I was thinking about The Book of Mormon, which had bowled me over the night before in Tucson, when I looked into the sky in La Jolla, Calif., and damned if I didn’t see a glowing golden statue that looked a whole lot like the angel Moroni.
It couldn’t be, I thought, freaking out a little bit as I walked a few more blocks and saw that Moroni, every Mormon kid’s favorite angel, was standing on top of a dramatic, white, impossibly clean building as is his wont. As I walked over the freeway on my way from the Hyatt Regency to the CVS, I couldn’t quit staring at the gleaming twin spires that dominated the sky.
Surely that can’t be a Mormon temple, I thought. I’m tripping cause of that damn musical. That fairy tale edifice on the hill, illuminated to within an inch of its life, is probably just a civic center with delusions of grandeur.
Still, I had to ask the lady unlocking her car in the Whole Foods parking lot.
“Excuse me, but do you know what that building is?” I asked.
“That’s the Mormon temple,” she said. “They like to put them next to freeways.”
“I knew that was Moroni,” I said. “It’s funny ’cause I saw The Book of Mormon last night in Tucson.”
“Oh, how was it?”
“Fantastic,” I said. “So sweet, so funny and so generous in spirit. One of the best things I’ve ever seen.”
Walking back to the hotel, I thought back to when I was about 12 years old and a whole bunch of us Safford kids piled into vans for a trip to the temple in Mesa. Once inside, we changed into exquisite white outfits before getting baptized (over and over again) in a huge golden tub for a bunch of dead people.
But that’s a whole different story. I hurried up to my room to write something about The Book of Mormon, a most benevolent Broadway musical. Take it from me, a good Mormon boy gone bad, it’s a marvelous work and a wonder.
And, if you don’t have tickets to one of the performances of the sold out, five-day run at UA Centennial Hall, you’re just going to have to believe me.
This article appears in Feb 18-24, 2016.
Horrible acoustics in Centennial Hall …. us po’ folks sitting way up top couldn’t hear much of the dialog. Except for the “fucks” which was funny and all, but still….
And now you can drive by Moroni on US Highway 70 in the lovely little town of Central AZ.
So, um, this review is basically, “I am/was Mormon and it was great.” Is TW owned by the Mormon church now or something? But at least I’m not in the dark as to the plot anymore: “dude, it’s ~Mormons~, what else do you need to know??” I guess I do know enough now…