Matthew Murphy
It feels strange, in a week of such tragedy, violence, and gravity, to wholeheartedly recommend the opening of something as deliciously silly as Gutenberg! The Musical! on Broadway (James Earl Jones Theatre, through Jan 28, 2024). But, if you feel the need to laugh and let go, you can trust Andrew Rannells and Josh Gad, formerly stars of The Book of Mormon, to be your expert facilitators.
Rannells plays Doug and Gad plays Bud, two theater-makers staging a production of their musical—Doug responsible for the book, Bud the music—about the famous inventor of the printing press, for the benefit of Broadway producers they know, or imagine, to be in the room among us. Broadway, as Bud says excitedly, is “our nation’s capital.”
Gutenberg!—with fabulous book, music, and lyrics by Scott Brown and Anthony King—is the best twofer. We get to see both the ridiculous musical that Bud and Doug dream up about Gutenberg and his invention in defiance of all available facts, as well as them both stepping outside of character and show to reveal themselves as musical obsessives. It’s a gleeful riot, right from the outset where Bud notes that we’re on the “weird side” of 7th Avenue, between 6th and 7th, rather than the main bustling theater avenues between 7th and 8th.