Okay, bit
of a repetitive name for my first Andrew Rannells review, but that’s okay. Rannells did a lot of work prior to Mormon, plenty of voiceover stuff and
some theatre, but this is the jumping-off point for all the opportunities that
followed for him, and based on what we get here, those opportunities were
well-deserved.
Elders
Price and Cunningham – golden boy and eternal screw-up, respectively – get more
than they bargained for when they’re paired as companions and sent on their
two-year Mormon mission to Uganda. Elder
Price has built up a narrative for himself as being Heavenly Father’s gift to
Mormanism, almost literally, and the war-torn village proves a rude awakening
and a challenge to his faith. Meanwhile,
Elder Cunningham has never had Elder Price’s understanding of the scripture or
zeal for mission work, and his scant knowledge of the actual Book of Mormon
gets constantly tangled up with details from Star Wars or Lord of the
Rings in his fanboy brain; not the best person to teach others the finer
points of the religion. As the guys try
to bring the villagers to the church, both discover big things about
theirselves and their faith.
First, a
word to the wise. “Hello” and “I
Believe” are both damn good numbers, but there’s an extra reason they tend to
be the show’s go-to choices for TV performances and whatnot: this show is profane as all get-out, with the
blushing Mormons being utterly scandalized at the vulgarity and blasphemy of
the Ugandan villagers they meet. The
show comes care of the creators of South
Park (a collaboration with Robert Lopez, at that time best known for Avenue Q but since become a Disney
juggernaut with Frozen,) and it
shows. There’s tons of swearing, sexual
references, and gross humor, and horrific topics are discussed in a
wildly-irreverent manner. This isn’t a
show you should see or an album you should listen to if you’re not okay with
some seriously-uncensored content.
Additionally, while this show gave us Nikki M. James in a Tony-winning
performance and “Sal Tlay Ka Siti” is awesome, the Ugandans are largely just
foul-mouthed props against which to follow the main heroes’ story. These are “starving Africans” straight out of
a “for just $5 a day…” commercial, with added swearing and sex jokes, and even
an entire song that hinges around a particular Swahili phrase isn’t actually Swahili
but gibberish. That’s disappointing, and
I think the show could’ve been a lot better if it had tapped into the lives of
the villagers in the same humorous way it does with the Mormons.
That
said, it’s clear why it’s so popular, at least among those how can handle the
vulgarity. The music is super catchy,
many of the lyrics are sharply funny, and for all its irreverence, the show
does have some real heart. It’s not just
a vehicle to rag on LDS for two hours – it’s an actual story with characters we
get to know, whose actions feel consistent within the context of what happens
to them and who interact with each other in funny and/or compelling ways. Thematically, one thing I really like about
it is how much it emphasizes the youth of the two elders, sent to another
continent at the age of 19 to save the world.
We see how both of them have taken more mainstream concepts of
masculinity and success and view them through a Mormon lens, with Elder Price
convinced he’s going to achieve something so amazing, it’ll “[blow] God’s
freaking mind” and Elder Cunningham urging himself to “man up” like Jesus.
And so,
of course, we come to Rannells as Elder Price.
Though it was the show to talk
about in 2011, my first actual look at it was when Rannells performed “I
Believe” at the Tony Awards – I’ve mentioned before how I love it when someone
I’ve never heard of takes to the Tony stage alone
and brings the house down, and this is a great example of that phenomenon. The performance is a great introduction to The Book of Mormon as a whole as well as
Rannells’s role within it. He’s
wonderfully funny as the naïve Mormon boy undergoing extreme culture shock in
Uganda, the self-impressed kid who gets taken down several pegs by the real
world. He’s something of a straight man
compared to the outrageous villagers, as well as Josh Gad’s more
bluntly-humorous Elder Cunningham, but he’s also hugely entertaining in his own
right, and he does a nice job bringing that wholesome “aw shucks!” quality that
the character needs.
Additionally,
Rannells does well with the more introspective part of Elder Price, the
confused young man who’s grown up believing good work will be rewarded with
answered prayers and doesn’t know what to think now that everything seems to be
going wrong. There are times when the
show plays this inner struggle for laughs (a la, “A warlord who shoots people
in the face - / What’s so scary about that?”) and others when it’s taken more
seriously, and Rannells navigates both tones as the show calls for it.
And the
singing? Goodness gracious me, my first
exposure to Rannells’s singing voice was a good one. He sometimes brings a “cartoon” tone into his
voice and that works really well for him here, both for capturing Elder Price’s
“golly gee” attitude and for the general larger-than-life-ness of the
show. (Sidebar: Rannells is destined to voice a Disney prince
someday, right? That’s the sort of thing
that’s just going to happen, especially with Robert Lopez writing for Disney
now? After all, Gad was in Frozen!) But he’s also just a
tremendously-good singer with a lot of power – he just sails on those high notes, and it’s a true pleasure to listen to (I
heard him discuss in an interview that, after he was cast in a workshop of the
show, he started not-so-subtly suggesting higher and higher arrangements for
his songs in the hopes that he’d be able to keep the part when they went to
Broadway, since it’d be hard to quickly find another suitable actor who could
sing that high.)
I know
that “I Believe” is the big-money number, and that’s deservedly so, but really,
he’s great on all his songs. Even just
little things like his verse in “Man Up” are great, as earnest as they are
funny – “Heavenly Father, / Why do you let bad things happen? / More to the
point, / Why do you let bad things happen to me?” If you ask me, though, his absolute best in
this show is “You and Me (But Mostly Me.)”
It’s an excellent two-hander with Elder Cunningham that shows off Elder
Price’s ego, his misguided ambitions, and Elder Cunningham’s slavish desire to
be his best friend, all with simply spectacular vocals.
Recommend?
In
General
– Yes, as long as you don’t mind extreme
vulgarity and blasphemy.
Andrew
Rannells
– Absolutely (with the same caveat as above.)
This show marked the turning point of Rannells’s career, and from
watching that Tony performance or listening to him on the cast recording, it’s
easy to see why.
Warnings
Tons of
swearing (including multiple C-words,) sexual content, violence, blasphemy, and
strong thematic elements (including jokes about female genital mutilation,
AIDS, and rape.)
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