The Book on Mormons: a brilliant new musical from the creators of South Park both mocks and admires religion.

• Author: Bailey, Ronald

SOUTH PARK CREATORS Trey Parker and Matt Stone have conspired with Avenue & lyricist Robert Lopez to create The Book of Mormon, an outrageously rude, irreverent, yet big-hearted Broadway musical. The show relentlessly satirizes Mormon doctrines about gays, blacks, coffee, golden plates buried in ancient upstate New York, and God's home on the planet Kolob. But it also advances the notion that religious belief can enable people to behave better toward others. Stone has called the play "an atheist love letter to religion." That's a pretty accurate summation.

The wonderfully blasphemous show centers on the hapless activities and confabulations of two 19-year-old Mormon missionaries. Young Mormon men called "elders," wearing the familiar uniform of white shirt and black necktie, generally spend two years riding bikes and ringing doorbells as missionaries for the faith. The musical opens when Elder Price--a nearly perfect example of white-bread Mormon manhood, and he knows it--is paired with schlubby sci-fi geek and pathological liar Elder Cunningham.

The mismatched duo arrives in warlord-infested, AIDS-plagued, dirt-poor Uganda, where gun-toting thugs immediately rob them of their luggage. The elders stumble into a miserable village, where they complain about being assaulted. Mafala Hatimbi, the leader of the downtrodden villagers, cheerfully explains that when things go bad, as they always do, the villagers sing "Hasa Diga Eebowai." The song is one of several homages to other Broadway numbers--in this case "Hakuna Matata" (Swahili for "There Are No Worries") from The Lion King.

Drawn in by the infectiously upbeat music, the elders soon join the African ensemble in the exuberant song and dance number. Eventually the elders ask Hatimbi what the phrase means. Dancing with his middle digit extended high in the air, the village headman explains that it's telling God to screw himself. The song continues: "Here's the butcher. He has AIDS. Here's the doctor. He has AIDS. Here's my daughter. She has ... a lovely personality. But if you touch her, I'll give you my AIDS!"

Thus the elders meet the lovely Nabulungi, who becomes the focus of their proselytizing. Inspired by a vision of the Mormon hometown, Nabulungi sings a charming ballad reminiscent of "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" about her longing for the peaceful paradise of ... Salt Lake City. And it's no wonder she longs for Utah, because the village is menaced by an evil warlord with a name (like...