“The Book of Mormon” national tour is returning to Bloomington for three performances Oct. 3 and 4. There will be an 8 p.m. performance Oct. 3 followed by performances at 2 p.m. and 8 p.m. Oct. 4. Additionally, each show will feature a free pre-performance talk will take place one hour before each performance, led by IU assistant professor in the Department of Theatre, Drama, and Contemporary Dance Richard Roland at Fine Arts Building Room 015.
Tickets for the musical start at $39 and can be bought on the IU Auditorium website or in person at the IU Auditorium Box Office.
“The Book of Mormon” is a Tony Award-winning comedy musical following two Mormon missionaries sent to a small village in Uganda to spread the Good Word. In addition to winning nine Tony awards, the musical also brought home five Drama Desk Awards and four Outer Critics Circle Awards since opening in 2011.
This touring production of the show is directed and choreographed by Jennifer Werner and features book, music and lyrics by Trey Parker, Robert Lopez and Matt Stone.
Joining the main cast as Elder McKinley is IU alumnus Craig Franke, who graduated from the musical theater Bachelor of Fine Arts program in 2017. Franke said he performed in regional theater around the country for several years after graduating, until the COVID-19 pandemic put a pause on his performing arts career. In 2022, another tour of “The Book of Mormon” was announced and Franke happened to have taken a class with Werner, so she asked him to audition for the tour.
Franke was part of the ensemble for two years, during which he got to perform at IU, and he has now been playing McKinley for the past year and a half. The upcoming “Book of Mormon” performances at IU will mark his first time performing at IU Auditorium as a lead in a musical.
“There’s no guarantees when you’re a performer and just to get to come back to the place where I learned and honed all of my skills and get to perform for this community again is something that I’m really looking forward to,” Franke said.
Franke’s character in the musical, McKinley, is the closeted gay district leader in Uganda. Franke said McKinley is similar to roles he’s played in the past through his comedic moments, but that there is also a deeper part to the character. He has had to learn how to walk the line between the character’s humor and the very real struggle he also faces.
“I think a lot of the roles that I’ve played so far have really prepared me to walk that line very, in what I hope, is a graceful manner of not being a caricature but also still being funny and trying to acknowledge that this is a very real person and a very real story that people go through,” Franke said.
Franke attributed much of his ability to understand a wide variety of characters to his time at IU.
“I think just, like, growing as a person, the more you can have different and varied experiences as a person, the more you will understand characters and, I think, the more you’re able to grow as a performer,” Franke said. “And that’s something that IU is invaluable at. There’s so many experiences available to you and I’m really grateful that I ended up going there.”
Franke said he loved his experience at IU, from being able to go to football games to the training he received within the musical theater program.
Ray Fellman is a professor of musical theater within the Department of Theater, Drama and Contemporary Dance who taught Franke when he attended IU.
“It’s totally exciting,” Fellman said. “When we take students in, we choose students for our program who we really believe in and, you know, it’s always just so thrilling to see that belief become a reality for them.”
Having an IU alumnus as a lead in a touring Broadway show is also inspiring current students.
Justin Katin, a junior in the Bachelor of Fine Arts musical theater program, is excited to attend one of “The Book of Mormon” performances.
“For us students, it’s really cool to see something that we dream of being showcased to us at our own school,” Katin said. “It’s just very inspirational because we’re all getting the same training so it’s really cool to be able to see the training that we’re getting being implemented in the real world.”
