My husband and I went to see The Book of Mormon for two reasons:
A) The story of why the musical was written is amusing. The creators of South Park said, "Hey, it can't be THAT hard to write a musical - let's do it." So they did!
B) it won a bunch of awards so we wanted to see what the hype was all about.
If you like South Park, you will love it. For me, South Park is hit or miss. I'm not a huge fan but sometimes get a kick out of it. The Book of Mormon is a religious, social, racial, political, cultural, satire: par for the course for the South Park writers. It's obviously satirizes the Mormon religion the most, so knowing a bit about the Mormon church's beliefs definitely makes it more humorous.
It also echoed themes from famous Broadway shows, like "The King and I" and "Wicked," poking fun at the world of musical theatre. It was actually quite clever, so for all you Musical theatre buffs out there, you would appreciate that humor.
I give the show a three star rating because I don't feel that humor is equivalent to brilliance. It was a lot of fun, the set was beautiful, the actors performed marvelously, the orchestra was very talented, but for me, it is not something that I would see over and over again. I didn't leave singing any songs nor did I find the plot that intriguing.
I'm glad I saw it. I'm just not sure that it warrants the multiple awards it received: a thin plot-line that is supported by borrowed themes and vignettes and motifs of past Broadway successes. Is this the show that we want in future generations history books as the masterpiece of its time?
If you're looking for a fun and goofy night - then go see it. Otherwise, wait for the the off-Broadway production or the movie version that will probably follow.