GUTENBERG! THE MUSICAL

BY KOMI SELLATHURAI
What do Shane Warne, Paul Keating and Stephen King have in common? They all have a musical named after themselves, except the last one was a failed attempt by Bud and Doug at making it big in Broadway. Now they are back with another brilliant idea – a musical about printing press inventor, Johann Gutenberg. From Helvetica, the big-breasted, grape-stomping German beauty named after a font to the evil monk to whom “Monking is power”, actors David Somerville and Simon Van Der Stap play all 30 characters with such conviction that it is hard to imagine it any other way. In the same vein that 30 Rock spoofs its television series genre, Gutenberg! is a play on everything musical. It also breaks the fourth wall in that Bud and Doug are performing the musical for big-time Broadway producers who are actually the audience. Each applause after a song sung by the actors then becomes an approval for a scene/song in the fictional musical. This is proof that a musical doesn’t have to be a big, flashy, mega-watt production with a cast to fill a country to please an audience. Sometimes, all it takes is two guys, a pianist and bunch of baseball caps.

Until Jul 25, Downstairs Theatre, Seymour Theatre Centre, $27-39, 9351 7940 or www.seymour.usyd.edu.au