It’s won every award except our endorsement…
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[5.12]
Katherine St Asaph: The Book of Mormon, from all outside indications (like hell I can afford tickets) isn’t a Broadway musical so much as the South Park guys’ half-earnest, half-jokey imitation of a Broadway musical. In other words, it’s Avenue Q with Mormons instead of puppets, but even Avenue Q had its traditional ballads like “It’s a Fine, Fine Line.” “Hello” is not one of these. It’s completely traditional, mind you: the standard opening recitative, composed of title drops and character introductions and back-and-forth and patter and the moment at the end where everyone proves for the baited audience that they really can sing, and the chorus isn’t just a fancy term for people without roles. They’re necessary functions, but come on, nobody gives the recitative more than a:
[6]
Hazel Robinson: Thing is, this is a scene-setter; I suspect it’s great on stage and although the tune won’t surprise anyone it’s got the right pacing of dialogue and I can hear the way it turns into a chorus number. On the other hand it doesn’t really make sense out of context or pique my interest in the Book of Mormon into anything other than the occasional “oh, hey, that thing happened” thought it currently generates.
[7]
Anthony Easton: Not only am I a bit of a show tune queen, I may be the only ex-Mormon on the board. I should have an explict opinon about this — but I don’t really. It’s clever enough, and it knows Mormon semiotics quite well, but the cruel genius found in the songs of South Park or the lacerating anger of Team America is absent. Great Lit about Mormons takes it too seriously, (esp. Kushner) and there is just too much earnestness and weirdness not to have serious angry fun with it (esp. w. the ascendancy of Romney).
[5]
Ian Mathers: I don’t hate musicals (just most of them), but I sure do hate songs from musicals taken out of context, at least when the songs are clearly part of the musical’s narrative. (Yes, yes, I’m sure theatre nerds can pull out a bunch of songs that qualify according to what I just said as classics in the American Songbook that I think are swell, and that’s great; if we’re talking about current musicals, get back to me in 50 years, mmmkay?) But “Hello” isn’t bad — maybe it’s just the Party Down supernerd in me that makes me find Josh Gad’s opening line so hilarious, but between that line and the intonation on the absurdly drawn-out “Morrrrrrrrrmonnnnnnn,” at least I’m chuckling a little. It’s still 100% useless as an actual song, though.
[5]
Pete Baran: In the context of a musical it is about the definition of an opening song. It introduces the characters, it introduces the tone and builds into full chorus showstopper (and you shouldn’t really frontload with a show stopper). How to review it in the context of the Jukebox: well it’s a six from a showtune and Book Of Mormon perspective, so lets just go with that.
[6]
Jer Fairall: I certainly appreciate the fact that a religious satire co-written by the South Park guys can become the year’s most acclaimed and awarded Broadway show, but as a song “Hello” does little more than simply establish the premise in an especially side-nudging way. “Blame Canada” was a lot funnier even out of context, and in that case I didn’t even have the luxury of not belonging to the offended group.
[4]
Andy Hutchins: I understand that The Book of Mormon is better than the best thing since sliced bread, but this sounds a little too earnest as a standalone song. I suspect this would work a lot better in context, or with a Martin Solveig feat. Dragonette remix, though. (“I just came to save your soul!”)
[4]
Michaela Drapes: I knew this would be silly and catchy as h-e-double hockey sticks, but I honestly wasn’t expecting it to sound like David Sedaris and Stephen Sondheim did a whole lot of crank and wrote a musical about Mormons in like 72 hours on no sleep. Honestly, “Hello” isn’t nearly as good as any of the boffo numbers in last year’s emo musical Bloody, Bloody Andrew Jackson, but if it takes the more familiar and tourist-friendly antics of Matt Stone and Trey Parker (OMFG I can’t believe I just wrote that) to bring tacky old Broadway kicking and screaming into the 21st century, I’m okay with that.
[4]