The national touring production of The Book of Mormon will soon make its highly anticipated return to Cleveland’s Playhouse Square theater district for five nights only! Cleveland theater patrons are used to having the show in town for multi-week runs, but this engagement will be only eight shows! (Grab your tickets…assuming there are still some available when reading this preview!)
A Huntington Featured Performance, The Book of Mormon will be in town beginning Tuesday, October 24 with performances through Sunday, October 29.
One of the biggest successes on Broadway in recent decades, the semi-controversial show written by Matt Stone, Robert Lopez, and Trey Parker has made theater-goers LOL since its 2011 debut.
Ohio native Trevor Dorner, who switches roles throughout each performance, checked in with CleveRock.com ahead of the show’s Cleveland run.
For those unfamiliar with The Book of Mormon, Dorner was asked to provide a spoiler-free synopsis of the show.
“The Book of Mormon is a musical written by the creators of South Park, so that should give you a good idea of the general tone of the musical,” he explained. “But generally, the show follows two Mormon missionaries who get sent to Africa, Uganda, specifically. It’s sort of your classic buddy comedy pairing where you have your perfect straight-A student missionary and then your sort of quirky awkward one. It’s that sort of standard setup there. They get sent on their mission, these 19-year-olds from Utah, to somewhere completely different than anything they’ve ever seen or experienced or expected. They go out trying to change the world or thinking that they can change the world and then get sent to a place very different than anything they expect and the world ends up changing them.”
Dorner plays multiple roles, including the father of the show’s protagonist, Elder Kevin Price, Joeseph Smith, the Mission President, as well as the voices of other characters. This is undoubtedly a challenge, portraying multiple characters throughout the course of the show, but Dorner thrives on the idea of being the adult in the room.
“I play what we kind of affectionately call the adult Mormon track, which is just where I play several characters throughout the show,” he said. “I think it’s like five or six, but pretty much any adult character is me because, well, it’s helpful that I’m 6’6″, which is useful in making people my own age look like they’re my son or whatever.”
And, challenges notwithstanding, Dorner says enjoys playing a variety of characters in The Book of Mormon!
“It’s actually super fun,” he said with a laugh. “I’ve actually done stuff like this a lot in shows I do. I play multiple characters and things. It’s fun to sort of stretch out of the box a bit. I get to wear all kinds of cool costumes and have a ton of wigs and stuff for this show to change my appearance for. All of my little bits are very funny moments of the show. Throughout the show I just get to come out, say something funny, and then change into a different costume to do the same thing; to come out and say something else funny. There are a lot of people that don’t know that I’m all of those characters. They’ll catch me as two of them. They’re like, ‘Oh, you were like Joseph Smith and the dad.’ Once you get from a distance with wigs and costumes and stuff, really your only way to recognize me is just to find the tallest guy on stage. But that’s sometimes still hard to do if you’re up in a balcony looking down.“
Dorner has performed his roles more than 300 times already. He tells CleveRock that he could “do the show in my sleep.” He and his fellow cast members are cognisant of the fact that for many audience members, this is the first (and possibly only) chance to catch the show (not to mention the financial investment).
“We have that connection with the audience and that desire to give them a good night out. At the end of the day, we’re entertainers and my job is to make sure that you have a fun night at the theater,” he said. “That’s our job. You guys paid for tickets. We’re going to give you your money’s worth and we’re going to give you a good night out.”
It’s exciting for artists across any medium to make a positive impression on an audience. For those in the theater business, there probably aren’t many shows that have the ability to ‘wow’ patrons more than The Book of Mormon.
“This is people’s favorite show. I speak to audience members after the show. We’re getting tagged in Instagram stories and posts all the time about it. This is people’s favorite show. They love this show,” Donor said. “We’ve had people come that have seen the first two tours of this and the Broadway production, and I saw it when it was in Chicago for its trial it’s out of town tryout, and stuff like that. It’s so cool to be a part of that experience for someone.”
Dorner is excited to be coming to our great city. He previously stopped in Ohio (not Cleveland proper though) on another national touring production he was part of, Million Dollar Quartet.
“I was born and raised in Perrysburg, Ohio, which is a suburb of Toledo,” he said of his Buckeye State roots. “I went to college at Ohio Northern University in Ada, which is near Findley, Ohio. Pretty much right after college, I moved to New York City to pursue my acting career. Now we’re back doing some shows in Ohio! It’s fun. I got family and stuff that are going to come to the shows in Cleveland and everything. It’s going to be really nice.”
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