Another Mormon musical coming to stage

"Mormons, Mothers and Monsters," joins "The Book of Mormon," as the second musical with the word 'Mormon' in its title.

Unlike the Tony-nominated "The Book of Mormon," this new musical is not on Broadway; it runs July 14-31 at the Barrington Stage Company in Pittsfield, Mass.

The show is billed by the Barrington Stage Company as "a quirky new comedy about a boy and his Mormon mother who smile their way through three shattering divorces." As the boy grows, "he hides under the bed sheets, prays fervently and tries to figure out just who is responsible for his (crummy, crummy) life," according to the stage company's website.

Writer Sam Salmond based the musical on his "turbulent life as the son of a thrice-married British mother who raised him in the Mormon faith, first in England and then, starting at age 9, in Pittsburgh," according to a Boston Globe article. Among the main character's difficulties is his struggle growing up as a homosexual artist, said a Barrington Stage Company representative.

"What we have is hopefully a really funny show about painful and complicated experiences,'" Salmond told the Globe. He added that the musical navigates "my relationship to being a Mormon, to my mother, and to the things that I was afraid of. I became afraid of my mother at one point.'"

Though this new musical has the word 'Mormon' in it, "This is not at all the same show,'" as "The Book of Mormon" musical, Solomond stressed in the Globe story. "It just happens to share the name 'Mormon.'"

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