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Feb. 27th, 2007 05:19 pmGutenberg! the Musical!
written by Scott Brown and Anthony King
directed by Alex Timbers
performed by Jeremy Shamos and David Turner
Wednesday, February 21, 2007
The Actors' Playhouse
I had extremely mixed feelings about seeing Gutenberg! the musical! as part of a "bloggers' night." I had heard great things about it from people I trust -- always the biggest factor in seeing any show -- and I'm a sucker for the "parody musical" genre, but at the same time, I wondered if there was anything really new or interesting that could be done in this style.
After Cannibal! The Musical (and Parker/Stone's brilliant South Park musical parodies, somehow both loving and vicious at the same time, Urinetown (the musical), three (!) different Elephant Man musical parodies (one NYC stage version, one in the film The Tall Guy, and one - the best - by Bruce Kimmel for cable TV, "starring Anthony Newley in the role of his career!"), and many more I've seen from various comedy groups and friends -- my favorites being two ideas from my friend Jim Baker, Philby! and Journey! -- I wasn't sure if there was another original joke in the form.
There may not be anything exactly original in Gutenberg! the Musical! -- I think I've seen a version of almost every joke in the show somewhere else -- but it is a shining example of how much execution counts for, as in, almost everything. I laugh somewhat easily, sure, but I don't lose myself helplessly in loud, unrestrained guffawing too often. I did, quite a bit, at this show.
Other bloggers, and websites, cover the concept well enough. And a very high concept it is. But so much could have gone wrong, and doesn't.
Brown and King's script is pitched at a just-believable level. Too often, in this kind of work, the "show-within-the-show" is so stupid and insipid that there's no way the characters who have to believe in it could unless they are far stupider people than they are presented as being -- somehow, the combination of the characters of Bud and Doug, creators of the eponymous musical, their charming cluelessness, the show they're presenting, and their misguided but infectious belief in the brilliance of what they're doing, is written, played, and directed just so, that it all, insane as it is, seems perfectly plausible.
And yes, besides the script, a lot of the credit goes to the two performers, who are appropriately broad without overplaying. I know other people have played the roles -- I assume beginning with the two authors -- but Shamos and Turner were perfect in the roles, for my money. Turner had a wonderfully wooden presence in the "outside the musical" sections -- his stiff-legged repeated attempt at a "casual" walk across the stage made me laugh every time he did it -- and was terrifically hammy in the musical ones. Shamos is endearingly sincere as Doug, with a great wide-eyed deadpan. Timbers' direction is good and solid while keeping the necessary looseness that the show needs to work at just the right level.
I was especially pleased at how the many running gags were never overdone or milked too far, as almost always happens. I was worried for a moment when the plot point comes up that Doug is gay and Bud is not, and there's just a hint for a moment that Doug has a crush on Bud -- I've seen this gag done before, and never well; it's always overplayed to an offensively obvious and unrealistic level. Here, it's just brought up slightly, enough to be funny, and pretty much dropped, as if Doug once had a crush on Bud, and, realistically, got over it. This holds throughout -- everything just goes the correct amount "too far," never too far "too far."
My one caveat was only important at the start of the show, and dissipated to nonexistent by the end: I loved the "book" (both the "authors' presentation" and the "book of the musical") from the start, but at first I thought the song parodies weren't up to the quality of the rest of the show. I don't know if the song parodies got better as the show went on, or if I was just won over more and more by the show as a whole (I suspect a bit of both), but by the end the parodies seemed so classically "correct" that I was brought to hysteria by the cliche of a key change.
I'm glad my worries were unfounded, and that Gutenberg! the musical! was not only not the disappointment I feared, but far better than I thought I'd have any right to expect. I haven't left a theatre feeling so light and cheered in a very long time. I hope you get a chance to see it.
written by Scott Brown and Anthony King
directed by Alex Timbers
performed by Jeremy Shamos and David Turner
Wednesday, February 21, 2007
The Actors' Playhouse
I had extremely mixed feelings about seeing Gutenberg! the musical! as part of a "bloggers' night." I had heard great things about it from people I trust -- always the biggest factor in seeing any show -- and I'm a sucker for the "parody musical" genre, but at the same time, I wondered if there was anything really new or interesting that could be done in this style.
After Cannibal! The Musical (and Parker/Stone's brilliant South Park musical parodies, somehow both loving and vicious at the same time, Urinetown (the musical), three (!) different Elephant Man musical parodies (one NYC stage version, one in the film The Tall Guy, and one - the best - by Bruce Kimmel for cable TV, "starring Anthony Newley in the role of his career!"), and many more I've seen from various comedy groups and friends -- my favorites being two ideas from my friend Jim Baker, Philby! and Journey! -- I wasn't sure if there was another original joke in the form.
There may not be anything exactly original in Gutenberg! the Musical! -- I think I've seen a version of almost every joke in the show somewhere else -- but it is a shining example of how much execution counts for, as in, almost everything. I laugh somewhat easily, sure, but I don't lose myself helplessly in loud, unrestrained guffawing too often. I did, quite a bit, at this show.
Other bloggers, and websites, cover the concept well enough. And a very high concept it is. But so much could have gone wrong, and doesn't.
Brown and King's script is pitched at a just-believable level. Too often, in this kind of work, the "show-within-the-show" is so stupid and insipid that there's no way the characters who have to believe in it could unless they are far stupider people than they are presented as being -- somehow, the combination of the characters of Bud and Doug, creators of the eponymous musical, their charming cluelessness, the show they're presenting, and their misguided but infectious belief in the brilliance of what they're doing, is written, played, and directed just so, that it all, insane as it is, seems perfectly plausible.
And yes, besides the script, a lot of the credit goes to the two performers, who are appropriately broad without overplaying. I know other people have played the roles -- I assume beginning with the two authors -- but Shamos and Turner were perfect in the roles, for my money. Turner had a wonderfully wooden presence in the "outside the musical" sections -- his stiff-legged repeated attempt at a "casual" walk across the stage made me laugh every time he did it -- and was terrifically hammy in the musical ones. Shamos is endearingly sincere as Doug, with a great wide-eyed deadpan. Timbers' direction is good and solid while keeping the necessary looseness that the show needs to work at just the right level.
I was especially pleased at how the many running gags were never overdone or milked too far, as almost always happens. I was worried for a moment when the plot point comes up that Doug is gay and Bud is not, and there's just a hint for a moment that Doug has a crush on Bud -- I've seen this gag done before, and never well; it's always overplayed to an offensively obvious and unrealistic level. Here, it's just brought up slightly, enough to be funny, and pretty much dropped, as if Doug once had a crush on Bud, and, realistically, got over it. This holds throughout -- everything just goes the correct amount "too far," never too far "too far."
My one caveat was only important at the start of the show, and dissipated to nonexistent by the end: I loved the "book" (both the "authors' presentation" and the "book of the musical") from the start, but at first I thought the song parodies weren't up to the quality of the rest of the show. I don't know if the song parodies got better as the show went on, or if I was just won over more and more by the show as a whole (I suspect a bit of both), but by the end the parodies seemed so classically "correct" that I was brought to hysteria by the cliche of a key change.
I'm glad my worries were unfounded, and that Gutenberg! the musical! was not only not the disappointment I feared, but far better than I thought I'd have any right to expect. I haven't left a theatre feeling so light and cheered in a very long time. I hope you get a chance to see it.
