Gutenberg!, The Madcap Musical @ ArtsWest
Gutenberg, Johann. "German printer born around the year 1400. Detailed records of his life and work are scant." Or so the audience is told by the fictional playwrights Doug Simon and Bud Davenport, based on their internet research. With what little info they do know about the inventor of the printing press, the fictional friends write and compose Gutenberg! The Musical! (through May 17th at ArtsWest, Wed.-Sat., 7:30 p.m., Sun., 3 p.m. [no show on Mother’s Day, May 10] tix $32, $10 under 25), filling in the missing details of his life with what they charitably call "historical fiction." Scott Brown and Anthony King originally developed the show in 2005 at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre in New York City.
Evan Woltz as Bud and Chris Shea as Doug (as Gutenberg) in Gutenberg! The Musical! at ArtsWest. Pianist Kim Dare in background. Photo by www.mattdurhamphotography.com.
The plot is perfectly nonsensical, but mainly serves to spoof formulaic Broadway musicals. The story is set "in olden times" where Gutenberg (primarily played by Shea) starts off as a winemaker in his hometown, Schilmmer. When the whole town declares they can't read, in the subtly titled number, "I Can't Read," and a baby dies because of this, Gutenberg becomes determined combat illiteracy among his people. Add an assistant who's in love with him (she can't read him either), an evil monk intent on keeping the town ignorant and the printing press down, two drunks, a beef-fat trimmer, and an anti-Semitic flower girl, and you have the basic elements of the aforementioned nonsensical plot.
We can't remember what the filler songs "Haunted German Wood" or "Biscuits" were about, except that they were funny--mainly due to the ambitious performances of Shea and Woltz. They sweat their asses off in this under-two-hour show and do a hell of job a remembering who they are each supposed to be under those hats. We consider it a feat just getting through the show without a mistaken character. Waltz had the greater vocal prowess of the two, with Shea straining through a few songs, but that's really neither here nor there. The pair believably hoof around stage as possibly the world's worst playwrights, all the more determined to make their dreams a reality. The finale, a sing-a-long with the chorus "We Eat Dreams," kept the absurdity going and the audience laughing right till the end.
