'The Book of Mormon' opens a week-long run in Sarasota

Mary Bensel has been looking for ways to beef up the Broadway offerings at the Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall in Sarasota ever since she became its executive director nine years ago. "The Book of Mormon," which opens Tuesday, is a solid step forward in those efforts.

"I'm so thrilled to be bringing in 'The Book of Mormon,' " Bensel said. "It's a big, new, Tony-winning musical. I've been trying for five or six years to bring in a big Broadway show for a week-long run."

"Mormon" isn't the first Broadway show to come to Van Wezel for a week, but most of the others have been more established shows, such as "Les Miserables" a couple of years back. "The Book of Mormon" is still drawing big crowds on Broadway, and its two national tours have been selling out across the country for three years.

The writers are Trey Parker and Matt Stone, the guys behind "South Park," and Robert Lopez, the co-composer of "Avenue Q" and "Frozen." The story's about two young Mormon missionaries who are sent to Uganda to seek converts. One of missionaries doesn't actually have the knowledge to preach the contents of the Mormon holy book, so he improvises, us

ing a mixture of religion, pop culture and science fiction references. To the dismay of his by-the-book colleague, his approach gains an unprecedented number of converts among the Ugandans.

It's obscene and profane, and makes fun of everything from pedophilia to Orlando. But it's very funny and ultimately positive, and its songs are relentlessly catchy.

Bensel said there are several factors that make it difficult for the Van Wezel to attract more big musicals with week-long runs. Some shows are blocked from coming to Sarasota because they come to the Straz Center for the Performing Arts in Tampa, which has a much larger theater and is in a larger market.

Besides that, the Sarasota Orchestra performs regularly at Van Wezel, so any touring shows have to be worked in around the orchestra's schedule.

Perhaps most significantly, though, Van Wezel never had a subscription program until Bensel came on board. Van Wezel now offers several subscription packages, but it doesn't yet have as many subscribers as Broadway producers like to see.

"When you have a subscription market, you have a guaranteed audience, and that gives producers more confidence about bringing in their shows," she said.

But Van Wezel has slowly been moving toward its goal of a full Broadway season. The hall had two week-long runs of Broadway shows scheduled for this year, but the second one, "Newsies," announced it was ending its tour before it would reach Sarasota. Still, Bensel said, she's planning on gradually adding more major Broadway shows to the Van Wezel season.

"Our goal is to bring to have a whole Broadway season," she said. "I think people in Sarasota deserve that."

This week, the Van Wezel website listed all eight shows of "The Book of Mormon" as sold out, but Bensel said that tickets were still available through the box office for $150.

If that's too expensive for you, you still have a chance for inexpensive tickets. There's a lottery drawing before each performance that allows some lucky patrons to get tickets for $25. Some of the tickets awarded in the lottery are among the best in the house.

Here's how it works: Starting two-and-half hours before each show, you go to Van Wezel and enter your name and how many tickets you want. (You can't get more than two.) Then, two hours before curtain, names are drawn and the winners get tickets for $25. The number of tickets available to lottery winners varies from show to show. You have to be there to win and you have to have an ID.

The show holds these lotteries before almost every performance everywhere around the country. They've reportedly drawn as many as 800 people. Your chances of winning are usually much better on weeknights, especially early in the run.

Details: Feb. 9-14, Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall, 777 N. Tamiami Trail, Sarasota. Show times: 8 p.m. Tuesday-Friday, 2 and 8 p.m. Saturday, 1:30 and 7 p.m. Sunday. Tickets: $150. Information: 941-953-3368, vanwezel.org.

Marty Clear, features writer/columnist, can be reached at 941-708-7919. Follow twitter.com/martinclear.

This story was originally published February 5, 2016 at 7:16 PM with the headline "'The Book of Mormon' opens a week-long run in Sarasota ."