book-of-mormon-musical

If you’re not a part of the snooty New York theater scene, you might not have been aware that South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone’s Book of Mormon musical has been playing to rave reviews and sold out shows on Broadway for about a month now.  That may or may not be a huge accomplishment considering their competition is stuff like Legally Blonde and the U2 Spider-Man play, but they did create it with Avenue Q‘s Robert Lopez, and I can confirm that Avenue Q is amazing.  Now several sites are reporting that Book of Mormon could be coming to theaters, and I mean the American kind, with popcorn and Coke, not those fruity pinko ones with the programs and the intermissions.  So why the question mark in the headline?  Well, here’s the quote at the crux of the reports, from Deadline’s Mike Fleming:

So what will happen when producer Scott Rudin inevitably shops the Broadway musical to become a movie musical? “We’ve learned in our careers that as long as something is successful, they will give you money for it,” Parker tells me. “They just want to make money in Hollywood, they don’t really care. As long as the musical continues to do well, I don’t think it’s going to be hard at all.”

So… does that mean Scott Rudin actually is shopping the Broadway musical as a movie musical?  Uh… maybe?  That’s the way most sites are reporting it.  As we’ve seen before, sometimes it’s hard to tell what the f*ck Mike Fleming is talking about.  In any case, there doesn’t seem to be any reason it couldn’t become a movie.  Also, it sounds awesome:

The Book Of Mormon ridicules the faith but is getting laughs from liberal Mormons. The key, Parker and Stone maintain, is to be respectful of the believers while showing irreverence toward the beliefs.  And yet they portray 3 wide-eyed Mormons trying in vain to convert a Ugandan village afflicted with poverty, rampant AIDS, and violence at the hands of rebel soldiers. There are musical numbers that feature provocative and explicit lyrics. (Songs include one with a chorus that means “F*ck God,” another about the importance of stifling gay urges, and another about the maggots in a villager’s scrotum.) The turning point in getting the village to embrace baptism? When a bumbling missionary enhances Mormon teachings with story lines and characters from Star Wars and The Lord of the Rings and makes the faith more appealing.  [Deadline]

I don’t know what it says about me that a song called “F*ck God” instantly takes me from “Musical? Ehhh…” to “must see.”  Stephenie Meyer really could’ve used something like that in Twilight.