The Book of Mormon Reviews

John Davidson from London, England

DISAPPOINTING AND FORGETTABLE

The Book of Mormon was the hottest ticket in town for a while. I'm really not sure why. The tunes are bland and the humour is frequently infantile. I was expecting something clever and transgressive but instead was treated to some fairly obvious stereotypes and profanity rather than a witty, edgy satire . I've no problem with having a giggle at Mormon beliefs as a heightened reality examination of all faiths, but this is no Life of Brian . Instead this is another white saviour story where poor ,Aids riddled Africans , living in squallor and threatened by a local warlord are encouraged to believe in themselves when the American ugly duckling missionary makes up a bunch of stupid stories . Some of the jokes land. Religion isn't about the details, it's about broad messages of hope and kindness . But it's heart isn't really in the right place. Where life of Brian showed us the absurdity of faith and left us singing "always look on the bright side". Book of Mormon offers us a cycle of diminishing returns where each new religion is dafter than the last. But with an inane smile and jazz hands .

Helen Adams from London, England

DISTURBING THEMES. OVERSEXUALISED.

Liked the signing and dancing but unlike other versions of this show the images, tropes and themes were very odd and many disturbing. Someone threw a jumble up in the air and made a strange musical out of them. Stereotyping, racism, masturbation, bestiality, paedophilia, FGM, rape. Really? Very peculiar show.

Alicia from London, England

YIKES

I saw it today. The performance (singing, dancing, costumes, set design) were great. The content? Was so-so...Not sure why they had to say AIDS + Africans 10 billion times and not sure why they had to mention SA'd babies by Africans a million times. The pokes at the Ugandans were WAY more over the top than the ones about the Mormons...which is weird AF... I also am not a fan of the "fat + funny" trope. I also think jokes about groups that are not oppressed hit differently than jokes about people that are. Especially when loads of people still believe them now...Might have been more interesting if the Ugandans outwitted them somehow or taught them something...idk I'm not a playwright 🤷🏾‍♀️

Ella ET from London, England

THE RACIST AND STEREOTYPICAL PORTRAYAL OF AFRICANS ARE HARMFUL AND DISAPPOINTING. IT HAS NO ON STAGE PLACE IN 2022.

The depiction of Ugandans as AIDS infested people living in mud huts who carry around their AIDS infested babies, whose women have all been subject to FGM is an incredibly harmful stereotype that simply isn’t funny. This isn’t a matter of being “too woke” it’s a matter of changing a disgusting image of Africa that has been perpetuated by white people for centuries. It is this exact mentality that emboldened Darwin to declare that Africans were “savage progenitors”, giving power to theory that Africa was a “dark” continent filled with barbarians who ought to be tamed. So seeing such a rich and vibrant country like Uganda being relegated to huts where wild animals roam free, with unintelligent people where warlords with absurd names like ‘General Butt Fucking Naked’ go around performing Female Genital Mutilation is quite simply racist. Africa is not a continent where people go around carrying chickens, Africans are not imbeciles and this depiction of them in the Book of Morman is not only factually wrong and offensive it simply isn’t satirical. The Book of Mormon producers and screenwriters worked so hard to get the facts about LDS right but failed woefully or couldn’t be bothered to do the same for Uganda. There are many other aspects of Uganda, it’s politics and culture that the writers could have written about that wouldn’t be incredibly racist and inflammatory. In summary, I’m not telling you not to watch the show, but if you do, be aware of how harmful and debilitating such depictions of Africa and Africans can be.

Dick P from London, England

THE SAD BOOK OF MORMON

This was a very racist and outdated show, that shouldn't be on the stage, especially in a mutli-cultural place like London. The jokes old and reminiscent of less-tolerant times. Maybe on a small cable channel it might work. I felt embarrassed to be a white person watching something so undeniably racist and colonial. A great waste of £55 for each ticket that I stupidly bought. Don't waste your money!!!!! Musical theatre at its very worst.

Joe Hinton from London, England

TEDIOUS AND COMPLETELY OVERRATED

Went to see this show on the back of recommendations from friends. We were eagerly anticipating a funny satirical show. So very disappointing, one or two funny moments but overall it felt like a two minute Monty Python sketch stretched over two hours. The only time at a west end show I wanted to leave during the interval. Many Americans in the audience seemed to love it but several people we spoke to were as disappointed as we were. Can’t fault the cast, all good performances but the material was woeful.

Daniela from Liverpool,

AWFUL AND BORING.

Offensive, with racist and distasteful stereotypes used throughout. For example, it’s weaponisation of the AIDS crisis and female genital mutilation, to name a few.

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