 7:00 PM, Friday at 8:00 PM, Saturday at 2:00 and 8:00 PM, Sunday at 2:00 and 7:00 PM.