The Book of Rannells: The Book of Mormon (2011)

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.)