I was writing on the other blog about this show and kind of came up with my thoughts as I typed (which is usually how I write). I want to add them here, too.
So we saw "The Book of Mormon" on Wednesday night. I am the one who was in charge of picking out a show. I chose this one because it not only won the Tony for Best Musical of the Year, but it's received outstanding reviews. And ..... more importantly, it's sold out for months. I got these tickets back in February, I think, when they finally extended the calendar through August.
I asked the other 3 women if they wanted me to buy the best available seats that I could, noting that this time we were seeing only one show (we saw 3 last time) and that we should get the best seats we could because it's a great show. Two others readily agreed. One kind of grudgingly agreed.
Seven of us went to see the show (there were only 4 of us back in February so the other three later bought tickets .... their seats were up in the mezzanine, towards the back, I think).
The original four of us sat in row D.
Yep, D.
As in A, B, C, D.
Fourth row from the front ..... center of the row.
I do good work.
Mostly.
I purposefully did not do any research on the show. I kind of knew what it what about and I knew who had written it (the guys who wrote South Park, which I don't watch). Because I knew of the writers, I knew it would be irreverent ..... that's a basic requirement of any Broadway show (not really, but kind of). I had heard it was hugely, pee-in-your-pants (yes, one reviewer even wrote that, I found out last night) funny.
And who doesn't like pee-in-your-pants funny?!
I didn't listen to the sound track, I didn't read the synopsis. I wanted to see the show without expecting anything.
I.
Was.
Surprised.
The seats were amazing.
The show had us laughing really, really hard.
Even when we tried not to laugh. Sometimes even especially when we tried not to laugh. And there were times when some of the women didn't laugh at all.
It was vulgar, crude, blasphemous in some scenes, and there was one scene when the four of us all slid down in our seats and covered our faces .... it was THAT embarrassing.
But funny.
I don't think they'll let me pick the next show, if we do this again.
Oh well. I guess everybody could've done some research and then decided for themselves to not see it, but no one did. And if you pick one person to do a job, then you'd better not fault them if you don't like the result. And I don't think the three of them will.
I hope.
If I had known the specifics of this show, I wouldn't have gone to see it.
Aside from the out right affront to God/Christ that sometimes occurred, I think there was a message.
(And yes, that's a huge "aside", I know that.) But I saw it. And I took home a message.
We all (especially us "Christians") tend to take ourselves and our faith/religion (I'm not religious ..... I am mostly faithful) way too seriously.
And we are known to judge others who believe, act, look or love ..... differently.
And that is a shame.
We're all in the big, bad, sometimes-wonderful, sometimes-horrific world together.
And yes, I follow Jesus, which I think is different than saying, "I am a Christian". Lots and lots of people claim to be one of those. And yet many of them fail to show Christ's love to those who need it.
We all need it.
We all need to be loved.
And we all need to be loved for who we are.
We don't need to be judged by what we believe or by any other social ruler that measures people.
I believe Christians are called to love.
Period.
God judges.
Thankfully.
I don't want that job.
I'm not worthy of that job.
Let's face it .... no one is. We all have failed one another at times in our lives. We have all done things that we knew were wrong.
We're human.
We learn to do better.
Hopefully.
I had no idea that my telling you about "The Book of Mormon" was going to go here.
No idea.
Wow.
So, a very funny show.
A very not-suitable-for-anyone-under-17 show.
And very not suitable for many adults.
It was rude.
It was crude.
And yet it had a message.
I won't give a recommendation for this show, unless I've talked to someone personally and know how they'd react to it.
But I enjoyed it overall.
And I loved the message.
