Liken’s Brush with the Great White Way

Ours is a small office. So when a TV producer from New York City orders a set of our Gold Series (our four Liken titles based on stories from the Book of Mormon) awhile ago, word tends to travel.

A little online research revealed that the customer was a producer for the creators of South Park, an animated TV show created by Trey Parker and Matt Stone. We weren’t quite sure what to think about that. We knew the South Park boys had given the comic treatment to Mormonism in the past on their TV show as well as in their movie “Orgazmo.”

In retrospect, it appears that the enterprising producer had done an online search for musicals about the Book of Mormon, had come across our Liken Gold Series and sent for it.

Why she would be doing such research is now fairly clear. Trey and Matt have just opened a musical on Broadway called “The Book of Mormon,” which tells the story of two Mormon missionaries’ efforts in Uganda. The reviews have generally been positive, acknowledging the show’s incredible crassness, yet praising its overall affirmation of faith.

I haven’t seen it. I know that its language is of the kind that I generally try not to ingest if I can help it, so I may never see it. But I confess part of me is curious.

And while I’m in confession mode, I’ll add on that part of me is slightly jealous. These guys have figured out how to get a religious-themed show on Broadway and how to make it work. Granted, they had to skewer religion (one in particular) to get there. But I suspect, as these things tend to do, it will result in an increased interest on the micro-level to compensate for what it pushes away on a macro-level.

Modern cynicism still seems to give a pass for the heartfelt sincerity of a Broadway musical. But those passes seem fewer and farther between. (One of my daughters just got back from a week in NYC, where she saw more confirmation – Spider-Man, the musical – that Broadway may be struggling to find its way a bit.)

So, for now, it seems we’ll have to content ourselves with a connection to the Great White Way via a quartet of our DVDs sent to a producer as part of the research for a show that is now playing on Broadway. Maybe not exactly the stuff of every boy’s dream, but we start where we are and press forward from there, right?