The Book of Mormon Review and a Mini Haul

Image taken from bookofmormonlondon.com

Hello… My name is Elder Coffee and I would like to share with you this amazing musical…

Okay, that wasn’t cheesy and awful at all now was it? But OMG (yes I just said that!) this musical is amazing and if you haven’t seen it yet, I will tell you to as soon as you can because it is one everyone must see.

I’m not the biggest fans of musicals, I reckon this is down to how many cheesy ones have appeared the past five to ten years so I have been put off. I wasn’t really keen on watching this one when my boyfriend first asked me if we could go, but after he told me who wrote it and what it was about, I was soon persuaded. Good boyfriend!

So he booked our tickets and a month or two later we were on our way to London and excited for our first evening there for the musical. I would say my boyfriend was a hell of a lot more excited than me, considering he has wanted to watch this musical since it came out nearly five years ago! Our friends as well as my boyfriends brother had already been to see it, so my boyfriend hearing of good reviews from them made him want to go all the more.

A little bit of background information about The Book of Mormon… It’s written by Trey Parker and Matt Stone, the guys behind South Park, and Team America. They also got some help from Robert Lopez who also wrote songs for Frozen.

We decided to dress up for the evening and wore smart clothing. I was meant to get pictures of my outfit, but alas this never happened. We got a couple of pictures together however that show off our outfits a little. The second picture is my favourite however, even though it is a little blurred.

We arrived just in time to get in the queue to go in, and get ourselves some drinks before getting to our sits and getting comfortable for the first half. The theatre itself was really nice and the staff were equally as nice and lovely to chat to. When we bought some goodies the girl who served up was really helpful and chatted to us about the actors in the original cast, which was awesome.

The musical started and the first song you hear is “Hello” and it is a perfect song to kick off the musical with. It’s just perfect, and very catchy. Me and my boyfriend haven’t stopped singing it since we watched it. Infact we’ve been like this with a lot of songs from the musical, including “I Believe”, “Joseph Smith American Moses” and especially “Hasa Diga Eebowai” which is probably the most offensive song in the musical… Maybe ever infact!

The meaning of “Hasa Diga Eebowai” is explained of course during the performance of it, but I will say what it means here. It means “Fuck you God” which is highly offensive… But with the way it is sung it does make you laugh and relate to why the African villagers are singing it in the first place.

Throughout the musical there are a lot of factual things in there, especially about how the mormon’s came to be which was really interesting for myself as I didn’t know about it until the musical to be honest. As well as that the musical overall was just really well written with all the songs being really catchy and not sounding cheesy. I found that one or two of the songs could be cheesy, but personally I feel that this was done on purpose due to what was being sung about and who by.

The actors, actresses, and the band all did such an amazing job and for how much my boyfriend paid for us both to go it was so worth the money! We already want to go again to see it, and hopefully will soon.

My boyfriends purchases from London, of course you can see his The Book of Mormon purchases here…

Of course we picked up some merchandise whilst we was there. We didn’t even know they would have any! I had mentioned before heading to London how I wanted to buy my boyfriend the soundtrack so he could listen to it during work which he ended up buying for himself. He also picked up a t-shirt for himself and a program. I wore my t-shirt earlier this week after we got back home from London and it’s one of the most comfortable ones I own, and I’m not just saying that either. It’s a V-neck for the women’s which is very different and not a style I own at the moment, so it was a nice change. As you can see my boyfriends and the men’s is orange, which is pretty cool. You may have also noticed that they say “Hasa Diga Eebowai” which I have already told you means “Fuck you God”. I won’t lie, I was really worried when I first wore this t-shirt out as I was paranoid someone may know what it meant and stop me in the street to say something, but alas I was lucky. This is one problem I am having with this meaning and me wearing it on a t-shirt. I don’t feel that way personally, and it is just a t-shirt I’ve bought after watching the musical. So I just wanted to get that out there, that whilst I’m not the most religious person in the world, I don’t personally feel this way about God. So yeah… Anyway…

The soundtrack is amazing! I have a copy on both my iPod and my iPhone and it’s something I haven’t stopped listening to. One of my favourite songs being “Believe” as I just love singing it. The big book I also picked up is amazing! It has loads about the before, during, and after process of the musical, as well as the script and lyrics for it in the back of the book, something that I really wanted it for. It’s huge too! It wasn’t cheap to be honest, but it was well worth the money and will be something that I’ll put on my bookshelf once we move out.

Andrew Rannells (Girls, and The New Normal) who originally played Elder Price and Josh Gad (Olaf in Frozen) who originally played Elder Cunningham both did an amazing job and whenever I listen to the soundtrack it just makes me smile so much, I would just love to watch the original version with them in. Although there is a naughty copy on YouTube, it’s rubbish quality so I couldn’t bring myself to watch it.

The only thing I really want now is for The Book of Mormon to come closer to home. Many of the greats including The Lion King and Wicked have both come to Birmingham now and I just want this one too as well. I would probably go and see it way too much mind and it’d cost me so much money. In the meantime though, me and my boyfriend are hoping to go again soon as we just enjoyed it so damn much. Even arriving there in the daytime to have a look at The Prince of Wales Theatre I felt so excited, so when we went in the evening when it was all lit up I just felt in heaven. But of course, it was even better when we left and it was darker outside so the whole building was lit up like a Christmas tree. I just died when I saw it and pestered my boyfriend to take loads of pictures. I’m surprised I didn’t take any myself and I’m sad that I never.

Alongside Hyper Japan, this is one of the best things I have done and one of the things I have really enjoyed doing so far this year. I just had an amazing evening out with my boyfriend, had a laugh watching the musical, and it just really did kick start our weekend in London.

Have you been to watch The Book of Mormon, if so what did you think of it? If not, would you like to? Make sure to let me know in comments down below.

Until next time take care all and have a lovely weekend!