The most anticipated musical for years makes its West End debut tonight at the Prince of Wales theatre.
Be in no doubt this musical will cause a hurrah and will bring dissension to the West End, with the Book of Mormon there will be no middle ground, people will either love it or hate it, but how much will they love it or hate it? Will we adore this show like our friends from across the Atlantic or will it bring out our stiff upper lip prudish side?
I am going to see 'Mormon' on Friday with 2 friends and a relative. If you are going to see this post your thoughts here? If you have tickets, when are you going? how do you think the public and the critics will receive the show?
I can't wait to find out what you theatre lovers and the critics think of the show............If you are going to be a humbug and hate the show, well HASA DIGA EEBOWAI!!!!
I'm seeing it tomorrow, I enjoyed it on Broadway so look forward to seeing it with the London cast. Weirdly also looking forward to stepping inside The Prince of Wales for the first time in a long time.
Guess I know which category I fall into then lol There are so many shows I am seriously excited about seeing in London this year - and this is not one of them! I know I seem to be in the minority - but I really hate the CD and can't bring myself to pay West End prices to see this.
i have tickets to see what the fuss is about but to be honest i was more excited to see the bodyguard than seeing this (and i use the word excited v loosely)
i also get the feeling this will be the new wicked in terms of crazy fan girls and boys
I'm going on 18th March and can't wait to see it. I love the CD as it brilliantly sends up musicals and is very funny. I don't think it'll appeal to little girls like Wicked (they're probably too young to go and see this) so if a fan base develops it'll be very different to Wicked. And anything has to be better than Wicked.
I saw it tonight and I don't think I've laughed so hard, considering its only the second preview, the show is shaping up nicely, the cast is great but the standouts for me were Steven Ashfield as McKinley and Jared Gertner as Cunningham. It was nice being inside the Prince of Wales again as its such a lovely theatre,
I think the show is going to be a huge hit and I imagine tickets will be hard to get by the time the reviews come out.
Steven Ashfield was amazing, to be reading the cast and audience this well so early into the run is brilliant, what a talent. Thought it was very funny, terrific cast top to bottom, much more dancing than I expected.
Massive audience reaction. I was sat near the front and the wave of cheers and applause that hit at the end (and a couple of times mid show) was astonishing.
If the show had dayseats rather than lotto it would be the new Wicked for the superfans, but the relatively high cost of tickets and that its near sold out for months will make it that much harder to go often. Wicked has always had dayseats and cheap 4th, 5th price seats.
That said there were many americans in last night and people dressed as mormons so its likely some people have booked many multiple shows already.
I think the lottery is a much better option rather than day seats. No getting up early to get a ticket and even then its no guarantee. The lottery is cheap, fun and much fairer. The show will definitely have its superfans, though thankfully for the cast they wont have the same people screaming and fawning over them from the front row every night.
The show is perfectly located for a lotter, as anyone who doesn't win can go round the corner to tkts or one of the other places and grab a ticket to a show and easily make it in time. Or when the show's popularity drops (admittedly may be a while) you could go round the corner and get a more expensive ticket for the show.
"The is a special on BBBC2 tonight at 10pm presented by Alan Yentob, titled 'The Mormons Are Coming'."
Interesting. Much more about South Park than Mormon but I think we got the answer as to the difference between this and Jerry Springer, The Opera - they don't want Mormon to be cynical.
"The show is perfectly located for a lotter, as anyone who doesn't win can go round the corner to tkts or one of the other places and grab a ticket to a show and easily make it in time. Or when the show's popularity drops (admittedly may be a while) you could go round the corner and get a more expensive ticket for the show."
A sign of a good show is when you see a show for the first time and you really enjoy it, but crucially when you see it again it is better. When I saw The Book of Mormon originally in previews in New York 2 years ago, I loved it, but when I saw it tonight in previews in the West End I simply adored it and boy wasn't the atmosphere electric and what a cheer of approval, (like one I have never heard before in the West End) from the audience at the end, the critics cannot dismiss that. I already want to see this again.
Ladies and Gentlemen we have a West End smash hit.
A question for those of you who've seen this. My partner and his friend went to see the show on Saturday, and while they agree that the sections with the Mormon boys are very funny, they found the parts set in Uganda so racist that they didn't laugh at all, and came away from the show deciding that the racism was too grotesque.
Why does everyone describe this as a 'feel-good' musical? I know the cast recording quite well, but not having seen the show, I can't make a comment.
Just out of interest, why did they find it racist? I saw it on Saturday and I didn't find any of it offensive in anyway.
It's feel-good because, apart from a couple of moments, it's a very happy show. The songs are (mostly) upbeat and happy, and the vast majority of the audience will leave with a smile on their face. There will be some who find it offensive, especially those who are offended by swearing, but I don't personally think there is anything in the show which is totally out of order.
I saw it on Saturday and loved it. The audience was amazing, not just applauding but cheering songs. I had purposefully gone in without listening to the cast recording or finding out too much about the story and am glad that I did. I won't do too much of a review as I don't think it is fair when shows are in preview but as the 2 leads have played the parts before they can lead the cast well. Every member of the cast was amazing.
I can see how it would be seen as a bit racist but grotesquely racist is a bit ott. Yes they make light of the plight of the Ugandans but we feel for them. I think the religious elements are well done, we aren't mocking the mormons.
The show does feel very American though, How many people know about Mormons? It seems to be selling and the crowd loved it so I'm sure it has life in it!
i think a lot of people know about mormons, maybe not about the details on the religion but they know roughly a bit about them. After all the Osmonds have been around for years
Whilst we dont have many Mormons here we have a culture of taking the piss out of Jehovahs witnesses door knocking, and we send loads of kids off on gap years to play at doing good overseas.
So I think there are enough relatable elements, without us knowing much about the Mormons specifically.
My partner and his friend went to see the show on Saturday, and while they agree that the sections with the Mormon boys are very funny, they found the parts set in Uganda so racist that they didn't laugh at all, and came away from the show deciding that the racism was too grotesque.
Did they find the depiction of the white people as naive and stupid racist as well or just the way the black people were depicted? Because the broad generalizations used on both sides were intentionally given a level playing field.
Bea Arthur Nude Sells For Nearly $2 Million At Auction
Gyllenhaal, Pine in Talks to Join INTO THE WOODS Movie?
BWW TV Exclusive: Prince, Lewis & More Remember Kevin Gray
STAGE TUBE: Join Them! Watch the PIPPIN Cast on Letterman!
TV: BROADWAY BARES to Return to Fire Island, June 1
VIDEO: Ben Affleck Joins SNL's 'Five Timer Club'
STAR TREK: INTO DARKNESS Beams Its Way Ahead of IRON MAN to Take Weekend Box Office
Rooney Mara is the Face for New Calvin Klein Scent
VIDEO: Kanye West Performs New Music on Saturday Night Live
Adobe Creative Cloud FAIL; Suspends File Sync Service
BWW Reviews: 'And the Winners Were...' A Report Card for the Metropolitan Opera's 2012-2013 Season
BWW Reviews: FIAF Presents THE ULYSSES SYNDROME Celebrating World Nomads Tunisia
VIDEO: Must Watch - Mel Brooks AMERICAN MASTERS on PBS May 20!
joined:3/26/08
Posted: 2/25/13 at 03:31pm