Johann Gutenberg invented the printing press in 1450, so Doug Simon and Bud Davenport wrote a musical about him. They don't have a cast, a budget, or a producer... but they have a dream!
Doug and Bud are two dolts who have set-out to musicalize quite possibly the least musical event in history—the invention of the printing press. As the third piece of Strawberry Theatre Workshop’s Biograph series, Gutenberg! The Musical! is a disastrously inaccurate, hopelessly over-ambitious, and hilariously incompetent backers' audition for their new project. It's the true story of Gutenberg, an evil Monk, and a beautiful wench named Helvetica… and Doug and Bud are gonna perform the crap out of it for Broadway producers that they think are in the audience.
The critically acclaimed musical comedy by Scott Brown and Anthony King, Gutenberg! The Musical! will make its Seattle premiere at the Erickson Theatre Off Broadway, September 4-27, 2008.
Playing the writers with the unending supply of enthusiasm and misguided passions are local favorites Troy Fischnaller and MJ Sieber, who sing all the songs and play all 40+ parts in their crass historical epic. Don Darryl Rivera accompanies on piano.
Strawshop Artistic Director, Greg Carter says Gutenberg! is a chance for the politically centered theatre company to lighten up. “For three years, people have been asking us to do more plays like Accidental Death of an Anarchist [Strawshop’s most commercially successful show from 2005]. My answer is ‘Find me the plays.’”
The winner of a Organizational Genius Award from the Stranger in 2007, Strawshop has found most of its success in wringing material from the struggle for social and economic justice. “Audiences who loved The Bridge of San Luis Rey or An Enemy of the People were not rolling in the aisles,” says Carter. “Every once in a while, people want to come to the theatre and have a cathartic experience. Laughter is one way we can offer that.”
Bringing an Off-Broadway success-story west for its Seattle debut just 18-months after it played in New York is a major coup for Strawshop—who recently sold out two different Capitol Hill venues with an original script about the Nazi propagandist Leni Riefenstahl. The company has one of the most undeviating missions in the region, yet believes in achieving its goals through a diversity of subject, style, volume, and mood.
Gutenberg! was the first Off-Broadway transfer for the acclaimed Upright Citizens Brigade, where it was originally developed in 2003 and showcased in 2005 at the New York Musical Theatre Festival (NYMF) as part of the Comedy Series. The show's critically acclaimed world premiere followed, opening at the Jermyn Street Theatre in London in January 2006.
Gutenberg! received three NYMF Awards, including Excellence in Musical Theatre Writing for Brown and King. A limited engagement followed the festival at The Actors' Playhouse in Greenwich Village in January of 2007.
By the end of the year, the play and its creators had been nominated for several additional industry awards, including the Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Musical, the Outer Critics Circle Award for Outstanding New Off-Broadway Musical, and the Drama Desk Awards for both Outstanding Book of a Musical and Outstanding Director of a Musical.
Troy Fischnaller has appeared in memorable roles all over Seattle in the last five years. He most recently produced the Neil LaBute series Autobahn at Re-Bar; has performed sketch comedy with Dusty Warren in Champagne; appeared in An Enemy of the People at Strawshop, Louis Slotin Sonata at The Empty Space, God’s Country at CHAC, and Honus & Me at Seattle Children’s Theatre.
MJ Sieber directed The Water Engine at Strawshop in 2007, and appeared as the corrupt Superintendent in Accidental Death of an Anarchist in 2005. He has performed recently in Barefoot in the Park at The Village, Twelfe Night at Seattle Rep, Native Son at Intiman. He will perform with Fischnaller in SCT’s Night of the Living Dead in October.
Don Darryl Rivera has performed at Book-It Repertory Theatre, Contemporary Classics, and Seattle Children’s Theatre, where he was seen in both High School Musical and Busytown.
