By Adam Hogue

3/30/16

Dozens of Mormon missionaries could be found along Main Street and Beale Street outside of Memphis’ Orpheum Theatre last week, offering a smile and information to theatre patrons as they made their way to see the Broadway musical, “The Book of Mormon.”

One of those missionaries was Elder Joseph Butler, a 21-year-old believer serving out of Salem, Utah. Butler said that the musical offered a great opportunity for members of the church to spread their beliefs in a way that theatergoers could find familiar.

“Well, as missionaries our purpose is to invite others to come into Christ, and we want to invite as many people as we can,” Butler said. “And so seeing this as an opportunity to talk to a lot of people that kind of have something to connect it to, we thought it was a great opportunity to get to share the message with as many people as possible.”

Butler and his group of accompanying missionaries arrived about one and a half hours before the start of the show and stayed until midnight, passing out information cards and copies of the actual Book of Mormon to people before and after the show. Butler said that the response from people was overwhelmingly positive.

“Most people are appreciative of someone who’s doing something out of the comfort zone because they love doing it,” Butler said. “And so everyone’s usually pretty nice, pretty courteous about it; I think it’s overall a positive reaction.”

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints places a high emphasis on spreading the message of their beliefs. Members of the church travel around the world engaging in community service, humanitarian aid, and informing anyone with whom they come into contact about their faith.  By the end of 2014, the church reported that it had over 85,000 missionaries serving worldwide.

“The Book of Mormon” the musical revolves around two of these young Mormon missionaries as they are assigned to their first mission in Uganda, Africa. Upon their arrival, the two are met with the harsh realization that life for the African villagers is that of disease, war, and extreme poverty, and that the task of spreading their message of Mormonism may not be as easy as they had anticipated.

Seeing the musical for the first time was 22-year-old Jacob Woloshin, a senior journalism major at the University of Memphis.

“I’d heard from friends and family that it’s kind of a raunchy play, and watching Matt Stone and Trey Parker shows my whole life, you know I thought with all the awards it won it could be a very, very fun experience,” Woloshin said. “And it was.”

“The Book of Mormon,” crafted by critically acclaimed artists Robert Lopez, Matt Stone, and Trey Parker, debuted on Broadway’s Eugene O’Neil Theatre in March 2011 and was met with raving reviews. That same year, at the 65th annual Tony Awards, the production won nine of the 14 nominations it had received, including Best Musical, making it one of the most highly decorated shows in all of musical theater history, joining the likes of Mel Blanc’s “The Producers,” which won 12 awards.

Woloshin, who attended the musical with his father, stepmother and brother on opening night, initially believed that the missionaries outside of the theater were part of the musical.

“They were standing there being very friendly and offering up their literature for their religion,” Woloshin said. “If you passed them they would just politely ask you a question, they weren’t really going to get people; they were just kind of waiting for the opportunity really.”

The missionaries were not allowed to stand directly in front of the theater, but lined the adjacent streets and street corners, striking up conversations with passers-by.

“We were walking up to him and basically he was just like, ‘Did you guys enjoys the show?’ and we were like yeah, and he was like, ‘Well do you want the real thing?’ and then he showed us the book,” Woloshin said of his encounter. “And I was just like oh, I appreciate it, but no thank you.”

Members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints hand out information to theatergoers leaving “The Book of Mormon,” on Tuesday night. The musical, showing at the Orpheum Theatre March 15-20, focuses on Mormon missionaries’ efforts to spread their faith around the world.

As far as the musical was concerned, Woloshin said that he and his family “absolutely loved” the production, and the accompanying audience seemed to feel the same way.

“I don’t know if there was an empty seat,” Woloshin said of the 2,500-seat theater that night. “It really was like, very loud and people were going crazy for it, they loved the songs; you got like a massive applause after every one pretty much.”

Although familiar with the show’s success and cultural impact, Butler said that he has no intentions to see the show anytime in the near future.

“Uhm, probably not, probably not,” Butler said while laughing. “Just because I’ve heard it has some explicit content I guess.”

Explicit content, indeed, a fact that Woloshin acknowledged as well.

“I’d say if you’re easily offended by religious jokes, I don’t think it’d be the place for you,” Woloshin said.