A Bit Too Much Hasa Diga Eebowai

Last year, a friend of mine and I go to see “The Book of Mormon,” a raunchy, funny musical about two Mormon missionaries trying to convert the people of an African village.

Partway through the performance, a prop breaks at the beginning of a scene, stopping the play short. An announcement goes out to the audience that they are experiencing some minor technical difficulties, and that the play will resume once they are fixed. After the announcement ends, a murmur rises as everyone starts talking among themselves. A couple moments later, a random man in the audience shouts, “IT’S THE WILL OF GOD!”

Everyone lost it, including my friend and me. The entire audience is laughing. My friend is actually sitting at such an angle that she saw the guy shout, so we knew it wasn’t just the announcer again. It was a brilliant moment of improv that probably stopped a lot of people from getting frustrated at the play’s technical issues.

Ten minutes later, the problems were fixed, and the play resumed like nothing happened. It was a great, very funny play, but that guy’s comment is the part we remember best. Cheers to you, random guy, wherever you are.