Best of the Day: The Book of Mormon Opens – September 1, 2015

The Tony-winnning smash hit musical returns to Boston.

Welcome to Best of the Day, our daily recommendation for what to check out around town. If you do one thing in Boston today, consider this.


Book of Mormon Tour

The Book of Mormon National Tour / Courtesy photo by Joan Marcus

Today, The Book of Mormon returns to Boston for a third time. Winner of nine Tony Awards, this musical—from the same minds that produced South Park and Avenue Q—tells the tale of two Mormon missionaries who find themselves jettisoned into a remote Ugandan village menaced by warlords, famine, poverty, and disease…and still try to spread the good news to the locals anyway.

And you simply won’t believe how much this Book can change your life.

Or at least, it certainly changed Broadway box office records. According to its promoters, the show has broken 80 house records for 43 venues nationwide—and they also tell us here in Boston, The Book of Mormon “currently holds the records for the largest weekly gross in history at the Boston Opera House.”

On its opening day—which just happens to be September 1, a/k/a, Move-In Day—let’s take a minute to reflect on its creators.

Remember those dark times before Trey Parker and Matt Stone became a national satire institution, reliably goring pop culture’s sacred cows week in and week out on South Park? Neither do we. And in fact, there’s an entire generation that has never lived in a world without it: This year, Parker and Stone’s landmark Comedy Central show turns 18—the same age as the college freshmen currently clogging our streets with their U-Hauls.

And on this, the commuting day from H-E-double-hockey-sticks, we could all use a laugh. Find one at the Colonial Theatre.

Runs September 1-October 11, Emerson Colonial Theatre, 106 Boylston St., Boston, 617-482-9393, citicenter.org.