Broadway’s most blasphemous satire is returning to North Texas this week.
The Book of Mormon, written by South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone and Avenue Q composer Robert Lopez, visits Fort Worth from July 28-30 and Dallas from Aug. 1-6.
Created in 2011, the show won nine Tony Awards and was nominated for 14. It follows two Mormons who travel to a Ugandan village to share their faith and find that the Ugandans are more concerned with earthly problems like famine and the AIDS epidemic than heavenly ones.
When it premiered on Broadway, the show received a rapturous reception from major publications like The New York Times, which called it “something like a miracle.” “There’s enough sacrilege, scatology, and sub-sophomoric satire to blast all ears,” The Dallas Morning Newssaidof the show when it first visited Dallas in 2013. “If you survive through the second act, though, you well may laugh harder than ever before in a theater.”
In response to the show’s mostly lacerating (though occasionally affectionate) depiction of Mormons, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints put out an official statement in 2011.
“The production may attempt to entertain audiences for an evening, but the Book of Mormon as a volume of scripture will change people’s lives forever by bringing them closer to Christ,” the church wrote.
The church also purchased ads in The Book of Mormon playbills as it toured the country with playful comments like “The book is always better” and “You’ve seen the play, now read the book.”
Despite its many jokes at the expense of the Mormon Church, the show has arguably garnered more controversy from outside Mormonism than within. Criticisms of the show’s depictions of Ugandans date back to its opening in 2011, when an NPR writer wrote that “Parker and Stone are indulging in cultural colonialism of the most insidious kind.”
“Far too much of ‘The Book of Mormon’s laughs came at the expense of black people and some deeply racist portrayals,” critic Patsy V. Pressley wrote in 2018 in a piece titled “It’s time that a black person reviewed ‘The Book of Mormon.’” In 2021, The New York Times reported that the show “faced calls from Black members of its own cast to take a fresh look” at its portrayal of African people in the wake of George Floyd’s murder in 2020 and national rallying for racial justice. The show’s creators “wound up making a series of alterations that elevate the main Black female character and clarify the satire,” The Times reported.
This summer month will mark the first time D-FW Dallas audiences can see the updated version of the show.
Details
Times vary. July 28-30 at Bass Performance Hall, 525 Commerce St., Fort Worth. $60.50-$143. 817-212-4280, basshall.com
7:30 p.m. Aug. 1-4, 1:30 and 7:30 p.m. Aug. 5-6 at Music Hall at Fair Park, 909 1st Ave. $30-$155. 214-691-7200, broadwaydallas.org.
Arts Access is an arts journalism collaboration powered by The Dallas Morning News and KERA.
This community-funded journalism initiative is funded by the Better Together Fund, Carol & Don Glendenning, City of Dallas OAC, Communities Foundation of Texas, The Dallas Foundation, Eugene McDermott Foundation, James & Gayle Halperin Foundation, Jennifer & Peter Altabef and The Meadows Foundation. The News and KERA retain full editorial control of Arts Access’ journalism.
