Gutenberg! the Musical

February 19th 2009 12:20 am | Theatre | Review - By Diana Simmonds

Cerebral, sophisticated and extremely silly

Gutenberg! The Musical, Downstairs Theatre at the Seymour Centre, 17-21 February and 14-25 July, box office: 9351 7940

SILLY is the word that sprang to most lips after the opening night performance of Gutenberg!, followed by "really silly", "so clever" and "great fun". What was then added, after discussion and laughter, was "great performances" and "they are sooooo good!".

"They" are David Harris and James Millar who take on the multiple roles required to tell the fictitious true story of Johann Gutenberg, the man who - in this major musical - changed the world by inventing the printing press in 1450 in his home town of Schlimmer, in Germany. It was a small town beset by problems such as stinky thatch roofs, ordure in the streets, an anti-Semitic if pretty flower girl, rambling drunks, a wicked Chinese monk, rats and the occasional dead baby.

The stirring fictitious history is told by Bud Davenport (Harris) and Doug Simon (Millar) as the creators of a stage musical they hope will put their names up in lights on Broadway. In the audience are - they fervently hope and believe - any number of important producers who have come to watch them perform all the roles in their show in a "backers' audition".

Doug and Bud have clearly ingested classic Broadway with mothers' milk. Every pore oozes showbiz. They know and love every scene, theme, song and dance routine ever performed on the Great White Way from Kismet to Sondheim with every Big Finish and hoofer's trick in between.

The staging is simple with Bev Kennedy (aka Charlie) filling in for the 70 piece pit orchestra the boys will obviously require when the show opens at the Minskoff (or wherever) and with the multiple characters represented by a series of baseball caps with the name of each character emblazoned on the front. These enable Bud and Doug to assume and de-assume the roles in a rolling quick (hat) change routine that is brilliantly orchestrated and executed.

The show was written by Scott Brown and Anthony King and first staged in London in 2006; it made it to New York for the NY Theatre Festival later that year and has scored a sweetly ironic and award-winning hit for its creators. This first Australian production is up to that standard and is blessed with two terrific performers in Harris and Millar. They know their business inside out, sing like angels and have the comic timing of a pair of Swiss watches on laughing gas.

Neil Gooding (director), Nathan M Wright (choreographer), Jennifer White (dialect coach) and Martin Kinnane (lighting designer) complete a creative team that has produced - in a shockingly short space of time - one of the most polished, convinced and convincing comedy-musical spectaculars ever in the history of the entire universe including the first production in 1455.

The profound silliness of Gutenberg! shouldn't be allowed to overshadow the sheer excellence of the performers and the exhilarating fun of the 75 minutes of extremely dubious history and glorious musical comedy.

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