BAZ BAMIGBOYE: Book of Mormon creators are to stage a rethink

The creators of blockbuster musical The Book Of Mormon have agreed to go over the show with key actors to discuss points of unease — and possibly make adjustments — after black cast members wrote a private letter expressing concerns.

Twenty actors from the original and current Broadway cast signed their names to the letter, sent in the wake of protests over the killing of George Floyd, to the show’s devisers, including Matt Stone and Trey Parker (the brains behind South Park) and Robert Lopez (who co-wrote the songs for Frozen and Avenue Q).

They said America was being forced to evaluate ‘the systemic racism and racial inequality’ in every industry — and theatre was no exception.

The Mormon creatives told me that after reading the letter and consulting producers Anne Garefino, Scott Rudin and Sonia Friedman, they decided to invite principal actors from New York, London and other productions around the world, as well as some original cast members, to attend a workshop in New York.

Stone (right), Parker (left) and Lopez spent seven years sharpening their lacerating gags. ‘We wrote it for a snooty liberal New York crowd who are going to laugh at those Mormons,’ Stone said

The aim would be to go through the show, line by line and thrash out any problematic issues. (They’re now figuring out when and how to fly the widely scattered artists in to NYC safely.)

Any changes would impact on the West End first, as Friedman said the show will probably re-open in London (at the Prince of Wales) before New York.

Even prior to the Black Lives Matter protests, there had been rumblings — from outside the Mormon camp — about whether the musical, which tells of two shiny-faced Latter-Day Saints on a mission to evangelise a northern Ugandan village in thrall to a brutal warlord, was racist.

Some suggested it should not return to Broadway until it was made more politically correct.

The Mormon creatives told me that after reading the letter and consulting producers Anne Garefino, Scott Rudin and Sonia Friedman, they decided to invite principal actors from New York, London and other productions around the world, as well as some original cast members, to attend a workshop in New York

Well, that won’t be happening. Lopez insisted no wokeness would be added to the phenomenally successful formula, which has sold in excess of £1 billion worth of tickets globally.

‘What’s great about Matt and Trey is they’d rather close the show than make it feel PC and not funny,’ he declared, before quickly adding: ‘No one wants to close. We want to make it better.’

During a separate Zoom call, Stone — sporting a bushy beard and wild hair that he joked made him look ‘like Tom Hanks in Castaway’ — told me: ‘I can’t imagine trying to make a politically correct Book Of Mormon.’

The musical is outrageous by design, targeting what Lopez called the ‘absurdity’ of the Church of Jesus Christ Of Latter-Day Saints and its founder, Joseph Smith, who wrote the actual Book of Mormon in the early 1800s. (When I asked Stone if The Book Of Mormon was racist, he said: ‘Yes. But our musical is not.’)

Nikki M. James, who created the role of Nabulungi, the touchingly naive teenage Ugandan villager, was involved in the development process

Stone, Parker and Lopez spent seven years sharpening their lacerating gags. ‘We wrote it for a snooty liberal New York crowd who are going to laugh at those Mormons,’ Stone said.

Nikki M. James, who created the role of Nabulungi, the touchingly naive teenage Ugandan villager, was involved in the development process, too; long before the show opened on Broadway ten years ago. James, who won a Tony award for her performance, recalled the experience. President Obama was in the White House, and ‘rightly or wrongly, Trey, Matt and Bobby were not as concerned with the concept of race’ as they were about the concept of Mormons and missionaries.

James recalls a ‘roomful of black Americans saying things like ‘F*** you, God!’ ‘ (during work on scenes where the villagers berate the Lord for apparently abandoning them to the joint ravages of disease and General Butt F***ing Naked). She said: ‘We were gauging our level of comfort — some people were uncomfortable.’ Some so much so that they chose not to continue with the project.

The creatives, she felt, had not fully understood what ‘it meant for black artists to do what they were doing’: uttering blasphemous curses, or joking about someone scratching their scrotum because it’s full of maggots.

On a personal level, she was concerned that audiences should see Nabulungi as an innocent, with dignity and heart — and not a stupid African girl.

Arbender J. Robinson, an acting teacher and member of the current Broadway ensemble, told me the original cast had the benefit of Stone, Parker and Lopez being present during rehearsals, to explain the nuances of every line and joke. But Robinson said ‘things seemed to get cloudy’ as the run, and the years, rolled on.

The two actors also told me that they were grateful for how The Book Of Mormon team reacted to the letter. Other shows in London (pictured) and on Broadway have received similar entreaties from actors but, from what I understand, their concerns have been dismissed

The musical is outrageous by design, targeting what Lopez called the ‘absurdity’ of the Church of Jesus Christ Of Latter-Day Saints and its founder, Joseph Smith, who wrote the actual Book of Mormon in the early 1800s

Now, he worried audiences were leaving the theatre ‘laughing at the Ugandans’.

Both Robinson and James believe each successive company became a bit more distanced from the core concepts that underpinned the show and gave it its strength and humour.

They said current casts needed the same level of directorial guidance. ‘We can’t expect our audience to fully understand it, if all of us aren’t completely on the same page of understanding as well,’ Robinson said.

James likened the process to performing Shakespeare for a contemporary audience. ‘How do we find what’s true today?’ She smiled and said that ‘there’s an opportunity for incredible dramaturgy there’.

Twenty actors from the original and current Broadway cast signed their names to the letter, sent in the wake of protests over the killing of George Floyd, to the show’s devisers, including Matt Stone and Trey Parker (the brains behind South Park) and Robert Lopez (who co-wrote the songs for Frozen and Avenue Q)

The two actors also told me that they were grateful for how The Book Of Mormon team reacted to the letter. Other shows in London and on Broadway have received similar entreaties from actors but, from what I understand, their concerns have been dismissed.

Speaking to me from NYC, where his wife was nursing their third child, born just a few weeks ago, Stone said he had mixed emotions when he first read the cast’s letter.

‘You know, it’s hard to have people that you love and respect tell you that you have fallen short,’ he said.

He said that, inadvertently, the creative team may have allowed ‘a blind spot’ to develop, when it came to black actors delivering incendiary dialogue (their ‘high-wire act’, he called it).

Pictured: Robert Lopez (who co-wrote the songs for Frozen and Avenue Q)

‘First of all, once we’d digested the letter, we said we’re sorry — and that it’s s***ty what they went through,’ Stone said. ‘Before we get back on stage, we’re going to have another workshop.’ One with himself, Parker, Lopez — and Casey Nicholaw, Mormon’s co-director (with Parker) and choreographer. Plus ‘members of the original cast, and lead actors, black and white, from the touring and international productions’.

Remedies could include ‘some tweaks to certain lines of dialogue, so things are more insulated against misreadings’.

‘No one is going back on stage until they feel great about it,’ Stone insisted.

He also hinted he wanted to capture the stage show on film — to ensure ‘a definitive record of intentions and context’.

Lopez, meanwhile, said he was looking forward to the workshops, and getting everybody into a room together. ‘It’s a chance to get creative again!’ he said. ‘Matt and Trey are so funny. They’re filthy — but great people. That’s the secret.’