"The Book of Mormon". Photo by Joan Marcus.
In our continuing series, we’re taking a look at songs cut from Broadway musicals to see what happens in the making of a show. Next up, the biggest hit of the year, The Book of Mormon…
Musicals are tough to write. There are so many moving parts and so many things that change as a show develops, a tumbling of dominos with each revision. So it’s particularly fascinating to have seen a developmental reading of The Book of Mormon a few years ago and realize now that the show was already in very close to Broadway shape at that early stage. It just worked. The craft of the storytelling was impeccable and is something that remains, for me, the secret of the show’s success.
But, of course, things did change during the process of writing it. Instead of me explaining why the song “The Bible is a Trilogy, Too” was cut, let’s let the affable co-writer Bobby Lopez tell the story and play selections from it. (There’s a lot more where this came from; listen to the complete WNYC Soundcheck interview.) Who knew the Bible has something in common with The Mighty Ducks…
