The New York Times: Written by Scott Brown and Anthony King and starring Josh Gad and Andrew Rannells (reprising their “Book of Mormon” buddy act), the show has drawn mixed reviews and strong box-office returns. But even before it opened, its mere existence on Broadway sent book and library nerds vibrating with anticipation and a bit of disbelief.
4 comments:
For whatever reason I didn’t realize that the Gutenberg musical was about the Printing Press. I don’t know exactly what I thought it was about. I knew it had Josh Gad and Andrew Rannells and that’s pretty much it. Both actors are absolutely amazing and I heard they were so funny together in Book of Mormon. Just seeing the lead cast I assumed Gutenberg was good. I never bothered to read anything on it. In all honesty the only reason I clicked this article was because it was from the New York Times and I like the New York Times’ writing. I think it is interesting that there is a musical about the Gutenberg printing press at all. The article talks about how there actually isn’t much information on the printing press’ creator. So this musical has to take a lot of creative liberties. This article didn’t touch on why the show has mixed reviews so I think I’ll look into that later.
Personally, I know NOTHING about this musical. I’ve been lucky enough to have seen quite a few shows on Broadway, and I’ve been meaning to get tickets to Gutenberg for a while. When reading this article I saw that Josh Gad was in it. I’ve been a pretty big fan of Josh Gad for a while, especially after watching his performances in Frozen and Pixels, a 2015 movie with Adam Sandler. I recently also learned the fact that Josh Gad went to Carnegie Mellon University for Acting. It is really cool to know I am a student at the School of Drama like he was all those years ago. Honestly, I clicked on this article to find out what Gutenberg was about, and while I learned that, I also learned a few other facts about the show and actors itself. First off, since I didn’t know what this musical was about, it was really surprising to learn that it was about the Gutenberg printing press. It was also really interesting to find out that Josh Gad and Andrew Rannells were both in the Book of Mormon together!
I definitely didn’t have much background knowledge on this musical, although I feel like I’ve seen a lot a marketing related to it. Basically, I all knew was that it has some sort of The Producers type meta-show production process aspect, and that there definitely seemed to be some reliance on the well-established names in the main roles of the production. I really enjoyed how this article briefly explored the concept of who gets to have a musical about them and provided a good bit of information into who Johannes Gutenberg was. The printing press was such a revolutionary invention, and I really can’t imagine what it would be like to live in any sort of a world without any type of printing technology. I love books and being able to print stuff as I wish. While I don’t think that there will be an actual Gutenberg musical anytime soon, I do hope that people watching Gutenberg! enjoy the history lesson aspect of the show.
I really want to go see Gutenberg! It looks amazingly fun, and it was so cool reading about the history behind this production - I’m sure if I do see it know knowing about the real life Gutenberg would make it even more interesting (I’m already laughing about the idea of a love interest with Helvetica). I was so happy hearing about this production, as I love comedies and though theater is such a powerful medium for spreading messages and important stories, I also believe greatly in escapism and making people joyful, and going to a serious or beautiful but intense production is great, but it is another thing entirely going to a comedy where everyones in on it, and the cast enjoys it just as much as the audience does, which from what I’m hearing about this show, it seems to be. With the frequent guest stars, it reminds me of a production I saw on the West End last summer, called Bleak Expectations. I stumbled upon it with a friend of mine, and it was so hilarious, with a Monty-Python esc humor, and reminded me of my love for comedies and the art of making fun of yourself.
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