Joseph Smith American Moses Lyrics — Book of Mormon, The

Song Overview

Review and Highlights

Quick summary

1. Act II show-within-the-show: the villagers perform a missionary history pageant for the visiting mission president.
2. Its engine is Cunningham's improvised mythology, staged as community theatre with a sharp Broadway pastiche edge.
3. Cast recording placement: Track 15, about 6:12.
4. Musical trick: buoyant dance pulse in 3/4, while the plot turns into a problem that cannot be laughed away.

The Book of Mormon (2011) - stage musical - diegetic. Act II, pageant for the mission president. The villagers retell Joseph Smith through the filter of Cunningham's invented teaching, mixing comfort, misunderstanding, and stagecraft into one escalating performance. Why it matters: the story proves that a helpful lie can still be a lie, and the consequences arrive with a smile that slowly freezes.

This is the score doing a dangerous magic trick. It gives the audience a communal dance number, then asks them to watch how easily a narrative gets hijacked when it is translated across culture, desperation, and wishful thinking. The laughter is real, but it is not the final sound in the room.

Formally, it is a classic Broadway move: a pageant sequence that lets the ensemble take the wheel. But the writing is also a pressure test for the whole show. The villagers are not parodying Mormonism for fun. They are using a story to reframe pain, and the reframe lands because it offers hope on demand. According to London Theatre, the number is styled as a nod to "The Small House of Uncle Thomas" from The King and I, which is exactly the right reference point: a staged myth used to communicate, distort, and reveal at the same time.

Creation History

The song was written by Trey Parker, Matt Stone, and Robert Lopez as part of a score that loves old Broadway forms and then twists them. It was captured for the Original Broadway Cast Recording during March 2011 sessions at MSR Studios in New York, with Stephen Oremus among the lead producers shaping the final mix. According to Playbill, the cast album arrived digitally on May 17, 2011, with a physical release dated June 7, 2011. There is no conventional music video, but the label-distributed, auto-generated audio upload has become the default reference for listeners outside the theatre.

Song Meaning and Annotations

Plot

The mission president visits the village to assess progress. To honor him, the villagers mount a pageant telling the story of Joseph Smith as they have learned it from Cunningham. Their version is stitched from his improvisations, their own experiences, and the logic of survival. The sequence starts as celebratory theatre and ends as a public exposure: the more they perform, the clearer it becomes that the mission has lost control of its message.

Song Meaning

At heart, it is about storytelling as currency. When life is brutal, a story that promises order can feel like medicine, even if the ingredients are wrong. The number also shows how power works in translation. The missionaries assume they own the narrative. The villagers prove they can reshape it, remix it, and make it speak in their own idiom - and that is both moving and frightening.

There is a second layer that lands quietly if you listen for it. The pageant is not just mockery of religion. It is a portrait of how communities build meaning from fragments: a little doctrine, a little rumor, a little theatre, a little need. The melody keeps dancing while the plot sharpens its teeth.

Annotations

1. "American Moses"

   A title that tries to compress a complicated history into a heroic label. In the scene, that compression is the joke and the warning. It is easy to chant, easy to remember, and easy to misunderstand.

2. "We will tell you a story"

   The line is stage language, not scripture. It frames the number as performance first, which is why the mission president cannot dismiss it as mere confusion. It is deliberate, rehearsed, and proudly owned.

3. "Make it make sense"

   Not a literal lyric quote, but the dramatic impulse behind the pageant. The villagers are taking raw experience and forcing it into a plot with villains, cures, and rewards. The show lets you feel the comfort before it shows the cost.

Rhythm, style fusion, and the emotional arc

The pulse is a big part of the trap. In 3/4, the number can feel like a folk waltz colliding with Broadway pageantry, buoyant enough to invite clapping. The arrangement keeps returning to chorus-like blocks where the ensemble speaks as one, a classic device for pageants and civic theatre. Then it fractures into vignettes and callbacks that feel like a scrapbook of mistaken doctrine.

Cultural touchpoints and the target of the satire

The writers are playing with a familiar Broadway tradition: staging another culture's "interpretation" of a story to reveal what the visitors are projecting. That tradition is loaded, and the show knows it. A thoughtful reading is that the pageant is aimed at Cunningham's fantasy of being a savior-author, not at the villagers themselves. But the scene also refuses to tidy up the discomfort. According to a Ticketmaster feature that breaks down the score, the sequence lands because it is absurd and because it still shows genuine comfort the villagers find in the invented tale. That tension is the point.

Technical Information

1. Artist: The Book of Mormon - Original Broadway Cast
2. Featured: Ensemble led by Nabulungi and village performers; includes multiple principal cast voices
3. Composer: Trey Parker; Matt Stone; Robert Lopez
4. Producer: Stephen Oremus; Trey Parker; Matt Stone; Robert Lopez (cast recording team)
5. Release Date: May 17, 2011
6. Genre: Musical theatre; musical comedy; pageant pastiche
7. Instruments: Broadway pit orchestration with percussion-forward dance drive and stacked ensemble vocals
8. Label: Ghostlight Records
9. Mood: Festive surface, mounting unease
10. Length: 6:12
11. Track #: 15
12. Language: English
13. Album (if any): The Book of Mormon: Original Broadway Cast Recording
14. Music style: Broadway pageant number with folk-theatre cadence and satire timing
15. Poetic meter: Mixed, chorus-forward with speech-like narrative bursts

Questions and Answers

What is the dramatic job of this number?

It turns Cunningham's improvisations into public evidence. The show shifts from private lying to communal performance, and the consequences start to become unavoidable.

Why is it staged as a pageant?

A pageant lets the villagers lead the storytelling, while also making the scene feel ceremonial and formal enough that the mission president has to react to it seriously.

Is the song meant to be a parody of another musical?

Yes. Its structure and staging cues have been described as echoing "The Small House of Uncle Thomas" from The King and I, reframed through this show's satire lens.

What makes the comedy land in performance?

Clarity and commitment. Treat it like real community theatre with pride, not like a sketch, and the satire appears in the contrast between confidence and confusion.

Why does it feel both uplifting and unsettling?

The music gives you dance energy and chorus unity, while the plot reveals how a comforting story can also be dangerously wrong.

Who is the song really about?

It is about the villagers in the foreground, but it is also about Cunningham in the background: the author of the misinformation watching it take on a life of its own.

What is the mission president hearing that alarms him?

Not just incorrect details, but a complete loss of doctrinal control, delivered with confidence and theatrical pride.

Does it connect to earlier musical material?

Critics have noted how it tangles earlier motifs and references, creating a montage feel that recalls prior ensemble energy while pushing the plot into crisis.

Why does the pageant format matter for the audience?

It forces the audience to watch themselves laugh. The scene is funny, but it is also a mirror about how easily a story becomes a spectacle once it is staged.

Awards and Chart Positions

The track was not marketed as a standalone single, but the cast album became a rare Broadway crossover. According to Billboard magazine, the recording debuted on the Billboard 200 at No. 31 and later surged to No. 3 after the show's awards momentum. According to Playbill, the cast recording won the 2012 Grammy Award for Best Musical Theater Album and later reached RIAA Gold certification on November 22, 2017.

How to Sing Joseph Smith American Moses

Common reference metrics: Tempo is widely listed around 132 BPM in 3/4, with a key listing often shown as A-sharp minor. The number lives on ensemble coordination and character clarity more than on solo fireworks.

Practical range anchors: If you are staging it with original role colors, Nabulungi is often treated as a mezzo (A3 to E5). For missionary-side tenor benchmarks elsewhere in the score, StageAgent lists Elder Price around C3 to B4 and Cunningham around C3 to G4. You do not need all of that range at once here, but those reference points help when assigning featured lines and harmonies.

1. Tempo: Rehearse at 110 BPM first. The waltz pulse must feel grounded before you add speed.
2. Diction: Speak the story in rhythm, then sing it. If the audience cannot understand the narrative, the scene becomes noise.
3. Breathing: Mark group breaths on chorus blocks. A unified inhale sells the pageant illusion.
4. Flow and rhythm: Keep the 3/4 rocking, not rushed. Let the "one" beat carry weight, then glide through beats two and three.
5. Accents: Punch the names and story pivots. Then soften the lines that show the villagers' hope, so the emotional turn is audible.
6. Ensemble balance: Assign clear dynamic roles: narrators slightly forward, chorus supportive, featured jokes clean but not shouted.
7. Staging stamina: Practice while moving. This number often layers dance, props, and quick entrances, and breath planning has to survive choreography.
8. Pitfalls: Overplaying the satire. Treat the pageant as sincere community art, and let the comedy arrive from the mismatch, not from mocking delivery.

Additional Info

The number has an unusually clear real-world footprint because it is licensed and studied like a classic: digital sheet music editions (piano and voice) circulate through major publishers, which makes it easy for schools and community companies to rehearse the pageant sequence with precision. It is also a magnet for karaoke and rehearsal tracks, a sign that people treat it as a set piece rather than a deep-cut.

Critics often single it out as a high-wire comic highlight because it stacks images and callbacks until the stage feels crowded. One review described the pageant barrage in vivid terms, listing the kind of surreal elements the villagers fold into the story. Meanwhile, a Dialogue journal essay reads the number as the moment the villagers' "cute" pageant turns into a messy disgorgement of beliefs, tangled with musical echoes of earlier ensemble material. That is the scene in a nutshell: a communal performance that starts as celebration and ends as revelation.

Key Contributors

Sources: Ghostlight Records YouTube auto-generated track page, Discogs track list, Musicstax track analysis, Playbill release coverage, Billboard chart report, Entertainment Weekly chart note, Playbill Grammy report, GRAMMY.com acceptance clip page, Playbill best-selling cast recordings list, London Theatre song guide, Ticketmaster song-by-song guide, StageAgent character profiles, Dialogue journal essay, Haines His Way review, Sheet Music Plus product page, YouTube accompaniment track listing