Matt Murphy
If Gutenberg! The musical! When the play debuted Off Broadway 17 years ago, critics wondered whether it was ready for Broadway. Maybe they should have asked if Broadway was ready for Gutenberg!
All these years later, the answer to both questions is yes. Not only has the musical been refined and polished, but Shucked-era Broadway is clearly in the mood for absurdly silly fun.
The wait was worth it in another way too: the Broadway production, which opens tonight at the James Earl Jones Theater, is fortunate enough to star Josh Gad and Andrew Rannells, two very funny and powerfully voiced actors, who finally decided to share a stage again twelve years after their first appearance in the Book of Mormon.
Written by Scott Brown and Anthony King, the duo who wrote Beetlejuice The Musical, and directed by the busy Alex Timbers (Here Lies Love, Just For Us, Moulin Rouge! The Musical and, yes, Beetlejuice, just to name a few to call). a sample) Gutenberg! is a cheerful, self-aware theatrical spoof that’s clever enough to delight its aficionados and absolutely funny enough to attract outsiders. Few in either group will remember the pastiche score for long, but even fewer will sit through the show’s impeccably delivered tunes without smiling.
Matt Murphy
The show-within-a-show premise – just one of the many theatrical tropes that Gutenberg! References, from the exclamation point title downwards – features two very optimistic stage amateurs named Bud (Gad) and Doug (Rannells) performing the musical they wrote for a gathered audience of potential supporters. By day they work in nursing homes, the pals have spent every last penny they earned (or inherited) on one night’s theater rental and a few flimsy DIY props. (Only a miser would begrudge the duo Jeff Croiter’s magnificent lighting design or Scott Pask’s top-notch set design, a backstage area that at first glance looks like so much accumulated debris; all of which will eventually be put to good use.)
The musical that Bud and Doug have put together is, as the title makes clear, a bio-musical about Johann Gutenberg, the famous inventor of the printing press and Bible maker. With little more than the cursory pickings of a Google search and good humor, the friends pieced together the outlines of a life – and invented the rest. The story certainly wouldn’t support a Gutenberg assistant and a friend of sorts named Helvetica.
Written by Bud and Doug, the musical is set in the never-existent medieval German castle of Schlimmer and follows the incredibly cheerful Johann G. as he sets out to improve the dirty, ignorant lives of the down-at-heel townspeople. If only they could read, he argues, people wouldn’t confuse clearly labeled jars of gummy bears with the pills that could save their sick babies.
With imaginations well beyond their bank accounts, Bud and Doug – hence Gad and Rannells – portray characters like a village, from the inventor and his love-struck assistant to a hateful little flower girl, various workers, drunks and an obligatory villain ( a A Satan-worshipping monk named Monk who conspires to thwart Gutenberg’s democratic approach to literacy. Who needs costume changes when you’ve got character names written on lots of trucker hats?
Matt Murphy
Certainly not Bud/Doug/Gad/Rannells, who also distinguish the various townspeople with a variety of accents, not a single one of which is historically accurate. This is a 14th-century German town whose voices are more Cockney and Cajun than Teutonic.
On the long journey from the original Off-Broadway production (and before that, an even simpler one-act play by the Upright Citizens Brigade), Gutenberg! has retained his enthusiasm and hustle and bustle (literally for Bud and Doug) even as his musical accompaniment expanded from a single piano player to a three-piece combo (TO Sterrett provided the superb orchestrations). The spirit and humor of the series has retained the kindness of its best friends and their seemingly clueless irreverence. Close attention pays off when you spot recent jokes, such as tongue-in-cheek references to “Back to the Future: The Musical,” “Aladdin: The Musical” and the pretend pop stars of “Six.”
(Another notable change: The word “Holocaust,” used in the original production as a facetious term for Bud and Doug’s tense attempt to “address at least one serious problem,” has been replaced with the less specific “anti-Semitism” as it is embodied the hateful little flower girl. Given recent world events, even apparently sensible jokes might not have the same impact as they did a week ago.)
Musically, Brown and King have true Broadway knowledge: Gutenberg! is replete with convention parodies like missionary ballads, rocking finales, and an obligatory “charm song,” the latter of which is explained by Bud and Doug as the irrelevant number – this one about cookies – written specifically to lure in a famous artist who wants to Stop by to grab attention quickly. “For example,” says Bud, “we hope that the role of YOUNG MONK will one day be played by Mr. Timothée Chalamet.”
Hopefully not. Nothing against Timothée, but Gad and Rannells don’t need the help. With Gutenberg! The Musical!, the reunited stars of The Book of Mormon, rivals Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick as Broadway’s leading comedy duo. To do this, print out a hat.
title: Gutenberg! The musical!
Venue: James Earl Jones Theater on Broadway
Director: Alex Timbers
Book, music & lyrics: Scott Brown and Anthony King
Pour: Josh Gad, Andrew Rannells
Duration: 2 hours (with break)