guardiannews.com: The Book of Mormon, the much-applauded musical from the creators of South Park, officially opened in London last week – and like the grinning, clean-cut missionaries whose story it relates, it's been getting some baffled reactions from the locals. Well, the ones who work as professional theatre critics, anyway. I saw it on Broadway last spring, and can't recall a more purely hilarious and heart-warming evening in years. But the Telegraph's Charles Spencer found it "hard to warm to", "decadent" and "self-indulgent". My colleague Michael Billington, though deeming it "perfectly pleasant", also called it "essentially a safe, conservative show for middle America", awarding three stars out of five. Quentin Letts, of the Mail, called it "cowardly, coarse, cynical" and "worth avoiding"; in the Times, Libby Purves found it "morally null" and even "pretty racist".
9 comments:
I think this is a really unsurprising but surprising thing. I don't really find it surprising that the british have a different view from that of us. I also however find it surprising that they have such different reactions than that of americans. We can often differ on a lot of things but that is because it is two different cultures. The T.V. show skins did extremely well in England and america however when america made their own version of the T.V. show the show crashed and burned. This seems understand able the T.V. show had a lot of british culture in the show and maybe that is why it did so well it hit home in England and in america we were enamored with the fact they are British. So when the T.V. show was transferred I don't understand why it failed. The writing was also done extremely well, giving a good frame work it might just be our cultures differ enough that changing things from one nation to another just doesn't work.
I always think that it is funny to see the difference between the American and British critics. For example I am pretty sure that at first, The Phantom of the Opera was not very well received in London, but then praised here. And really, I love that show. However, I would think that book of Mormon would be well received because it won so many awards here. I have yet to meet someone who does not like this show! The again it is good to point out that even the British have mixed opinions.
Huh. I do find it interesting that most of the critics cannot seem to agree on why it is that they don't like the show. And as always, I am interested about the audience's reception and wonder whether or not it agrees with any of the critics. I do think it's interesting to see which shows, both TV and theatre, succeed in the transition across the ocean. TV wise, it's interesting to see which shows that don't get an American remake that succeed, like Doctor Who and BBC Sherlock, compared to some shows which have and American remake, like the aformentioned Skins, which fail.
This writer really didn't give many valid examples warranting an article about British critics not liking the Book of Morman. I think that there were just as many American critics who didn't it when it first premiered. Instead of just quoting things that British critics have said maybe they should have sought to highlight WHY these differences of opinion may have occurred. As I mentioned last week it is a little racist, but it is a little many things. If you hate jokes about people and race and groups, you'll hate Book of Morman, if you like that stuff, you'll love it. If you want something deep and moving, you are watching the wrong show; something semi-senseless, but entertaining, then watch on. I dislike South Park and I think that the only reason that I was able to enjoy Book of Morman was because I knew the writers style and their vision. If you don't like that style, or don't intend to be slightly opened to it, then you'll hate it.
I can't say that I'm completely surprised that The Book Of Mormon isn't doing as well in London. Aside from the fact that the show is bound to offend at least someone (if not everyone in the best way possible, as intended by the writers) the type of humor over seas is just different. The British are known for their extremely dry humor and The Book Of Mormon is anything but. I don't think that it's not terribly shocking that something that was so well received and deemed "hilarious" over here wasn't in England. I do find it extremely strange that the show was considered "conservative" by some. The point of the show seems to be way more liberal, considering it makes fun of conservative religions (while also admitting that there isn't really anything that makes not having a religion better). I don't find it to be in favor of one or the other, just simply making fun of both. Hopefully, audiences will begin to understand that, and they'll start to warm up to it. It would be a bit sad to see it close so soon.
So many contradictory criticisms of such a lauded show. The Brits are clearly very confused here. Perhaps they forgot their morning tea and wondered into the show bleary-eyed and expecting another one of RSC's riveting productions of Hamlet: Set in an Ambiguously Modern Time Period. Considering that they don't understand this branch of Trey Parker and Matt Stone's humor I'd be interested to hear what they think of South Park, or Team America. Perhaps Parker and Stone's brand of social satire is too specific to America to be applied anywhere else, or maybe the British just have a poor sense of humor. We may never know
This isn't all too shocking. American humor and British humor are very different. When asked what the most British, farthest thing from American, type humor there is, most people will say Monty Python. Well if Monty Python is at the far British end of the humor spectrum, then Matt and Trey and the team at Book Of Mormon reside in the extreme opposite end of the scale.
The Brits are huge fans of dry witty and thoughtful humor. BOM embodies the core traits of American ruckus (raunchy, vulgar, offensive, in your face).
Basically it works in both directions. It is the reason that TV shows like The Office and Wilfred had to be reformatted into a new American version in order for it to gain popularity here.
Pop Culture references must be altered and they might not be as funny as originally intended.
All in all, Book of Mormon is a phenomenon that was carefully crafted for its audience. Unfortunately that audience does not include the United Kingdom.
I agree with what others have said about this not really being surprising: American humor and British humor are different, and Mormonism may not have the same cultural relevance in the UK as it does here (especially after Romney and the 2012 election cycle).
What I think is more important about this article is the broader implication that is important to know: theatre can mean different things to different people. A worldwide hit is pretty hard to come by in theatre, partly because different cultures and countries have different values, different senses of humor, and different ideas about what is relevant and entertaining. Theatre is written for an audience, and audiences change, which is what makes theatre so exciting.
I found this article extremely interesting. I am not too surprised simply because the British have the tendency to be more conservative. A previous article discussed how when the Book of Mormon people were able to exchange their tickets because the show was so out there. I think the same applies for Britain. They are just not used to this type of show.
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