Life Is About To Change For You And Me, But Me Mostly.
Once again, having watched a performance of The Book of Mormon, I've been unable to think about anything else for the entire following day. Here's a post of brief notes about the musical (let's be honest, mainly about best boy Kevin Price) to get some of these thoughts out of my head.
- This show is ridiculous, but it has just enough sincerity to work. It's really important to have that first night at the mission, when Elder Price finally sees Elder Cunningham as a person, rather than an inconvenience, and tries to comfort him.
- I love Elder Price's incredibly high-energy, showy, over-the-top performance of 'All-American Prophet'. At one point he moonwalked across the stage and got a cheer from the audience.
- Elder Price's smile is disconcertingly radiant. This may be more Dom Simpson than the character, I suppose, but it very much fits the character to have a smile that's perfect to the point of being unsettling.
- 'Heavenly Father, why do you let bad things happen? More to the point, why do you let bad things happen to me?' remains one of my favourite lines in the entire musical. God, I love Kevin Price in all his self-absorbed glory.
- Leanne Robinson was great as Nabulungi, and her delivery of 'I hope he gets to baptising me soon' brought the house down. Actually, there's a video of her performing 'Baptise Me' here! (NB: one of the comments is 'This has to be the most blasphemous thing I have ever seen. I pray for every one of your souls that watched this without being convicted of its demonic agenda', which is very funny but does also remind me I should mention that this song is pretty blasphemous, if that's a concern.) It was a great cast all around, really, even if my focus is biased by the fact that one of the characters hits all my weaknesses. Speaking of which, your brief reprieve from hearing me ramble about Kevin Price is now over.
- Elder Price's faith as a Mormon is so tied up with his faith in himself as the Most Special Person. He can't believe in one without the other; when he loses faith in one, he loses faith in both. If God exists, Elder Price also has to be destined to impress him. (I love his declaration that he'll 'do something incredible that blows God's freaking mind'. I'm fonder of this kid with every reminder of how self-obsessed he is.)
- When Elder Price returned to the mission after losing his faith, dishevelled and disillusioned, Elder McKinley fixed his tie for him, which was a cute little detail. I don't remember that in the 2019 performance, although it's possible I just didn't catch it.
- Elder Price telling Hitler and Genghis Khan 'I left my companion; I'm way worse than you'! Kevin Price: an overachiever even when it comes to hating himself. He always has to be the top at everything, so, if he does something bad, it can't just be bad; it has to be the worst.
- Relatedly, you should never play competitive games with Kevin Price, because there's no way he isn't a sore loser. He always strives to be polite, so he'll try very hard to be gracious, but he will absolutely seethe internally. You'll play Mario Kart against him, and he'll go 'oh, ha ha, hey, I lost again, what are the odds?' while gripping the controller hard enough to damage it.
I don't think I'm going to start writing fanfiction for this musical again, because I don't have any ideas, but we all know what happens when I say that.
- This show is ridiculous, but it has just enough sincerity to work. It's really important to have that first night at the mission, when Elder Price finally sees Elder Cunningham as a person, rather than an inconvenience, and tries to comfort him.
- I love Elder Price's incredibly high-energy, showy, over-the-top performance of 'All-American Prophet'. At one point he moonwalked across the stage and got a cheer from the audience.
- Elder Price's smile is disconcertingly radiant. This may be more Dom Simpson than the character, I suppose, but it very much fits the character to have a smile that's perfect to the point of being unsettling.
- 'Heavenly Father, why do you let bad things happen? More to the point, why do you let bad things happen to me?' remains one of my favourite lines in the entire musical. God, I love Kevin Price in all his self-absorbed glory.
- Leanne Robinson was great as Nabulungi, and her delivery of 'I hope he gets to baptising me soon' brought the house down. Actually, there's a video of her performing 'Baptise Me' here! (NB: one of the comments is 'This has to be the most blasphemous thing I have ever seen. I pray for every one of your souls that watched this without being convicted of its demonic agenda', which is very funny but does also remind me I should mention that this song is pretty blasphemous, if that's a concern.) It was a great cast all around, really, even if my focus is biased by the fact that one of the characters hits all my weaknesses. Speaking of which, your brief reprieve from hearing me ramble about Kevin Price is now over.
- Elder Price's faith as a Mormon is so tied up with his faith in himself as the Most Special Person. He can't believe in one without the other; when he loses faith in one, he loses faith in both. If God exists, Elder Price also has to be destined to impress him. (I love his declaration that he'll 'do something incredible that blows God's freaking mind'. I'm fonder of this kid with every reminder of how self-obsessed he is.)
- When Elder Price returned to the mission after losing his faith, dishevelled and disillusioned, Elder McKinley fixed his tie for him, which was a cute little detail. I don't remember that in the 2019 performance, although it's possible I just didn't catch it.
- Elder Price telling Hitler and Genghis Khan 'I left my companion; I'm way worse than you'! Kevin Price: an overachiever even when it comes to hating himself. He always has to be the top at everything, so, if he does something bad, it can't just be bad; it has to be the worst.
- Relatedly, you should never play competitive games with Kevin Price, because there's no way he isn't a sore loser. He always strives to be polite, so he'll try very hard to be gracious, but he will absolutely seethe internally. You'll play Mario Kart against him, and he'll go 'oh, ha ha, hey, I lost again, what are the odds?' while gripping the controller hard enough to damage it.
I don't think I'm going to start writing fanfiction for this musical again, because I don't have any ideas, but we all know what happens when I say that.