Music Review: Gutenberg! The Musical! – Original Cast Recording

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Gutenberg! The Musical! – Original Cast Recording (Center Stage Records and Yellow Sound Label).

Star rating: five stars ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ 

Following its most recent Broadway run, a 20-week residency which closed in January 2024, Gutenberg! The Musical! (by Scott Brown and Anthony King) has now released its official Broadway cast recording, starring Grammy Award winners and Tony Award nominees Josh Gad and Andrew Rannells, as well as Mel Brooks in the role of ‘Guest Producer’. 

Gutenberg! The Musical! is centred around Johannes Gutenberg, the German inventor of the printing press, but that is about where the historical accuracy ends. Gad and Rannells play Bud Davenport and Doug Simon, authors of a new musical about Gutenberg that they are attempting to pitch to Broadway producers. In a meta, life-imitating-art unfolding of events, the show follows Bud and Doug re-enacting the entire piece themselves, in the absence of a cast, and thus many of the song titles and lyrics include commentary or stage directions as the pair attempt to convey a sense of their production to potential creators. 

With a storyline based on a self-proclaimed “quick Google search”, much of the detail of Gutenberg’s life and his world-famous invention within this piece is entirely fictional – but completely hilarious. Set in the imaginary town of Schlimmer in Germany, residents all admit how much more exciting their lives would be if they could read. The evil Monk is the only inhabitant with any form of literacy but uses this skill to fabricate inaccurate readings of the Bible and keep the townspeople under his command. Helvetica – a name one may well recognise from the modern-day word processing font style – is Gutenberg’s assistant and later love interest, working with him at his wine press which he adapts into the first form of printing press in an attempt to save Schlimmer from the clutches of Monk.  

With the subject matter of the written word, it is little wonder that there are several puns among the lyrics, including ‘Stop the Press’ and ‘What’s the Word?’ The entire construction of the show is done in an almost-slapstick way, often utilising clunky rhymes, but this only adds to the comedic feel of the show and in places is laugh-out-loud funny. The track list itself also plays into the notion of Bud and Doug retelling their creation for the benefit of any listening producer, as several of the songs are titled in the manner of narrative comments. The track following the opening number, for example, is called ‘That was the opening number!’ and only consists of Bud and Doug affirming the presence of an opener and discussing further context for the upcoming plot. 

Not to be confused with other historical retellings, such as Six and Hamilton which at least employ more than one accurately-named character, Gutenberg! The Musical! is nonetheless an earnestly feel-good creative production, providing the true escapism musical theatre is best known for, with some wickedly catchy syntax along the way. 

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