Theatre Review- The Book of Mormon

Some couples exchange jewelry or monogramed trinkets on their wedding day. My husband thought that the perfect wedding gift for ourselves was a pair of tickets to a musical! We bought our tickets for,The Book of Mormon, just before our wedding and bought an additional two for Dan's parents when we learned they would be visiting us. We were lucky to snag the last few tickets for them, as the show sold out fast!

I was a little unsure about seeing The Book of Mormon. In fact, I had zero desire to see it when it first hit Broadway. This is a huge statement, because I love theatre and I generally want to see every production. Hell, I even saw the musical adaptation of Bring it On. I'm a tough critic, but I'll see it all.

My paternal Grandparents were Mormon. I went to church with them frequently and I was even baptized into their faith, which was a bit of a scandal with the rest of my family who had baptized me Episcopalian as a baby. I'm not Mormon now or religious at all, but I was afraid that the musical might be mocking their faith or be mean spirited. I have little patience for religious intolerance whether it comes from those of a particular faith or those with no faith at all. For my grandparents, who I loved so much and for my many friends who are practicing Mormons, I was apprehensive that this show might be offensive.

I listened to the cast recording to get a better idea. The songs are catchy and often hilarious. In particular, I loved All American Prophet and Turn It Off. I still wasn't completely sold, but with all of the great reviews and awards, I decided to take a chance.

We saw it at the Historic Pantages Theatre in Hollywood. The theatre is gorgeous. I could just stare at the elaborate ceilings and feel like I've gotten my money's worth for the ticket price. It's small enough that there really isn't a bad seat in the house. We were in the front/middle of the mezzanine and had a perfect view.

The story follows two young men on their two year mission to Uganda. Elder Price is a golden boy, ready to take on the world and prove himself by making a difference. Price's mission partner is Elder Cunningham, a socially awkward man who has a colorful flair for making up stories. Cunningham is eager to become Price's friend and sidekick, hoping that a successful mission will make his parent's proud. When they arrive in Uganda, they quickly learn that bringing the locals into the Mormon faith will not be an easy task.

Yes, the show is often very crude. It's not for anyone who is put off by sexual content or pervasive swearing. It's from the creators of South Park, so this aspect of the show is not surprising. The crudeness usually wasn't without a purpose and often provided the biggest laughs of the show.

The show does a decent job at explaining some of the History of the Mormon's and their set of beliefs that set them apart from other Christian groups. You don't need prior knowledge of Mormonism to understand the show. It's done in a fairly lighthearted way which is mostly innocuous. I kept wondering if my grandparents had been sitting next to me, if they would have enjoyed the show. I think that they may have cringed at the language, but as artists themselves, I think that they would have praised the spirit of the show.

The show delivers solid moral lessons on friendship, faith and believing in yourself.

On faith, I was left with the take-away that having faith is a powerful and personal thing. All of the main characters are questioning their faith. The missionaries are questioning the faith they have had since childhood and the Ugandans are questioning this new faith that has been brought into their lives. The result is questioning faith leads to important growth and a deeper, more personal relationship with an individuals belief system and a sense of self. This is not an anti-mormon or anti-religion story, but one where the characters take a more active role in their faith.

In the second half of the show, Elder Cunningham is left on his own to bring the Africans into the church. The villagers are experiencing a major crisis and Cunningham uses his imagination to develop a ersatz version of Mormonism to help them. Until this moment, Cunningham has been a follower and has had very little faith in himself. When he is the only one left in charge, he rises to the occasion and shines.

At first, I thought that the portrayal of the African Villagers was offensive, almost showing them in need of rescuing by the white male missionaries. However, as the show continued, the villagers are shown as smart and capable. The mocking that is done regarding the villagers early on in the show, is on par with the mocking that is done to all of the characters. No one is safe in the show and that levels the playing field.

On a whole, I really enjoyed The Book of Mormon. It's probably the most genuinely funny musical that I have ever seen and it has a lot of heart. The touring cast had a ton of energy and it felt like we were there on an opening night, rather than one of hundreds of performances. The three lead actors (David Larsen, Cody Jamison Strand and Denee Benton) were fantastic and I'm sure that they will have long Broadway careers. If you are able to catch this production, I highly recommend it. I'm eager to see it again!

David Copperfield at MGM Grand

We have just returned from a weekend in Las Vegas with Dan's parents. The trip had been planned for several months and we had purchased tickets to see Le Reve at the Wynn on Saturday night. Just before lunch on Saturday, we headed over to the box office to pick up our tickets to discover that the performance was canceled due to technical difficulties.

Disappointed, we took a full refund and raced across the street to the Tix-4-Tonight booth at the Fashion Show Mall. Most of the shows that we wanted to see were not currently running, so we ended up getting tickets to see David Copperfield at the MGM Grand.

I love magic shows and I was very excited that we were able to get tickets for David Copperfield. He's a legend and this was my first time seeing him live. In our group, Dan was the only one who had already seen his show.

Our first clue should have been the unenthusiastic faces of the people exiting the early show. They spilled out from the show room and into the casino with bored faces. We watched them pass as we had pre-show drinks in Whiskey Down. I didn't let it throw me off, I was still hyped to see Copperfield.

Our seats were located in the front of the second half of the theatre and at the discount Tix-4-Tonight rate, they were approximately sixty-five a piece. Far cheaper than what we had paid to see Le Reve at the Wynn rate and that assuaged some of the disappointment we felt towards the canceled show. We had a clear view of the stage, even if we were a bit far back. The seating was on a padded bench with a table in front for cocktails. We were fine, but we saw some larger audience members having trouble with the seating arrangement. It's a tight squeeze.

No doubt, Copperfield is a great illusionist. Many of his tricks were mind boggling and astonishing.

However, overall, I didn't enjoy the show.

I'm hoping that we caught him on an off-night and that this was not indicative of his normal demeanor, but he came across as a complete jerk. Many of his tricks involve a random selection of audience members to participate and several times he mocked or made disparaging remarks towards those selected. He meanly made fun of a guy who didn't speak English and he told an overweight female to "suck it in".

Dan is convinced that the audience members were actually plants and that it was all part of the prearranged script. Maybe. I'm not sure. Even so, it wasn't very funny and didn't give me a very good impression of Copperfield. If it was completely scripted, he needs better writers.

Beyond his mean spirited comments, he didn't have a lot of stage presence. He seemed bored and as though he was going through the motions. He didn't command the stage and often mumbled. He didn't seem to be enjoying himself, which as an audience member, made me not enjoy myself.

Most of the tricks were very impressive, especially if you go along with the idea that the audience members were selected at random. In particular, I really enjoyed one of the earlier bits where he took a number and fact selection from three different audience members and then their answers appeared on a piece of paper that was locked in a box that had been on stage from the beginning of the show.

He used a live duck for a trick and even though the trick was really cool, I cringed seeing the duck being manhandled. He must have enough tricks in his repertoire that he should not need to have to resort to using a live animal in his show. It was uncomfortable to watch and I would imagine it would be upsetting to most animal lovers.

He tried out a new trick on us and made the audience vow to not reveal it or review/blog about it. Fair enough. Although, I think that I can say, since it doesn't give away specifics, that it was the worst part of the show. He obviously spent a lot of money on it, but it had a bizarre theme and a weird bit of over-the-top sentimentality that came across as extremely cheesy. We were trying not to laugh, as were many people sitting near us. It just didn't work with the show. As it was a bonus piece and a work in progress, I need to look at it as something extra and in that respect, it's always cool to see something experimental. I hope that he doesn't include it as a regular piece in the show until he has the kinks worked out, not so much with the magic aspect, but with the story and scripting.

I wouldn't pay money to see Copperfield again. I enjoy him better when he has his hour long television specials. If anyone reading this is looking for a great magic show in Vegas, I highly recommend Penn and Teller. They are far more entertaining and they know how to engage the audience. They also have better tricks!

SoCal Smarties Meet- The British are Coming

Last Sunday, Dan and I experienced our first time organizing a meet-up for the SoCal Smarties. It was hard work! Rewarding, but stressful.

Dan's parents have owned two Smarts, including the first right-hand drive in Europe bought in 2002. The experience that they have had owning Smarts is a big part of the reason that we decided to try the brand. When we found out that they would be visiting us, we wanted to make sure that they could attend a meet-up and see our local Smart Car club.

We themed it to Dan's parents and used the event name, The British are Coming, which was thought up by Patti, one of the group leaders. Patti and Bob were a huge help guiding us through our first time as organizers. Thanks!

We asked Dan's parents to bring over Cadbury Chocolate, which is different from the American Cadbury Chocolate. The American version has wax in it to keep it from melting. The British version is creamy and delicious.

The night before the meet, I baked several batches of fruit scones from a recipe in Jaime Oliver's Jaime's Food Revolution cookbook. The scones were a bit of a gamble. I'd never made them before and I even tweaked some of the instructions. However, they turned out fabulous! I highly recommend this cookbook as all of the recipes as that I've tried are easy and they have turned out great. The morning of the meet, Dan and his mother made a bowl of fresh cream to pile on the scones. They seemed to be a big hit.

At ten am, we met the rest of the group in the parking lot of the Los Angeles Live Steamers Railway Museum. We spent about an hour conversing and eating the treats that we brought. It's always fun to see all of the different Smart cars. There is a lot of creativity and modifications with the cars in our group.

The LA Live Steamers is a non-profit organization that is open to the public on Sundays for rides on their 7 1/2 gauge model trains. This had nothing to do with our British theming, but we thought that it would be a fun activity for the group.

Our group was spread across the first three train rides of the day.

The owner of the train that Dan rode kindly let us attach a Go-Pro camera to the front of the train. You can see how long the track is from the footage. It's a great deal for a three dollar donation.

After riding the train, we headed over to the Walt Disney Barn, which is only open on the third Sunday of every month. The Disney Barn is an amazing place for both train and Disney fans. For Disney fans, they have big name guest stopping by the barn every month. I can't reveal who will be there, but there will be a big celebrity stopping by the barn in March. The "who" will be announced on their website in a few weeks, keep an eye out!

At noon, we embarked on our scenic drive through Griffith Park and Hollywood. Dan led a nearly hour long drive and we had many pedestrians pull out their cell phones to take pictures of our convoy. We had lots of smiles, waves and looks of disbelief as we drove towards the English Pub for lunch.

Lunch was at the Robin Hood British Pub in Sherman Oaks.

The weekend before the meet, Dan and I had lunch at the pub and spoke with the event coordinator, Jerry, about reserving a space for our large group. Jerry and the staff at Robin Hood were excellent with our group. They joined together a huge table in the dining room and even created individual checks. It was a lot of work, but our server was friendly and competent. I would not hesitate to recommend the Robin Hood British Pub for large group functions.

We enjoyed watching Dan's parents interact with the group, especially their giving advice on British menu items. Everyone was a good sport for coming out and trying new things. I took a few pictures of the Smarts in the pub parking lot.

Our first time as event planners was a success!