#standbys

Tonight was my 11th time seeing The Book Of Mormon, and Dom Simpson was on as Elder Price. I've seen a bunch of swings in the show before, but surprisingly, this was my first time seeing a principal understudy/standby. I adore Nic Rouleau and was a bit bummed about not getting to see him this time, but I was mostly excited to see a new take on the role since I’ve seen Nic so many times. Dom is fantastic! His riffs in “You And Me (But Mostly Me)” and “Tomorrow Is A Latter Day” cleared my skin and stopped my feet from hurting (which is impressive, considering I did standing room after I already stood at work for 6 hours). He also lip synced along with Joseph Smith during “All-American Prophet” as an indication that he was telling the story. I’m not sure whether every Price does this and I just haven’t noticed or whether it’s something special that he does whenever he gets to go on. And his reactions to “Joseph Smith, American Moses” were priceless. (That pun started off unintended, but I realized it halfway through and decided to go for it.) His hair definitely has an Andrew-esque coif to it, and he has similar mannerisms, but it never felt like Dom was trying to copy or embody him. Still, that’s probably the closest I’ll get to seeing my personal lord and savior in that role again, and I’m having way too many feelings about that. My only ridiculously nit-picky critique is that he enunciated the words “Salt Lake City” a little too much in “All-American Prophet,” which lessens the humor in Nabulungi’s pronunciation. But that’s just me having fan problems. I told him at the stage door that tonight was #11, and he said, “That’s more than I’ve done it.” I really hope I get to see him in the role again.

Brian Sears is a wonderful, hilarious, manic Elder Cunningham. I’ve seen his portrayal 3 times now and look forward to many more. While most of the Cunninghams I’ve seen have been the kid you invite to your party out of pity but secretly hope they don’t show up, Brian’s Cunningham is the kid you don’t invite at all and block from seeing the pictures you post on social media to avoid hurting his feelings. His riffs are overdone on purpose, making them comedic while still sounding good. And his chemistry with Nikki Renée Daniels is...”something incredible.”

Stephen Ashfield also continues to impress me as Elder McKinley. During “Turn It Off,” he said, “Or bap” in response to Elder Church singing, “Just go bap,” and I found that so funny. Again, I don’t know whether that’s new or he always does it and I just didn’t notice until tonight, but I loved it.