Theatre Review: A New Set of Believers, but the Same Peppy Faith

THE NEW YORK TIMES
By Ben Brantley

Nic Rouleau, center, stars as Elder Cunningham in the current company of “The Book of Mormon” on Broadway. Credit Joan Marcus

NEW YORK---Clean living, it would seem, really does keep a body healthy. Just look at those nonsmoking, nondrinking boys in “The Book of Mormon.” They’ve been hanging around in the insalubrious, soul-sapping environs of Broadway for more than three years. Yet they don’t look a day older than when they arrived. Three years is a long time for a peppy musical to stay peppy. But gosh darn it if I didn’t feel born again all over again, ready to spread the word about the faith that this show preaches and, more important, practices. I do not mean the religion of the followers of Joseph Smith, which is so scrupulously disassembled here, but the holy faith of musical comedy, into which my mama baptized me before I could walk. [link]