{"id":32996,"date":"2016-04-02T14:32:43","date_gmt":"2016-04-02T20:32:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/?p=32996"},"modified":"2016-04-05T13:09:48","modified_gmt":"2016-04-05T19:09:48","slug":"plan-bs-kingdom-of-heaven-a-mormon-roadshow-with-an-lgbt-message","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/plan-bs-kingdom-of-heaven-a-mormon-roadshow-with-an-lgbt-message\/","title":{"rendered":"Plan-B’s Kingdom of Heaven: A Mormon Roadshow with an LGBT Message"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Planboutside\"<\/a>

Jeanette Puhich<\/p><\/div>\n

There is one topic du jour<\/em> that seems repetitive: devout Mormons, lapsed Mormons, non-Mormons, all appear concerned lately (belatedly) with LGBT rights in the LDS Church. Books like the Mormon mystery His Right Hand<\/em> by Mette Ivie Harrison, so many newspaper articles and letters to the editor, and now the first original musical at Plan-B Theatre Company, \u201cKingdom of Heaven,\u201d deal abundantly with this subject.<\/p>\n

Thursday night, it was Plan-B on the docket and an entertaining evening of singing and dancing it turned out to be, intentionally, it seemed, just like a Mormon roadshow of old — along with the topical stuff, of course. (Much of it confusing to non-LDS types, but all of this gets a bit easier to understand with practice, or so this reviewer has found.)<\/p>\n

Apple\u2019s Siri greeted us as the lights dimmed, ironically asking that we turn off our cell phones and iPads among other general announcements: the play would be 80 minutes long and if you needed to use the Ladies you wouldn\u2019t be allowed back into the theater \u2013 that sort of thing.<\/p>\n

Siri also told us that the book and lyrics were by Jenifer Nii; music and lyrics by David Evanoff; and the play was (extremely well) directed by Plan-B artistic director Jerry Rapier.<\/p>\n

The plot centers on MJ (Jennifer Puhich), a seemingly happy (but nevertheless slightly frustrated) Mormon housewife.<\/p>\n

Brenda, her best friend and neighbor (Susanna Florence) encourages her to send a vocal tape to a rocker show (\u201cDon\u2019t tell me you sent them a Carpenter\u2019s song?\u201d she asks, aghast). MJ actually has sent in a song of her own composition and is invited to perform with a group of \u201cdrag kings.\u201d<\/p>\n

While she loves her husband and children (even delivering powerful \u201ctestimony\u201d at an LDS chapel to this effect \u2013 also sharing her belief in Jesus Christ and the eternal family and some other things I didn\u2019t get \u2013 gentiles might want to glance at The Salt Lake Tribune\u2019s<\/em> \u201cYour Quick A-to-Z guide to Mormonism\u201d before seeing this play — things are beginning to seem a little shaky at home and she wants very much to pursue a musical career.<\/p>\n

Husband Joe (David Hanson \u2013 pitch perfect in every way) suggests his wife get a new hairstyle, a new dress, a makeover, have a spa day. MJ questions why that\u2019s necessary, which leads to a heated discussion followed by a charming duet:\u201dI Love You the Way You Are.\u201d That sentiment doesn\u2019t last for long.<\/p>\n

MJ suddenly appears in pants instead of her long Mormon dresses, muttering about making further transitions, more than confusing her husband and kids. Unfortunately, there simply was not enough development of MJ\u2019s character prior to her \u201cdiscovering\u201d her masculine side for this abrupt change to make sense. \u00a0\u201cYou seemed happy before,\u201d Brenda says. \u201cYou can seem<\/em> a lot of things,\u201d MJ retorts.<\/p>\n

And transition she does, appearing at her husband\u2019s office party replete with David Bowie hair and wearing a tailored \u201cman\u2019s\u201d suit instead of a gown. (It was Ann Taylor, actually.) Her appearance leads to a major blow-up at home, with shockingly crude language one does not expect in an LDS household. Joe tells MJ that this is where it starts \u2013 next she\u2019ll be demanding the priesthood.<\/p>\n

Gender identity and the church are revealed to be at the core of the play and some touching scenes (and surprising ones) ensue, accompanied, of course, by lovely and often amusing lyrics. MJ ultimately will perform a song called \u201cDrag!\u201d at a place called The Pleather Club \u2013 a name which seems a little \u201cfocused\u201d for your average gay bar in Salt Lake City. And \u201cI Love You the Way You Are\u201d gets an unexpected performance as \u201cI Like You the Way You Are.\u201d Wait for it.<\/p>\n

On opening night there were a couple of correctible flaws: Susanna Florence\u2019s delicate soprano, for example, often couldn\u2019t be understood over the music, as was true occasionally of other actors\u2019 voices, particularly when the organ soared.<\/p>\n

But David Evanoff\u2019s orchestration and musical direction were superb — as was expected from The Tribune\u2019s<\/em> March 27th<\/sup> glowing feature article on him. Philip R. Lowe\u2019s costumes were spot-on, though it did seem that friend Brenda changed outfits more often than a Kardashian. \u00a0Jesse Portillo\u2019s lighting was, typically, excellent and the sets by Thomas George worked beautifully. Stage manager Jennifer Freed went beyond her job description to keep things running smoothly.<\/p>\n

\"Planbinside\"<\/a>

Susanna Florence, left, Jeanette Puhich and David Hanson in Plan-B Theatre’s musical “Kingdom of Heaven.”<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cKingdom of Heaven,\u201d Plan-B Theatre Company, Rose Wagner Performing Arts Center, Salt Lake City, through April 10, Tickets: 801-355-2787, arttix.org<\/a>, planbtheatre.org <\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There is one topic du jour that seems repetitive: devout Mormons, lapsed Mormons, non-Mormons, all appear concerned lately (belatedly) with LGBT rights in the LDS Church. Books like the Mormon mystery His Right Hand by Mette Ivie Harrison, so many newspaper articles and letters to the editor, and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":844,"featured_media":32998,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_piecal_is_event":false,"_piecal_start_date":"","_piecal_end_date":"","_piecal_is_allday":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[34,36],"tags":[2851,2849,2255,278,2850],"class_list":["post-32996","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-performing-arts","category-theatre","tag-david-hanson","tag-jennifer-puhich","tag-jerry-rapier","tag-plan-b-theatre","tag-susanna-florence"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/Planboutside.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-05 13:18:36","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32996","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/844"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32996"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32996\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":33044,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32996\/revisions\/33044"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32998"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32996"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32996"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32996"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}