the book of mormon | prince of wales theatre

ohhhh, how i love cheap theatre tickets. like, love them. so, come valentine's day when lastminute.com released their latest round of bargain tickets towards my inbox, i couldn't have opened the email faster. why? in the subject bar was the name of the one musical i have been hanging to see for over a year, and have never had the chance - or cash, to buy tickets for; the book of mormon, for £41.50 each. brilliant!

when the show was first released in london, it was amidst a media frenzy caused by a protest from the mormon church. why? the show is written by the folks behind 'south park' and 'team america' - matt stone and trey parker, and... well, you can surmise for yourself why they'd have an issue. i've seen all of their films, and although not a huge fan of the animated tv show, they sure are the reining kings of observational humour. pair that with some light hearted religious banter, token aids jokes and some straight up totes inappropes racist fodder, and well, doesn't that just scream tony award winnning west end musical? yes?

yes. which is why i wanted to see it so badly. that, and the fact that in over a year i've yet to hear one single bad review of the show. a few hit-and-miss jokes, a few faux-offended reviews, but never an actual "this show was shit" type comment that would make me think twice before spending more money on a ticket that i do a week on food. so we went; after work on monday.

we had a quick bite to eat at a local diner called grillshack (more on that another day), before taking a wander down to tesco on piccadilly for snacks, then through chinatown for a cheap but lovely scarf (i was frozen, and unprepared for the cold night air... it was blue and warm when i'd left home that morning!), then back to m&m world for the sweet, sweet chocolatey warmth, before heading to the theatre to take our seats.

which... were pretty good, considering they were half price! they were on the ground, which was a first for boyfriend, but they were on the hard left - which was only ever a problem when there were things going on in the corner of the stage (twice. only twice). we were at the end of the row, so had a shit ton of leg room which was awesome, and we had direct view of the stage. we were stoked! soon enough, more and more people trickled in, until... the whole room was full. there wasn't a spare seat in the room. another completely sold out night. it was going to be buzzing!

within minutes of the show starting, we were in fits of laughter. literally, minutes. literally, fits! the classic parker/stone language and humour was instantly recognisable in the lyrics of the songs, the over animation of the stars' faces, and in the voice over that sounded not too unlike eric cartman of 'south park' infamy. the two actor guys who play elder cunningham and elder price are just...incredible. they have great comic timing and work so well together. their relationship is one that just keeps on giving! and the guys in the ensemble were just... amazing.  they all gave so much in their performance, which was as bat shit crazy (spooky mormon hell dream sequence anyone?) as it was high energy and powerful (...spooky mormon hell dream sequence anyone?!).
i just... it was hilarious, you guys! i don't want to give any spoilers because i firmly believe that everyone should get their butts over to the prince of wales theatre and see this one for themselves, but this show now sits comfortably up there, in my top three of all time.

i've been to shows that i've not known anything about before hand, and really not enjoyed because there was no familiarity (wicked). i've also been to shows that i've known all the songs to, but known nothing about the story and have still enjoyed because of the nostalgia (jersey boys, the wizard of oz). i've then been to shows that just straight up sucked (dreamboats and petticoats, viva forever), and ones that have been all kinds of awesome - for all of the reasons (matilda, the lion king, hairspray). until now though, i'd never been to one that i'd a) known none of the music to, b) known nothing about the story, and c) only seen because of word of mouth. well. colour me converted. and on that note, i guess i now have to go and see les mis.

we loved it! have you seen it? what did you think?

comments on a post card.

*not a sponsored post. literally just personal love for musical theatre, humour, and london*