It’s been said “dying is easy, comedy is hard”. Well, anyone who’s seen Gutenberg! The Musical might challenge that little showbiz maxim because Josh Gad and Andrew Rannells—the entire cast of this hilarious two-hander—are making the comedy seem downright effortless. The two stars, appearing together on Broadway for the first time since their Tony nominated turns in the original company of The Book of Mormon, are simply divine delivering a master class in musical comedy and likely setting a land/speed record for laughs per minute.
One big disclaimer, if you’re hoping to learn anything about Johannes Gutenberg, the famed German inventor of the printing press who provided the world with the very first printed bible, you would be sorely mistaken here. The show is a goof on biographical musicals in which everything is made up.
Gad and Rannells play Bud and Doug, longtime friends with questionable talents who love musical theater. In search of their big break, they decide to write a show about a famous person and they settle on Gutenberg. But because Google doesn’t provide much information, they fill in the blanks with their own storyline.
[Read Frank Scheck’s ★★★☆☆ review here.]
In their telling, Gutenberg is the pride of Schlimmer. (Actually, there is no such place. It’s a German word that means “more unpleasant.”) No one else in the town is literate and Gutenberg reasons that’s because they have nothing to read. So he decides to convert his wine press into a printing press and give them the bible. His comely assistant, named Helvetica (I’m not making this up) is secretly in love with him. And there’s an evil monk who hates God and plots to destroy the printing press to keep the villagers ignorant about the bible. That’s basically it. A story about as cliched and hackneyed as they come.
It takes something really good to pull off something so bad. Happily, the entire creative team was up to the task. Scott Brown and Anthony King conceived the show more than a decade ago. Envisioning a farcically, misguided version of themselves, they wrote Gutenberg as a musical satire, sending up all the Broadway tropes we’ve come to know and love. There is a prologue, an act one finale featuring a song “that every tween girl struggles to sing in the shower”, an 11 o’clock number, an unrelated “charm song”, even a dance break; and as Doug and Bud are quick to point out, “every important musical must tackle at least one serious issue.” So they seize on anti-semitism, saying “history tells us Germans don’t like Jews.”
Brown and King, who co-wrote the music in addition to the book and lyrics, deserve much of the credit for turning what could be a complete disaster in lesser hands into a finely tuned comedy that’s perpetually clever. The songs, if not exactly hummable, flesh out the plot quite nicely.
In the show, cash-strapped Bud and Doug have just enough money to rent out a Broadway theater and stage a barebones backers audition in the hopes of enticing a producer to come on board. There’s no budget for sets, costumes or even actors. And so all the roles are performed by the two starry-eyed writers, To distinguish between the dozens of parts, they they wear caps with the characters’ names boldly marked on the brims. They include “Drunk 1” and “Drunk 2”. “Woman” and “Another Woman”. The list goes on and on. More than a hundred in all. Just keeping track of each of them is a feat in itself.
While the production seems effortless, it’s clear that there was a lot of hard work that went into its staging. And for that, a huge tip of the cap to director Alex Timbers who’s proven himself the go-to guy for antic musical comedy. Fresh from Here Lies Love, Moulin Rouge, and Beetlejuice, he paces the action brilliantly, juicing up the physical comedy while giving the actors the freedom to put their own stamp on the roles.
It’s a tribute to the collaborative process in this production that, as silly as it all is, Bud and Doug come off rather sweetly. They may be incredibly naive but we end up rooting for them in the end. Gad and Rannells aren’t going for easy laughs. The show works because they’re projecting a goofy earnestness that is entirely relatable. Anyone who’s harbored an unlikely dream might see themselves in these two knuckleheads. There’s even a sing-along with the verse “We eat dreams”.
Amid all the laughs, I kept thinking about The Play That Goes Wrong, another inspired comedy that features bumbling amateurs trying to stage a professional show. What separates the two works is the spark of humanity that permeates Gutenberg. It’s easy to think of Gad and Rannells as a modern day Abbott and Costello. They have the comic timing and synergy down to a science but they also have a unique quality that transcends mere comedy. There’s really no word for it, but it makes Gutenberg the theatrical equivalent of an irresistible page-turner.
Gutenberg! The Musical! opened October 12, 2023, at the James Earl Jones Theatre and runs through January 28, 2024. Tickets and information: gutenbergbroadway.com
