Gutenberg! the Musical! A Historically Fictional Musical That’s so Funny it Should be Considered True!

Gutenberg! The Musical! And for good measure, I’m adding another “!”! Why does it deserve a third, and potentially fourth, “!” (I’m not sure, grammatically, if I needed end punctuation after the ! in “”) “.” ? Well, I’ll tell you why (which is when a harp would be strummed and I’d begin to sing), because this is the kind of show that led to the creation of The Stages of MN in the first place. Faithful readers will remember that the actual shows were Be More Chill and Hedwig and the Angry Inch. By some sort of mystical coincidence, the latter was, like Gutenberg! The Musical!, produced at Theater Latté Da, and the star of that show, Tyler Michaels King, is the director of this one. I assume your mind is now blown.

The show is about two best friends, Doug and Bud, who, thanks to a financial windfall, have rented the Ritz Theater for one night only to present the musical they’ve written together: Gutenberg! The Musical!. The musical (the show within the show) is about Johannes Gutenberg and the invention of the printing press. It is completely fictional and incredibly silly. But the piece is also a send-up of the musical theater form itself, and Doug and Bud get about as much stage time as the characters they portray. When I say “performance,” it’s really a staged reading, in which Doug and Bud play all the roles, aided by an ever-rotating collection of baseball caps to help the audience keep track of which of the dozens of characters they’re embodying at any given moment.

Tom Reed plays Doug. Regular Theater Latté Da patrons may recognize him from another Latté Da production, Stones in His Pockets, where he proved his skill at playing dozens of characters alongside a single fellow performer. A longtime Stages of MN favorite since appearing in one of my all-time favorite musicals, Interstate, he once again demonstrates the comedic timing and musical chops that make him a “must-see” performer for me.

Dominic Schiro first came to my attention a couple of years ago in Ten Thousand Things’ production of The Spitfire Grill, where I immediately found myself asking fellow bloggers, “Who is this guy?” He was far too good for me not to have noticed him before. I knew he could sing, now I know he’s also a gifted comedic actor. Reed and Schiro play off each other beautifully. They make it look effortless (it is not). The supportive banter between Doug and Bud feels genuinely heartfelt, even amid the extremely goofy dialogue, plot, songs, and overall conceit.

Tyler Michaels King is the perfect guiding force for this show. While the book itself is clever, so much of the humor comes from the performances. Michaels King is an accomplished improv performer, as is Reed, and I can only imagine the laughter in rehearsal as they explored blocking, added bits of stage business, shaped reactions, and fine-tuned all the details we don’t consciously see but absolutely feel. A tip o’ the hat as well (don’t ask me where the Irish accent came from [perhaps thinking about Stones in His Pockets] {which is set in Ireland}) to music director Jason Hansen, who even gets in on the action with a few well delivered lines of his own.

This is the kind of show that will have you chasing the theatrical dragon. It’s so fun, warm-spirited, and delightful that you’ll want to see more theater, always searching for that next show that gives you the same high. Do it. Keep going. For in theater, as I’m about to start always saying, here there be dragons!

Gutenberg! The Musical! runs through May 3 at Theater Latte Da. For more information, and to get your fix, visit
https://www.latteda.org/gutenberg-musical

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