Event
Gutenberg! The Musical!
WATCH THE TRAILER: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mY7LJ9LC4NQ
FINAL WEEK SCHEDULE
MON (Sep-22) 8:00 pm pay-what-you-can
THU (Sep-25) 8:00 pm
FRI (Sep-26) 10:30 pm ONLY
SAT (Sep-27) 10:30 pm ONLY final appearance
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 the parts in their crass historical epic. Don Darryl Rivera accompanies on piano.
SEATTLE REVIEWS:
"[MJ] Sieber and [Troy] Fischnaller are so nebbishly lovable, from their ambitious ego-stroking to their codependent creative spats, you leave wanting them to pitch you their next terrible musical, too. There's something intrinsically American about the Broadway musical--beyond the location of course. Even wanting to put one on is a flowering of rosy optimism, and writers Anthony King and Scott Brown display a touching fondness for Doug and Bud (and all of us) who live one foot in a brighter future, who 'eat dreams.'" Michael van Baker, Seattlest.com 9/8/2008
"Strawberry Theatre Workshop again makes mounting a hit look easy by simply adhering to a few immutable fundamentals: an inspired choice of material, production values that make each quarter spent look like a dollar on stage, and peerless casting instinct... [Troy] Fischnaller's Doug is giddily foul-mouthed with self-congratulation, and [MJ] Sieber has a twinkle in his eye even as he works himself into a sweaty state of breathless zeal. Both performers toil feverishly to keep director Greg Carter's pace for the showa five-shot-espresso-with-a-Red-Bull-chaser momentum from start to finish." Kevin Phinney, Seattle Weekly 9/10/2008
"The satire by Anthony King and Scott Brown (and ably directed here by Greg Carter) is certainly silly fun, but it also offers a knowing deconstruction of the modern musical... MJ Sieber is delightfully eager and needy as Bud, a pudge in sweater vest and glasses who does his little happy dance during favored scenes. Troy Fischnaller is the lower-key Doug, an Abbott to Bud's Costello, a straight man who, it turns out, is not straight." Gianni Truzzi, Seattle P-I 9/9/2008
"Two musical-theater nerds (Troy Fischnaller and MJ Sieber) put on a reading of their delightfully stupid biographical musical about printing-press inventor Johann Gutenberg. The first act, with its skewering of musical cliches (singing songs of longing while standing on rooftops! Old black narrators!) is have-trouble-catching-your-breath funny. The second act, while still hilarious, loses a bit of the manic energy of the pre-intermission wave. Still, I don't recall the last time I left a theater with a face that ached from laughing way too much." Paul Constant, The Stranger 9/10/2008
"[Troy] Fischnaller and [MJ] Sieber work even harder to keep us amused than Bud and Doug, too, with all that dashing about, pleading for cash and singing show tunes that take off on various Broadway musicals. Also on hand is the truly amusing pianist-actor Don Darryl Rivera, who simmers throughout with deadpan disdain." Misha Berson, Seattle Times 9/12/2008
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LocationErickson Theatre Off Broadway
1524 Harvard Ave
Seattle, WA 98122
United States
Categories
| Kid Friendly: No |
| Dog Friendly: No |
| Non-Smoking: No |
| Wheelchair Accessible: No |
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