“The Book of Mormon” is returning to town on its mission to have audiences rolling in the aisles through Dec. 27 at The Forrest Theatre.
The satirical and often-profane musical comedy, written by “South Park” creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone, tells the story of two young Mormon missionaries who venture to a remote village in Uganda to spread the word. When the harsh reality of life in the war-torn country makes their mission difficult, the missionaries start making thing up as they go along to win over the locals.
Out longtime ensemble cast member Eric Huffman said the show is especially popular during the holidays, noting it stands out among the many sentimental theatrical productions being staged this time of year.
“For all those nice, wholesome family shows out there, there’s always that other family that doesn’t want to see your typical ‘White Christmas’-type musical,” he said.
“There are groups that want to laugh and be raucous and have fun. It surprises me every year that the holiday crowds tend to be our best crowds because they are always in a better mood and they are wanting to see entertainment stuff and it’s not the typical work week for them. It’s holiday time.”
If you’ve ever seen an episode of “South Park,” you know that Parker and Stone pull no punches when it comes to humor and satire. So it was no surprise, then, that when “The Book of Mormon” debuted on Broadway in 2011 and toured the country the next year, some in the Mormon Church weren’t too pleased with the show. Huffman said that, over time, the controversy surrounding the show faded considerably.
“I would say it’s dissipated, as much has changed over time,” Huffman said. “A lot of the initial people that didn’t like the show have kind of disappeared because they either were being ignored and realized no one was paying attention to them, or they saw the show and realized it’s not as bad as they thought it was. At the end of the day, the show is not anti-Mormon or anti-religion, as people were making it out to be. And once people started realizing that, it got a lot better. The Mormon Church is supportive of the show and the people that don’t like the show now are people who don’t like the profanity aspect, and there will always be people who don’t like that.”
It helped that the show focused on a religion that isn’t as mainstream in the United States as others, he added. If Parker and Stone had set their sights on a more popular faith, things would have been different.
“I think it would be a lot more offensive to a lot more people,” Huffman said. “We had that discussion at rehearsal quite a bit. They could have picked any mainstream religion, like Judaism or Catholicism. Every religion has their own strange aspect to it that people just don’t think about because they are used to seeing it every day. With Mormonism, it is something that a lot of people don’t see, so when you make fun of it or point out the odd stuff in it, it’s funny. If the show were about a more mainstream religion, the show wouldn’t be that different, but it would affect a lot more people.”
Huffman said that despite any controversy the show might attract, being part of a wildly successful production like “The Book of Mormon” is a dream come true for any stage actor.
“It’s fun to do a big upbeat show like this,” he said. “The audience likes it. I feel like I’m going to a rock concert when I go to work every day. We get ‘South Park’ fans nightly. That’s always fun because, for most of them, it’s their first musical-theater experience. But the humor is so geared towards them that it is perfect.”
Huffman added the show is also attracting fans that are returning multiple times.
“We have our fan groups that come to see the show 20 times,” he said. “It kind of baffles me. There are so many people who are normal people who don’t usually go see musicals. We’ll see them at the stage door and they’ll say it’s their second or third time [seeing the show]. Even that surprises me, that they’ll come and see a musical twice.”
Usually popular musicals attract the same type of audience around the country, but Hoffman said the audience for “The Book of Mormon” changes drastically from city to city.
“We learn a lot about different cities’ personalities just by the audiences’ reactions,” he said. “We can always tell within the first three minutes of the show what kind it’s going to be. Sometimes they are really smart audiences and they get the deeper humor and the deeper meaning of stuff. Sometimes they just like the slapstick comedy. If it’s that kind of audience, we’ll play that stuff up that night.”
One of the characters in the show that resonates with gay audience members is Elder McKinley, one of the church elders, who tries to deny his homosexuality in order to conform to the church’s teachings.
Huffman said gay Mormons relate to the show and that character in particular.
“He’s a little bit too high-strung to be sympathetic but he’s a nice guy underneath,” Huffman said. “We’ve had multiple ex-Mormons in different cities come up and talk to us about leaving the church because of being gay and how watching the show really helps them and made them feel something good. It happens a lot.”
“The Book of Mormon” runs through Dec. 27 at Kimmel’s Forrest Theatre, 1114 Walnut St. For more information or tickets, call 215-923-1515 or visit www.kimmelcenter.org.