Stage reviews: 'Book of Mormon' is best news of Broadway season
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Will Swenson, Tony Sheldon and Nick Adams star in "Priscilla, Queen of the Desert," which has similarities to "Mamma Mia!" but in drag. -
Rema Webb, Andrew Rannells and Josh Gad star in "The Book of Mormon," nominated for 12 Tony Awards. -
Patrick Page, right, Jennifer Damiano, second from right, Reeve Carney, second from left, and T.V. Carpio, left, react to audience applause during the curtain call for "Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark" following the first preview performance of the revamped show at the Foxwoods Theatre in New York on May 12. The show is scheduled to open June 14.
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NEW YORK -- This year's big news out of Broadway is there are so many new plays that some good ones didn't get the Tony nominations that in most years they would have been assured.
Even so, the largest noise has been about two new musicals: "Spider-Man," whose saga seems to have been going on for years, and "The Book of Mormon," the improbable hit that is poised to sweep all before it at the Tony Awards, June 12.
If you recall, after many postponements, "Spider-Man, Turn Off the Dark" (to distinguish it from other onstage installments to follow? -- I doubt it) finally started previews in November. It never actually opened, although critics finally bought their own tickets to review it in February (including the Post-Gazette's Sharon Eberson).
Then came the firing of director Julie Taymor, a several week hiatus for retooling under a new "creative consultant" and a recent reopening. But when I saw it last week with the Post-Gazette ShowPlane, I was still not supposed to review it, because it's still in previews. I make a few comments anyway, below, but I'll leave the Post-Gazette's full review to Sharon, who will see it after it finally opens, June 14.
This explains why "Spider-Man" earned no Tony Award nominations, for which you actually have to open. But any void has been amply filled by "Mormon," which is certainly the good news of the musical theater season.
Heads of Broadway touring series have been flocking to see "Mormon," the presumptive Tony winner, which should therefore be the big 2012-13 touring attraction. But they're nervous. How will non-coastal America take to a musical satire that makes such fun not just of Mormon scripture and rewriting of history but also more mainstream sacred cows and taboos?
Perhaps that's a problem, but I can't really see why just about everyone, devout Mormons and prudes aside, won't love it. Created by Trey Parker and Matt Stone ("South Park") and Robert Lopez ("Avenue Q"), "Mormon" is a kind of updated American answer to Monty Python, mixing sophomoric humor (puns, pratfalls, bodily functions) with brainy wit (puns, intellectual pratfalls, wide-ranging allusion). It's as full of topical satire as the latest issue of "The Onion."
First Published May 29, 2011 12:00 am
