When Brad sent me an e-mail a couple weeks back asking if I’d be interested in attending the Trey Parker and Matt Stone musical The Book of Mormon as it kicks off its North American Tour in Los Angeles, he didn’t have to twist my arm. To top it off the two men that created the play were going to be doing a Q&A after the show? SOLD!
We both knew covering a play as it rolls out on a national tour is not the normal Rope of Silicon mandate. We also knew Parker and Stone are not normal playwrights. They are the comic minds behind the most consistently relevant and funny TV show of the last fifteen years, “South Park”, and two of the funniest and most inventive films I have seen as well — Team America: World Police and South Park: Bigger Longer & Uncut.
Having said that, The Book of Mormon may just be the most conventional musical to hit the great white way in years. The show is wall to wall musical numbers that push the story ahead with very few scenes tied to the book. Fact is, you could probably get rid of the book in Stone and Parker’s musical and not miss a beat. The numbers themselves are elaborately choreographed and staged without the faintest hint of cynicism or irony.
That is probably why The Book of Mormon has been so successful. In an era where Broadway seems to only be interested in making musicals cobbled together from mediocre movies (Legally Blonde: The Musical comes immediately to mind) or “jukebox” musicals, like American Idiot and Rock of Ages, it’s refreshing to see an original musical in the style of Oklahoma and The Music Man.
It was also great to see something made with such obvious joy and care. Parker and Stone have worked on Mormon for seven years now and it shows. The fact so much care has gone into the project will be no surprise to anyone who has been a fan over the years. Matt and Trey may poke fun at everything from politics to religion, but they’ve never shown contempt for their audience. They always look to entertain their fans first and foremost while the piquant social critiques are an added bonus that come natural to the pair.
After watching The Book of Mormon I almost wonder if we haven’t taken Parker and Stone for granted over the years. I remember the buzz that surrounded “South Park” when it first came out on Comedy Central. Everyone I knew was talking about it back in 1997 and 1998. Now we just assume Parker and Stone will crank out another great season as if it were our God given right as fans.
I also remember catching the South Park movie on opening night in 1999. To be honest, I don’t think I have seen a film that consistently funny before or since. The audience didn’t stop laughing from beginning to end. Now people wonder why they haven’t delivered a new film since Team America. As if they haven’t been busy enough workshopping a play while writing, producing and performing a hit TV show. Bob Fosse did it, why can’t they?
That was one of the questions Parker and Stone were asked after the show. Here’s what they had to say:
Can you talk about your plans to make The Book of Mormon into a movie?
TP: We don’t have any. The only thing is when we first started working on it seven years ago we kind of toyed with it being a movie. Obviously Matt and I know how to make a movie. So why don’t we just make a movie and do that. We can do that pretty quickly. But we stuck with it and after we saw the first workshops with an audience we thought, no this will be cool if it gets made as a play. So, as we were doing scenes I would visualize things as a movie because that’s what I do so I don’t think it be a really difficult thing but it would be a pretty different animal. We don’t think about it or talk about it a lot right now, but it is very possible.
Are you going to do another stage musical.
TP: No. These are hard.
MS: Actually, what we’re learning is you are never done.
TP: You’re never done, done, done. What we’re used to, especially with South Park, you finish the show, you send it off, it gets uploaded and goes on the air. The next morning all talk of that show stops. We are so good at being like a hard disc — being done. Same thing with movies. You finish it, give them a DVD, whatever and it’s done. A theater thing is not like that.
Do you like the process of making a musical.
MS: Some parts of it, yes, some parts no. It’s just new. It’s a different thing. Like this is a new company. Like any of you who saw it on Broadway. It’s a great show but a different show. So you’ve got to find the strength in each actor. It’s cool, but it’s like–
TP: And it took us seven years. We wouldn’t want to say, okay that was cool, now let’s just crap one out. Do a Miss Saigon.
With all the remakes of movie on Broadway, do you feel a responsibility to do an original musical now. Since you’re probably one of the few people who can do that?
TP: We don’t think it is our responsibility anymore.
MS: Actually, we want to do a movie remake. Look, we’re proud we did something original, but it is a load of work. We honestly don’t have any plans.
TP: We don’t even know what we’re doing with “South Park” in three weeks.
What are the differences between the Broadway version and the touring version.
TP: Nothing music-wise or script-wise. It’s the exact same show. But when new actors come in, first of all it’s great because they bring all this new energy. They’re really excited to do it. While we’re coming in to do it again. We feed off their energy discovering the show. It is all personality.
MS: There are things in the original cast that did better, like line readings and you get used to them, but with this cast they found different things and readings that would be even better that we hadn’t thought of, and it was just us getting our heads around the fact that it is not done. It is not in the can. That doesn’t happen in theater. It is never in the can.
TP: With this it was such a community. Learning about how stuff works. And we got schooled quick. You know. And it was a great learning experience. Thank god we had really awesome talent around us that knew, unlike us, how to make it really good. It was fine, it was just also very, very scary. We honestly, thought Well, this will be great. If we can get it to run a year on Broadway it will be a success. So, we’re fine. We’re happy.
