Bud (Josh Gad) and Doug (Andrew Rannells) have respectively spent an inheritance and sold a house to rent The James Earl Jones Theatre for a single night hoping to attract a Broadway producer for their musical Gutenberg! Backed by three members of Central New Jersey’s foremost wedding band (all they could afford), they play 20 roles distinguished by yellow baseball caps with character names on them.
Why focus on the inventor of the printing press? Because Google revealed “detailed record of his life and work are scant.” This, then, they tell us is historical fiction i.e. they have license to make up everything. Their Johannes Gutenberg is a “wine presser” in the fabricated German town of Schlimmer where one citizen after another suffers mishaps due to being illiterate. A father, for example, unable to read a jar label, gives his sick baby jelly beans thinking they’re medicine. If you consider that satire or even funny, this is a show for you. The reason for illiteracy it seems is having nothing to read.
Gutenberg (Rannells) has a Eureka moment and reconfigures the press – a cardboard box with WINE PRESS written on it run by manipulation (think Elvis’s pelvis action) of an old fashioned bellows attached to the top. After rejiggering, the box says PRINTER. His besotted grape-stomper Helvetica (aptly personified by Gad stroking long, invisible hair) is convinced by the town’s Satanic monk to sabotage the machine because her boss will no longer need her. It now reads: RUBBLE. There’s a flower girl who hates Jews (really? now?), two drunks, a bootblack, and an assistant monk who keeps extricating well aimed pencils from his chest.
Josh Gad (back), Andrew Rannells (front) and the cast
As the screwy chronicle evolves, Bud and Doug break to tell us personal stories and explain the construct of a musical: “This is what we call a charm song…Every Broadway musical must end its first act with a soaring anthem tween girls will struggle to sing in the shower.” Several called out dance breaks are less choreographed than director Alex Timbers iconoclastic onstage movement.
Josh Gad and Andrew Rannells, who connected during The Book of Mormon, work extremely hard. Both can be droll, with Gad’s rubber faces and expert freeze frames often captivating. Chemistry is excellent.
Director Alex Timbers offers great variety of whimsy on steroids. Use of the stage is skilled, mugging worthy of silent film. When things lag, he turns on a fog machine.
The set by Scott Pask is evocatively chaotic. Props are amusing.
Author Anthony King told The New York Times “We tried to come up with, like, what’s a terrible idea for a musical.” They found one. Songs are tuneless, meandering prose. Text is most often sophomoric. When first presented by the Upright Citizens Brigade in 2003, the piece was 45 minutes. That makes this version an hour to an hour fifteen too long. The clearly predisposed audience laughed throughout. Go figure.
Photos by Matthew Murphy
Opening: Left-Andrew Rannells; Right- Josh Gad
Gutenberg – The Musical
Book/Music/Lyrics by Scott Brown and Anthony King
Directed by Alex Timbers
James Earl Jones Theatre
138 West 48th Street
