I'm Jake Johnson, assistant professor of musicology at the University of Oklahoma, author of Mormons, Musical Theater, and Belonging in America (2019) and Lying in the Middle: Musical Theater and Belief at the Heart of America (2021), and editor of The Possibility Machine: Music and Myth in Las Vegas (2023).
"Mormons, Musical Theater, and Belonging in America" by Jake Johnson The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints adopted the vocal and theatrical traditions of American musical theater as important theological tenets. As church membership grew, leaders saw how the genre could help define the faith and wove musical theater into many aspects of Mormon life.