the book of mormon musical...

on our most recent trip to new york city i took a photo of the marquis after waiting 2 1/2 hours in line for an obstructed view cancellation ticket for the hottest show on broadway--a show with 8 performances a week sold out through december. amy chose not to go and attended "how to succeed in business without really trying" starring none other than Daniel Radcliffe... Harry Potter himself.

i am of two minds...

i loved it. and, i'm very uncomfortable with it.

i grew up with musicals--road trips, les miserables, phantom of the opera, west side story, music man, into the woods and many more... some of my more enjoyable, inspiring and uplifting artistic/spiritual experiences have revolved around music--as a participant and a viewer. the genre fits me and i responded.

as a former missionary there is much to identify with--the chalboard with stats on it from the district meeting, hanging out together at bedtime making small-talk, how uncomfortable the assignment of companions can be, the emotions during the group baptismal scene, the district's comraderie, the senior/junior companion dynamic, the incredibly complex emotions felt during mission service, doubts of a 19 year old boy, the guilt of a 19 year old boy.

here is the south park creators' take on proselyting...



as my sister-in-law said, it's surreal seeing yourself in lights on broadway. and i agree! it was really strange to see a backdrop of the slc temple and scenes in the MTC that are so germane to my life yet so exotic to the secular audience inhabiting the theatre...

as the mormon professor richard bushman said (paraphrase), it's like seeing yourself in the fun house mirror. it's your nose but it's malproportioned.

another example where the missionaries receive their mission calls...



as a mormon, believer and christian two ubiquitous religious themes are doubt and guilt. both were dealt with deftly. is joseph smith a fraudulent schemer who fabricated the book of mormon and hoodwinked thousands or was he called of God and translated a book written by God's prophets? the south park boys say it doesn't matter and that mormons are good, content, happy people. guilt and doubt are emotions that every believer either directly or indirectly must square themselves with. for whatever reason, i didn't mind seeing the more outlandish of our beliefs being portrayed in an accurate yet farcical light. i didn't mind laughing. if i search within myself i would like to think my ability to laugh is due to my being at peace with the faith claims of my church.

i sat next to a woman from manhatten. as we talked at intermission she gasped when i told her i was from utah. she said, 'is this okay'? she said, 'i don't know much about the mormon church, but i sometimes see the missionaries near my house. they always seem so nice. this show can't be accurate regarding mormons right?' it was comforting that she took the show as plain satire and wasn't ready to use it as the truth about mormons. ironically, the show gives a fairly accurate portrayal of mormon beliefs.

one scene that was very funny and over the top yet rang true was 'spooky mormon hell dream'. as an adolescent and missionary with an overactive conscience i could definitely identify with this poor 19 year old mormon boy identifying with genghis khan and ted bundy because he left his mission companion for a whole night. i couldn't stop laughing and empathizing with him all at once.

i was very uncomfortable with the show. the portrayal of evil in media and art is a whole discussion unto itself. i am not opposed to 'R' rated media necessarily. however, this musical is very 'R' rated. the filth is in jest and satire and does not come across pornographically graphic. however, if lots and lots of 'F' words and sacrilegious blasphemic jokes are a deal breaker for you then don't spend your money on a show you will walk out on...there were two numbers so sacriligious that i wanted to hide my head under the chair. the sacrilege is balanced by the missionaries' horror as they react to the africans' words and actions.

i was disappointed with the portrayal of believers as lacking intelligence. phrases like 'mormons just believe' and the missionaries leaving the church and writing their own book at the end definitely waters down, dilutes and misses the central power of the religion the musical is meant to so accurately satirize. these aspects disappointed me the most...

exhilarating. there were moments watching my faith portrayed through powerful music with actors honestly exploring their characters when i just sat back enjoyed the humor, and emotions associated with the mormon culture, missionary culture, faith culture and a service culture.

one powerful remark from a salt lake tribune article came from "David Spencer, a Utah native and professional actor now living in New York City, has seen the musical twice. The former Mormon said he would gladly buy a third ticket.

Spencer thinks selected Salt Lake City audiences would enjoy the show, but theatergoers expecting a mean-spirited tone will be disappointed. “It made me ask if I threw out the baby with the bathwater when I left the church. That’s a powerful question to open up within yourself, and certainly not something you’re likely to experience with any other Broadway musical.”

one mormon who has created positive spin through the musical is margaret young. margaret is a professor of english at BYU and has delved deeply into the church's treatment of blacks from the time of joseph smith to the present. her series on the 'the REAL elder price' is found here

i was very, very entertained by it. this show is seriously funny.

and lastly, the mildly offensive, but moving rendition of 'i believe' from elder price...as performed at the tony's...



have you seen the show? will you? should i have? or not...

the city that never sleeps...

my brother's pilot premiere was on thursday night. my dear mother was kind enough to offer to watch the children while we attended. and since we were unable to go cruising and our tenth anniversary year ends in a matter of days we were excited to take a few days in a city we both love.

we left wednesday after amy stayed up late packing and i worked through the night. hannah took the girls to violin and we dropped michael at school and ella at co-op. we rushed to the airport and flew off.

on the flight i met my favorite mormon (post-mormon) director--richard dutcher. i'm not in the habit of meeting famous people, so i asked, 'is your name richard?' 'yes' 'richard dutcher?' 'yes' 'hi my name is paul frandsen and i am a big fan of your work. god's army 2? great.'

and that was that. he was nice and the encounter was brief.

stephen and hillary picked us up from the airport--very kind of them to brave the traffic. amy and i were beat after sleeping so little so we went out for pizza and crashed at stevie's. stephen did not crash as he had a night's work ahead of him. he and the director of the pilot worked through much of the night on finishing the color etc...

thursday was the premiere so while he finished final preparations we went directly from the subway in brooklyn to the natural history museum off central park. i had never been and thoroughly enjoyed it. below are the pictures from the museum.


the natural history museum is impressive fare. favorites? the big whale and most of the ocean exhibit. the exhibit on evolution. meteor rocks. and the dinosaur bones! lots and lots of real-life bones with impressive evolutionary trees showing their progression and time-line. the earthquake-meter.

after spending several hours in the bowels of the museum we surfaced for air and realized we hadn't yet seen the city skyline in the light of day (the museum has an underground subway entrance.)

i love the new york skyline. the enormity of the city is astounding. its scale is grand but old, dirty and dilapidated at the same time. after seeing the skyline from the window of the museum i got the itch to strike out on the town. we headed out on the subway to rockefeller square and did the very touristy tour of nbc studios. the highlight was seeing diddy dirty money during his photo shoot for snl. we also saw jimmy fallon and toured his set. at the end, amy and i did our own faux news broadcast. i captured a shot of amy in front of the green screen, but the final product was $30 for the footage. amy is an adorable weathergirl. i would tune in :)



we rushed from the rockefeller tree to fontana's bar in chinatown near where some of the scenes from the pilot were shot. we stopped in for chinese dumplings with stephen and hillary where we met some friends of theirs (liz and brian) and joined them in a quick bite to eat. brian is a creative executive for AMC and liz teaches at a charter school in harlem.

the premiere was great. it was a fun melding of personal and professional acquaintances of stephen and hadley. the different groups melded well and there were a lot of hugs and smiles. there was cheering and clapping through the closing credits. it was fun to see stephen and hadley's relief build as they carried off the project well. they both looked ready for a long nap and relaxing weekend after staying up most nights all week in preparation for the premiere.

stephen did all the music for the project and it was a shining element of the show. there were multiple comments about how great the music was. the color was beautiful, suspense held the group's attention, and the violence etc was tasteful :) my favorite part was hanging out after the premiere with friends and co-workers of stephen's lingering. it was fun to hear them speak highly of stephen--including his professionalism, work ethic, convivial nature etc. etc. my favorite moments of the trip were the random relaxed moments with stephen, hillary, and amy...

we took pictures together near the impressive photo/poster that stephen and hadley produced.

adam and kellyn posing with us...

brothers...

stephen and hillary were our perfect hosts on the weekend...

friday was a day for more culture. we started out at the 'frick' museum (the best named institution we visited on the weekend.) it was a cool example of a private art collectors gallery turned museum. a little renior...

we left the 'frick' for the apple store with the floating apple and the burger joint (hidden in the parker-meridian hotel.) notice stephen's signature 'i love apple' salute.

then it was off to free MOMA night presented by target. i love the MOMA. highlights? the eye. starry night. picasso. the line exhibit.

my impressionist impression of the painting...

and for the grand finale that night? the new neil la bute play, 'the break of noon.' neil is a former mormon and renowned modern playwright. he attended byu with aaron eckhart.

the play was provocative. we went not knowing exactly what to expect. la bute is a former mormon who converted to mormonism at BYU and is known for his portrayals of evil/badly behaving men. his play in the late 90's of lds people doing violent things lead to him ultimately parting amicably with the church. he has developed into one of the more renowned modern american playwrights. his play, 'the break of noon' premiered off-broadway 2 weeks ago with david duchovny as the lead.

the play chronicles the story of 'john smith' who survives an office massacre where the gunman shoots 37 people and then himself. smith claims to have had a vision of god wherein he spared john's life. he then interacts with police, ex-wife, lover, stranger and detective. each interaction shows the duality of duchovny's nature as he is both good and evil in turn. mormon undertones include 'john smith' as modern day prophet (joseph smith), mutiple versions of his vision--each more elaborate than the last, and 'jesus wants me for a sunbeam' was played at one break between scenes. pretty veiled mormon ties i know. duchovny is on stage the entire play and acts opposite 3 other actors who play dual roles. the play had a lot of language and john smith is not a 'good guy' per se.

it was interesting watching the play with a presumably secular new york audience for whom it seemed very natural to laugh at the man's shortcomings and brush off his religious ministrations and manipulations. i also felt that as a believing mormon the play took on greater depth as i was asked to confront this man's shortcomings in the context of joseph's shortcomings. all the while asking me to maintain my belief in both.

the play ultimately asks the audience to accept an imperfect man as a prophet. the final scene ***plot spoiler***involves duchovny speaking in church before an audience in a sort of evangelist setting. he levitates in the final moments of his monologue and la bute asks the audience to accept that this man is what he claims.

we went for eggs benedict after the play (divine) and headed home for a movie at stephen's apartment.

oh, and on the way out of the play i met mr. michael moore and had my picture taken with him...

the next day was broadway day. we stood in line for cancellation tickets to lion king (while a scalper tried to hustle me into some 2nd row tickets that i turned down after he walked me around times square introducing me to his scalper buddies.)

amy loved the show. i thought it was so so. beautiful lighting, costumes, vocals, but still the same lion king plot-line i've seen 20+ times on tv. i would however love to take the kids someday...

times square from the minskoff theatre.



in between broadway shows amy speed shopped at H&M and we met stephen and hillary at the temple/stake center before his performance for the stake christmas concert
the final show of the evening was billy elliot. i loved it. the dancing was breathtaking, the musical numbers were powerful and the message of hardship, sacrifice and committing to yourself were motivating. the 11 year lead was an amazing dancer and brought incredible suspense at times.

that night we went 80's dancing. great times...

church was inspiring in stephen's brooklyn branch.

a relaxing sunday and waffles topped off the trip.

thank you so much stephen and hillary! congratulations on the successful premiere...