Allison's Adventures in the Big Apple: The Book of Mormon

Today is my second day in Washington DC, otherwise I would have written this post earlier. I'll write a post on the DC trip when I get home next week :)

Anyway, a couple nights ago my friend and I thought we'd try and enter our names into the lottery to see the new musical The Book of Mormon. We tried last week and didn't get our names pulled. BUT, it was our lucky day! My friend's name actually got pulled so we were able to buy two tickets (at $30 each) to a show that is sold out until November!

The winning ticket!

We were soooooo excited! I've been wanting to see this musical for a while because it has gotten amazing reviews and is clearly very popular since it has sold out so far in advance. We figured we'd have to go down there and play the lottery a lot of times before we'd ever be lucky enough to get a ticket. Basically the way the lottery works is that about 500 people enter their name for each show and probably around 10 names get pulled depending on how many seats they have open. Each name that gets drawn can buy 2 tickets. So if you go with a friend and you each enter once, you have two chances to win since if either of your names get drawn you both can go.

Standing in front of the theatre

For those that haven't heard the phenomenon that is this show. The Book of Mormon is the brain child of the guys who created the TV show South Park and the guy who wrote the musical Avenue Q. The musical follows two mormon missionaries to Uganda where they see the terrible conditions the local people are living in. Oh, and it's a comedy. The show is lively and funny, the music is great, and, oh, did I mention it has more curse words and other what could be considered offensive material than probably any other Broadway show ever? Basically this show is hysterical and I loved it but you do have to have an open mind when you see it. If you are easily offended...this is not the show for you. The show is definitely shocking but much in the same way shows like South Park is shocking. Basically the 2 1/2 hour show completely flew by and when it was over it felt like we couldn't have been in there more than an hour. It flows really well and you find yourself caught up with the music and the characters. This is a show that I would definitely like to see again if I get the opportunity.

I already posted a clip of this show from the Tony Awards (in my review of my favorite moments) but here is a pretty good interview and overview of the show from CBS Sunday Morning. The beginning also shows you what the lottery is like - and yes, it was just as crazy when we tried.

After the show we waited outside the stage door and got autographs. Since the actors in this show (while amazing and some of them are already Tony winners) are not as well known as in some other shows, there was not a huge population outside the door meaning we were able to be up close. All the actors were really nice and honestly seemed to enjoy the fact that there were so many fans of the show.