THE VOICE OF CHICAGO'S GAY, LESBIAN, BI, TRANS AND QUEER COMMUNITY SINCE 1985

Much of the advertising for the nine-time Tony Award-winning 2011 musical The Book of Mormon trumpets the fact that it's "From the Creators of South Park," so audiences really shouldn't be shocked at the hilariously blasphemous and frequently raunchy content in the show.

So for fans of that long-running Comedy Central cartoon series about the misadventures of a bunch of foul-mouthed kids, The Book of Mormon will be gut-busting manna from heaven. If these fans continue to turn out in force, the second national tour of The Book of Mormon should stay ensconced at Chicago's Bank of America Theatre for a very long time.

As for the serious musical-theater aficionado, The Book of Mormon probably won't live up to The New York Times pull-quote of "The Best Musical of the Century" that has also been emblazoned practically everywhere with the show's logo. The Book of Mormon may be an entirely original creation by South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone with Avenue Q co-creator Robert Lopez, but The Book of Mormon songs rely so heavily on spoofing so many other musicals (Wicked, The King and I and especially The Lion King, to name a few) that it often feels like it's comically piggy-backing on the song styles of other shows rather than truly offering its own distinctive voice.

But this is just a minor quibble, since all that subversive musical spoofing is done as a genuine homage. The Book of Mormon's creators clearly love musical theater, and their dirtily comic take on the genre by mischievously refashions it in their own profane image.

The show follows two squeaky-clean missionaries from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints who realize how totally unprepared they are for the disease and warfare of Uganda. The upstanding Elder Price (Nic Rouleau) feels cheated, but the goofball and habitual liar Elder Cunningham (Ben Platt) soon finds himself a changed and confident man as he finds a willing convert in the young girl Nabulungi (American Idol alumna Syesha Mercado).

Those who have been lucky enough to see The Book of Mormon on Broadway will be pleased to hear that the entire Chicago cast is up to snuff (with plenty of standouts like the effeminate Elder McKinley of Pierce Cassedy, James Vincent Meredith as tribal leader Mafala and Christopher Shyer as the murderous General), and that the tour replicates the splashy and comic original staging by Casey Nicholaw and Parker to a tee.

And though some might condemn The Book of Mormon for mocking missionary work and African superstitions, the show truly is an equal-opportunity offender and rightfully wins its laughs from its incongruous comic juxtapositions. Plus, the show's message of faith, friendship and doing good deeds gives The Book of Mormon an enormous heart and surprising moral backbone (despite all the shock-worthy jokes tied to AIDS, rape and forced female circumcision).