As I write this in Denver today, there’s a full-page, section-leading article in the Denver Post about the Book of Mormon Musical because tickets for the Denver shows are going on sale this weekend. The Book of Mormon Musical creators are from Colorado, so they’re starting their tour in their own backyard.
People have called the Book of Mormon Musical“groundbreaking,” but it’s really not because B.H. Roberts, a nineteenth-century LDS historian, wrote a novel called Corianton, which is based on the Book of Mormon way back in 1902, more than a hundred years ago, and this novel was turned into a Broadway show. Granted, Roberts’ musical wasn’t called the Book of Mormon Musical—it was called An Aztec Romance—but he got there first. You can read B.H. Roberts’ Corianton at Project Gutenberg for a glimpse of very early LDS lit.
Of course, where Matt Stone and Trey Park sprinkle expletives, B.H. Roberts sprinkles verses of scripture, so we’re talking a very different genre. But Roberts’ fiction-turned-Broadway has high drama, conflict, and even a female character named Joan, which doesn’t sound terribly Book of Mormon-ish. She’s lovely, though—sweet voice, Nephite heritage, slightly sarcastic, interesting (“And with this tantalizing witchery she left him”). One wonders what Roberts would have named Nephi's wife. Pam? Sylvia?
If LDS fiction—not the biting, patronizing kind, but the sincere kind—made it to Broadway 110 years ago, certainly there’s room today. Who’s going to write the next episode of Corianton and Joan’s adventures?
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