‘Gutenberg! The Musical’ is a high-energy production
Trending
We can think of it as an audition. Despite knowing almost nothing about him, Bud and Doug, two guys who work together at a local nursing home, have written a musical about, yes, the inventor of the printing press, Johannes Gutenberg. They call their production "historical fiction," meaning that they've made most of it up. And now they need to sell their play to potential Broadway backers. Full of optimism but low on money, they decide they will act out all the parts themselves using trucker hats with the appropriate labels, a couple of cardboard boxes, a stuffed toy cat and some sharpened pencils. As they themselves say: from this point on, anything can happen.
This is the intriguing premise of Gutenberg! The Musical!, the uproarious, high-energy, two-man production, now on stage in Millbrook's Poorman Cabaret through Aug. 9.
What ensues is high hilarity. Gutenberg's efforts to transform his wine press to a printing press are met with suspicion by the locals (BOOTBLACK, DRUNK ONE, BEEF FAT TRIMMER, etc.) in the small German town of Schlimmer and with alarm by the head of the resident monastery (MONK) who would prefer that he himself and not a mass-produced Bible serve as the primary source of truth. "The Bible says what I say it says," he says, sneering. As storm clouds gather, as the forces of darkness take on power, as the dire ending begins to seem inevitable, the production only grows zanier and more riotous. Doug and Bud, masterfully played by Jacob Little and Adam Fox, move in and out of numerous personas with the ease of a simple change of hat, bringing to the stage a huge cast of outlandish characters ("it's a good thing to make use of them or they get grumpy") -- including at one point an impressive "chorus line" -- whose energies weave, bump, collide, conspire and ignite. The stage comes alive with a contract-winning production that has taken on the air of spontaneous creative combustion.
But it's Bud and Doug who are allowed their final, quirky say. The play, which has been from the beginning loyal to its literary theme and in love with words, allows the pair to interrupt the proceedings at regular intervals to provide background, comment on the proceedings, elucidate the work's literary structure and reveal more about themselves. Underneath its manic surface the play-within-a-play has risked raising echoes of the Holocaust, using stereotypes to show the insidious effects of labeling. But Doug and Bud aren't about to let hate win. As their friendship is gradually revealed, we learn that it's love that can defeat ignorance by reaching across seemingly unbridgeable distances and that what ultimately defines us is not the labels we might wear but the particularities of our individual histories and hard-won relationships. The two turn their hats around at the end of the play, and we read not labels but their names writ large: Bud. Doug.
Adam Fox and Jacob Little are terrific in this play. We've seen them both before. Jacob starred in last year's Dracula: A Comedy of Terrors, where he brought just the right comedic touch to his portrayal of six different maniacal characters, including a quivering bridegroom, British rock star and drunken gravedigger. Here as Doug, the looser, long-haired, more worldly part of the duo, as well as the idealistic and somewhat hapless Gutenberg (plus the incarnation of various other outrageous villagers), he exhibits once again a remarkable ability to move effortlessly between various roles, each demanding its own unique expression.
Adam Fox, who appeared in past seasons in Clue, Grease, and Godspell, has returned to Millbrook's stage this season for turns in both "Annie" and "The Wedding Singer," performances that have earned him the title of "scene stealer." Here he shows off his impressive shape-shifting talents, moving from the fiery-eyed evil monk, to Helvetica (Gutenberg's erstwhile girlfriend), to a little village girl smoothing down her frock, in the blink of an eye and the change of a hat. And as the endearingly engaging Bud, in his tie and sweater vest, he shows the audience -- and the Broadway producers -- his heart.
Amazing performances on both of their parts. They're a joy to watch -- and they can sing!
Millbrook also welcomes back Lawrence Lesher as director of this production where, once again (as in Dracula: A Comedy of Terrors, Misery, Boeing Boeing, The 39 Steps and Rounding Third) he shows how deliciously good he is at choreographing split-second timing and intricate performance complexities. He has also been able, with this production, to leave us with a performance that seems entirely fresh, spontaneous and joyously creative. In a pre-performance chat, Lawrence expressed his appreciation for the entire Millbrook crew for doing so much with only limited resources -- and for being so wonderfully supportive of its guests. He also gave a shout-out to live theatre which, fortunately, still exists in this age of cell-phones and streaming services as a means of "telling a story honestly" to an audience sitting, and breathing with you, in the room.
Shout-outs also to Wesley Morgan, Music Director and on-stage pianist and sound-effects guy. Also to Ericka Lee Conklin as Associate Producer and Lighting Designer, Cade M. Sikora as Technical Director (and surprise walk-on Broadway Producer!), Jacob Robertson as Costume Designer, Jonas Hildreth as Scenic Designer, V.C. Deener as Props Designer and Kaidyn Rogers as Production Stage Manager and Sound Engineer.
As the play says, "a wine-press makes you drink, a printing press makes you think. Words are wine from a better grape. We're gonna get drunk off of words." Come see Gutenberg! The Musical! and be prepared for a wonderfully inebriating experience!