When going down the checklist of things that I admire in a musical, it’s the power to have a great opening song. While any composer worth their weight can redeem themselves with subsequent songs, I see it as the old cliché. This is your introduction to this world and it’s very important that you understand this show fully by the end. It’s an opening thesis distilled into a few minutes of whimsical notes.
Ideally, a great opening number does most of the heavy lifting in making you care about this show. Without one, you’re entering with a state of skepticism that needs to be worked against, maybe even distracting from the otherwise good intentions. An opening number has a lot to live up to, introducing a variety of things that should include: theme, recurring motifs, characters, tone, and setting. The best can do this within a few bars, making you understand the show on a fundamental level. While it’s true that not every show needs to present their deck of cards upfront, there needs to be enough there to fill the audience with curiosity, to lean in and pay attention. The more you give them, the more likely they are to care. But don’t give too much, or it will be overbearing and confusing.
Opening Up is a column that I hope to return to spontaneously to reflect on this underrated art form, reflecting how the best shows can often be predicted from one song. It’s not a fool-proof plan, but it’s one that makes me excited right away, to find the deeper potential in this story. After all, a musical is a story through song, and the best can convey so much in a single second that it puts every other art form to shame.
That is why I want to begin with The Book of Mormon’s “Hello!” As one of the pivotal shows in my musical history, I think it’s important to start at the beginning. I remember the first time I listened to it back in 2011, having bought the OBCR from Amazon. While little of it is overtly funny, I remember smiling and laughing, realizing how much it caught me off-guard. If the lyrics weren’t pulling my attention, it was the magnificent harmonies. Every piece of this is a masterpiece that sets up everything so perfectly. You can only appreciate the subtext and foreshadowing after a few listens, or seeing the show multiple times to notice how claiming that Elder Arnold Cunningham is “making things up again” will come back later.
I’ve listened to this OBCR dozens of times by now. Even if there are a few lesser songs, it’s still one of the best shows of the past 10 years, ranking alongside other favorites like Hadestown and Dear Evan Hansen. I would even go so far as to argue that “Hello!” is one of the best opening songs of any musical ever, mostly for how it mixes simple choreography with all of these humorous and abstract ideas that secretly speak to what the show is all about. Not only that, but it most deliberately introduces the protagonist, Elder Kevin Price, in one of the most direct ways possible. Following the sound of a doorbell, Price (Andrew Rannells) begins the song amid silence:
Hello, my name is Elder Price
And I would like to share with you
The most amazing book
The harmony is bouncing, capturing your expectations of what a comedy about Mormon Missionaries would be like. Before we go further, it’s important to note that, at least by co-writers Matt Stone and Trey Parker (South Park), the religion is known for being this upbeat culture that are eager to convert people. They are squeaky clean, wearing a conventional white shirt with a black tie and pants. They look non-threatening and have this enthusiasm in large part because they’re young, having faith that the world ahead of them will be awesome. Price in particular claims that this book (The Book of Mormon) has “so many awesome parts.”
What can you get about a character from these three lines is incredible. Every one of the missionaries is standing on a grandstand, like a choir at The Mormon Tabernacle. One by one they begin to introduce themselves. They’re all in harmony, hitting the same melody as the orchestration shifts into a march. The bass line plays four descending notes as the drums quietly play, as if they’re in The Revolutionary War. It’s implicit and reflects how composer Robert Lopez is going to play with musical ideas throughout the score (listen carefully throughout the show and you’ll find dozens of references in the sonic scape alone).
By then the vocalists are picking back up. As more begin to enter the stage, they hit their marks while they press a doorbell. It’s another small way detail that is delightful and works better in the live production, where the tones are all different, with one person continually presses a door buzzer for comedic effect. It creates melodic chimes that give the group individual personalities. When everyone has arrived on stage, the vocals speed up, beginning to overlap while clutching their books to their chest, preparing to give their pitch to people.
We don’t actually see who Price is saying “Hello!” to. Arguably, they’re introducing the audience to the show while pretending to be at their homes. It’s a way to make it feel more intimate like we’re about to welcome them into our home and have them share their personal expression of faith. They seem nice enough, so why not allow them? Also, who can argue with a group of wonderful, harmonious Mormons who just want to give you a free book?
Along with each character comes more details about the book itself, reflecting the core values of every character. What is this book? It’s “about America a long, long time ago.” Why should we read it? It “gives you the secret to eternal life.” Sure, it’s all a bit vague but it still conveys everything about this show. I’ve always seen it is a 21st-century satire of salesmen, rich with irreverent humor that is mostly around the edges during this song but becomes more prominent once you watch the show and realize what happens when you send inexperienced teenagers to convert total strangers to a religion they take for granted.
This comes through in odd details that aren’t exactly comedy but help to build these invisible characters that we’ll never meet. Among the things that are spoken under the march, now starting to roll into a peppy chorus, we get missionaries asking “are these your kids?” and speaking to a diverse group of people, translating “Hello!” into French (“Bonjour!”), Spanish (“Hola!”), and Chinese (“Ni Hao!”). While it’s reflective of Mormon culture to learn an additional language, it implicitly proves how they train them for missions overseas, and how Elders Price and Cunningham will be going to Uganda later in the story. Even with this vast sea of knowledge presented upfront, it quickly becomes clear that education doesn’t equate experience.
Then, in a small moment that reflects the underlying hostility in the niceness, Elder Green says “Have fun in hell.” One has to ask what that’s all about. What did the person do to make him become so judgmental? As it leads to a repetition of “This book will change your life,” the harmonies building, a character enters the stage. He’s dressed as a Mormon, but he’s portly, a bit disheveled, and hitting a door buzzer that sounds like it’s experienced better days. It’s not like a chime, but more of an electric shock. It’s Elder Cunningham, who says:
Hello! Would you like to change religions? I have a free book written by Jesus!
Cunningham’s voice is scratchy, his demeanor less professional than his peers. He comes across as an outcast that doesn’t fit with everyone else. It brings the song to a halt, reflecting Lopez’s ability to have songs that ebb and flow with these asides that present odd ideas. As a significant character, there’s no better way to emphasize Cunningham’s awkwardness than with this choreography that immediately places him at odds with the other missionaries. It’s also a small gag that the show incorporates into many dances where one or two performers will be disconnected from the fantasy, taking a moment to realize shock at what this ritualistic behavior is really implying.
As he is reprimanded by a voice offstage, an announcer of sorts from the audience’s perspective, he learns that his simple and blunt way of handling things is wrong. Given that he’s only a few songs from being in Uganda and on his own, it’s troubling to think that he’s going to be our hero. This bumbling fool is sold as being a bit compulsive with his lies, which plays out in his favor in Act II. Still, as the song picks back up, he sings “Hello!” out of time before introducing himself as the other vocalists pause before the next line.
By this point, every significant Mormon character has been introduced, and it’s incredibly clear what the divide between Price and Cunningham are. While it’s not outright said who the protagonist is yet, it becomes clear that the first singer (Price) and Cunningham are characters we’re supposed to emphasize. There’s an emphasis on comedy that exists on the outskirts, both in these odd jokes and orchestral ideas that turn the mundane into something wondrous. Why are we doing this? Because we want more people to read The Book of Mormon. The song ends with everyone holding up a book, singing in a quiet, tender way. They have done their job, and it’s up to you to determine whether or not you want to go on this adventure.
It even ends as it began, with everyone now singing “Hello!” in unison to the crowd.
As far as introductions go, everything about the show is in this three-minute sequence. It’s simultaneously a scathing look at religion while also having a small reverence. Every joke comes from a sincere place, more reflective of character than a failure of beliefs. These missionaries are clearly too innocent to have bad intentions. All they want is to connect with others, make the religion stronger, and fulfill a duty that goes back generations. The show is as much about the present as it is the stories we tell each other to find unity and deeper meaning.
Upon first blush, a lot of this may go over your head. It may just be seen as an entertaining number. However, it’s one of the first times that I noticed musicals as being more complex, able to convey so much in decisions that could be written off as silly. It helps that everything that follows is a ridiculous and irreverent romp, but I think what’s abundantly clear is that this is the work of somebody who knows the Broadway craft, who knows how to introduce the various ideas that this show will have, and make a pretty great toe-tapping number.
I’m starting this column in large part because I want to celebrate one of my favorite parts of any musical. It’s when the lights go down and the show begins to take form. While it’s doubtful that you’re able to see a live show anytime soon, I encourage you to do this experiment. When watching a production or listening to a recording, stop yourself after the first song and ask yourself why it matters. What can you assume will happen based on this one part of the show? I’ll admit that “Hello!” is one of the more direct opening songs of the past decade. Some are able to be more secretive and coy about their intent, and they deserve just as much love.
Maybe one day I will share my own personal list of favorites. For now, I feel that it’s more important to explore why these songs matter as both entertainment and narrative. I’m planning to mostly do ones I really like, but don’t be surprised if I go into openers that have the opposite effect on me than intended (most notably: the title song from “Rent”). I don’t know when the next one will come. Maybe in a few weeks, a few months, or whenever I need something to talk about. For now, I wanted to start by ringing that doorbell and saying “Hello!” Like Elder Price, I hope some part of this has changed your life, even in a small way.
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