Ding Dong! Mission Accomplished

Tonight – well, last night, I accomplished my Raison d’être for this London vacation.

I saw Book of Mormon.

Yeah, sure, I saw it last year.

Yeah, sure, last year I woke up to the lyrics running through my head for two months.

Yeah, sure, I’m a bit crazy.

But it was worth it – I’m throwing enough other stuff into this trip (short reviews: (1) Bletchley Park: Interesting, probably better on a weekend, but educational nevertheless. (2) Ice Age Art at British Museum, FANTASTIC – GO SEE IT. (3) Polari Book Reading – fun – especially when the first reading involved Bloomington, Indiana. I about fell out of my chair. Would go again if I were in London on the right weekend again. (4) Alternative London walking tour – excellent. Took me to a part of London I’d never seen before.) to justify the expense of flying from Berlin to London, spend a couple of nights, and then return.

This advertisement was in the Book of Mormon programme in London. I do not recall seeing one in the New York City program. There were two additional full page ads for the Mormons.

The London performance is still in previews—and I think it is mostly perfected. There were some moments where the sound quality, at least at my seat, seemed off. Given that I’m tone deaf, you can take my complaint for what it’s worth. I’ve listened to the soundtrack enough that I could sing along with the performance, but I restrained myself.

Next time I would seek out seats further forward – I was in row O, and there is a balcony at the Prince of Wales Theatre, which does block your view a bit – think of it as letterboxing. It doesn’t cut off anything critical, it’s just there.

The audience seemed to really like it – getting into the story and laughing quite a lot at the right moments. There was one point toward the end where the audience applause was sustained so long that one of the actors had to hold off a minute and acknowledge the applause before he could continue.

Book of Mormon has crossed into rarified territory with me – I’ve only ever seen one other musical more than once – and that was Rent.

Given the right circumstances, I would seek out Book of Mormon for a third visit.