HOLD ON TO YOUR HATS
Gutenberg! The Musical! is offensive — and funny.
“Gutenberg! The Musical!” earns both of those exclamation points with the staging by Evening Star Productions in Boca.
It is a hardcore wacka doodle bio of the inventor of the printing press. At the same time, it’s a genius-level spoof of Broadway, written with offbeat wit by Scott Brown and Anthony King.
The musical comedy has lost none of its subversive slice and dice since its 2006 off-Broadway run after an incubation at the Upright Citizens Brigade, a New York improvisational troupe. Be forewarned, some of the humor is dark and way out there. A Holocaust punch line falls flat. A dead baby joke got a stunned silence the first time itwas delivered (the second time it got roars of laughter).
The showis framed as a backer’s audition. Doug (Alex Weiss) and Bud (Robyn Brenner) have written a musical about Johannes Gutenberg. Having Googled their subject with little success, they fill in the biographical details with “historical fiction,” which they explain is “fiction that is true.”
Hoping to get producers to take them all the
way to the Great White Way and on a shoestring budget, Bud and Doug act out all 18 parts, donning hats with the character’s name or descriptive titles on them.
Backed by Jason the Pianist (Jason Buelow) they dive in head first, telling an outlandish version of Gutenberg’s efforts to bring literacy to his medieval German village with the help of a “dimwitted wench” named Helvetica. Of course there is a villain— cue hat with “Evil Monk” written on it.
There are some inspired parts: a rainstorm using a spray, a tap number that has to be seen to be believed and a bit about lamb stew that is pure comic gold.
And yet there are moments— just fleeting moments in 90 minutes
with a15-minute intermission— when the show feels a little out of sorts. But it never loses itsway for long.
Weiss and Brenner are smart talents, making nimble little adjustments that right the course. Just when you fear they might go on auto-pilot, they burst into robust riffs on “Rent,” “Wicked, “Les Miserables” and even “Star Wars” – reveling and wallowing in the over-the-top ness.
“Gutenberg! The Musical!” runs through Oct. 2 at Sol Theatre, 3333N. Federal Highway, Boca Raton. Showtimes are 8 p.m. Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays; 2 p.m. matinees Sundays. Tickets are $25 ($10 for students). To order, call 561-447-8829 or go to EveningStarProductions.org.