Pushing Boundaries and Being Freakin’ Genius
– By Dave Cooperstein, senior creative designer
I finally got to see the Broadway musical that everyone has been raving about… The Book of Mormon, at the Fox Theater in St. Louis. I was planning on writing a review of the Trey “South Park” Parker, Matt “Team America” Stone, and Robert “Avenue Q” Lopez brainchild. But there’s nothing that I could say about this completely outrageous, incredibly offensive, and absolutely hilarious production that could convince you to go and see it that other reviewers haven’t written already.
As my wife and I looked through the program before the show started, we wondered why there was no list of musical numbers; no list of song titles, so you can figure out when intermission is about to start, and when you’ll be able to time your run to the restroom at the Fox Theater, where 4,000+ patrons scramble to use 40 or 50 stalls, perfectly. And when you see the show, and hear the lyrics, you start to understand why.
Then, only about twenty minutes into the show, I found myself asking, “Self…why is this show SO darn funny? How can something so completely wrong, so completely offensive, be SO entertaining?” And about ten minutes, and fifteen more massively offensive jokes later, it hit me: Trey, Matt and Robert created this show with an incredibly focused abandon.
What do I mean by “focused abandon”? Think of it as the do-good stepchild of “reckless abandon”.
Webster Dictionary defines “reckless” as marked by lack of proper caution, careless of consequences and “abandon”, in this case, as to give (oneself) over unrestrainedly. And it defines “focus” as, in this case, directed attention.
So “focused abandon”, consequently, would be giving oneself over unrestrainedly, with directed attention. In other words, throwing everything you can into something, and knowing EXACTLY what the consequences are.
This is why The Book of Mormon is so brilliant. The guys knew exactly how, what and why they set out to skewer every race, religion, sexual orientation, belief system and Broadway idiom, and they held nothing back on the road to get there. It’s a bold, dangerous and extremely rewarding approach to playwriting. One that earned this particularly play numerous awards, including Tonys, Drama Desks, and even a Grammy.
And this type of “focused abandon” is exactly what makes for great destination design work. It’s one of the reasons why PGAV Destinations has been so successful over the years:
• Lots of people thought that a low-capacity, premium-only swim-with-the-dolphins park was a huge risk, but SeaWorld’s Discovery Cove has proven to be an incredible success.
• No one had dreamed of creating an entire aquarium exhibit OVERHEAD of the guests, but that’s exactly what we created at the Georgia Aquarium.
• No one else, previously, had the nerve to put humans and penguins in the same space with minimal barriers, and have to deal with all the air handling issues involved, but we figured out how to do it at the St. Louis Zoo’s Penguin and Puffin Coast.
The list of PGAV Destinations’ risks and rewards goes on and on. And there’s more to come.
Every day, we push the boundaries of visitor experiences with a focused abandon. We look for ways to create never-before-experienced attractions, one-of-a-kind exhibits, and jaw-dropping thrills with incredible attention to exactly what we want the visitors to experience. Our world-class teams of designers hold nothing back on the road to get there, all the while knowing exactly where “there” is.
This “focused abandon” is why I laughed so hard at The Book of Mormon, even though every fiber of my being told me that it was wrong to be doing so. It’s why we at PGAV Destinations are so good at what we do. And why I love working here.
Could we BE having any more fun?
