For many years, author John Updike was chided for being too explicit and vulgar in depicting his characters. But Updike, a devout Episcopalian, had a ready response. He said if he was going to show the redemption of people, he couldn’t gloss over their debauchery without cheapening that redemption.

He said readers needed to see the details on both sides of the coin.

Not everyone bought his reasoning.

Many religious folks preferred then — and still prefer — to have promiscuity and obscenity shown in a gauzy light. Who needs to have it spelled out?

Well, along with Updike, apparently Trey Parker and Matt Stone do.

Their magnum opus, "The Book of Mormon" musical, is coming to town. And for the first time, many local theater-goers will get to see sight gags and hear song lyrics that, until now, have been masked by euphemisms such as “coarse,” “graphic” and “risqué.”

As one lay critic put it, get ready to have your hair blown back.

I’d brush out some of those scenes for you, but a family newspaper could never print them.

Which brings me to my point.

I suspect Parker and Stone are misinterpreting the lack of interest by many mainstream Mormons as a show of good will and good sportsmanship. It's really just obliviousness.

I think the show’s local run will serve as a wake-up call for people on both sides.

Let me say here I’m not a blue-nosed scold. I reviewed plays for the Deseret News for many years and learned to roll with the flow — to not allow language and provocative scenes to ruin a production.

In short, I tried — and still try — to take a dry-eyed look at things.

But I feel many members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints would be stunned to learn what passes for “pushing the envelope” and “being provocative” in theater circles these days. Things have gone beyond their wildest imaginings.

To be sure, the LDS missionaries in the musical are the wide-eyed dupes of that gritty world. They're the Innocents Abroad. They come across as dimply and pimply Mickey Mouse Club kids — Spin and Marty, if you will (don’t fret if you don’t get the reference).

The elders in the musical talk like animated Disney cartoons and behave like Pinocchio. They are clueless incarnate. And given the wholesomeness of many 18-year-old LDS missionaries today, perhaps the caricature is understandable.

In short, the quick education the Mormon elders get in the musical is much like the education young social workers get when they meet their first crack-addicted mother on Chicago’s South Side. Suddenly, they're out of their depth. It's sink-or-swim time.

It's a harsh education. And — all good sportsmanship aside — I think it's the same education awaiting many musical theater aficionados when they venture into the world-shattering world of Parker and Stone's "Book of Mormon."

Email: jerjohn@deseretnews.com