30 Days of NYMF Day 13: Gutenberg! The Musical!

On a recent trip to the colonies, I had the pleasure of sitting down with two shiny diamonds in the showbiz rough, Messrs. Bud Davenport and Doug Simon. Intense chaps, this pair have one great dream: To bring their show, Gutenberg! The Musical!, to the Broadway stage. They'll be going about it the usual way: staging a backer's audition, explaining their vision to the moneymen, and singing, quite literally, for their supper. (Neither appears to have steady, gainful employment.)

Bud and Doug are a writing team on the cusp. Until the big night, the dream of musicalizing the invention of the printing press remains just that, a dream. "This is the calm before the storm," Bud told me, "Just like in The Perfect Storm with George Clooney."

"Except this is musical theater, so there's less fishing and more singing," adds Doug, "But not underwater. It's actually deadly to sing underwater, which is why The Little Mermaid is a terrible movie for children. Have you seen The Perfect Storm?"

"They all drown," clarifies Bud. "Our dream won't."

"There's no water in this show," Doug stresses.

But until the last song is sung, no one, least of all Bud or Doug, knows if Gutenberg! will be Broadway's next megahit, or just another piece of dirty litter discarded along the Great White Way, waiting for Boy George to sweep it up. Why, then, am I devoting precious text to a venture as shaky and osteoporotic as Galahad, my 22-year-old iron lung-confined Shitzu?

Because the show's bloody brilliant, that's why! Bud and Doug, performing all the roles in a dazzling array of labeled baseball caps, gave me a private taste of their passionate craftsmanship, and I can say, with confidence, that Gutenberg!, properly mounted, could run in the West End for seven forevers, possibly longer if the authors work in a roller-skating number. Faultlessly historical, the show is also shockingly contemporary, like Back to the Future III or a dinosaur in a spaceship. It is also *incredibly socially important*: I can't go into detail, you must experience it for yourself. Suffice it to say, if I had a child with cancer, I'd probably force him to come see it,  unless the cancer had spread to his eyes and ears. Can art so true and pure and relevant find a home on Broadway? Allow me to reference my fellow KBE, Sir Mix-a-lot: Even white boys got to shout. Gutenberg! has indeed got the theatrical equivalent of "back." Johann Gutenberg, were he alive today, would undoubtedly smile and then probably print something.

Visit www.nymf.org for tickets and more information.

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