Gutenberg! The Musical! Cast Album in Stores Nov. 3
By Kenneth Jones
03 Nov 2009
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Album cover art for the new recording.
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PS Classics releases the original Off-Broadway cast recording of Gutenberg! The Musical!, the two-man spoof about desperate musical comedy writers, on Nov. 3. It had previously been available only at the label's website.
Original Off-Broadway cast members Christopher Fitzgerald and Jeremy Shamos reunited (after two years) to preserve the work on disc, which was produced by PS Classics co-founder Tommy Krasker. The performers (along with the writers Scott Brown and Anthony King) will perform and sign CDs 5:30 PM Nov. 5 at Barnes & Noble Lincoln Triangle at 66th and Broadway in Manhattan.
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The comic musical spotlights two bravely untalented songwriters (named Doug and Bud) who are performing a backers' audition for their new musical about the inventor of the printing press. It opened in a six-week run at 59E59 Theaters in November 2006, before transferring to the Actors' Playhouse in January 2007, where it played an additional 14 previews and 159 performances.
Gutenberg! The Musical! was nominated for the 2007 Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Musical and the 2007 Outer Critics Circle Award for Outstanding New Off-Broadway Musical. Its authors were nominated for the 2007 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Book of a Musical; and its director, Alex Timbers, was nominated for the 2007 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Director of a Musical.
The show, co-written by Scott Brown and Anthony King, is licensed and published by Samuel French Inc.
According to earlier production notes, "a pair of aspiring playwrights, Bud Davenport (Fitzgerald) and Doug Simon (Shamos), perform a backers' audition for their new project — a big, splashy musical about printing press inventor Johann Gutenberg. With an unending supply of enthusiasm, Bud and Doug sing all the songs and play all the parts in their crass historical epic, with the hope that one of the producers in attendance will give them a Broadway contract — fulfilling their ill-advised dreams."
The original Off-Broadway company of Gutenberg! The Musical! also included Ryan Karels, and featured direction and arrangements by T.O. Sterrett. Both returned for the recording.
(Tony Award nominee Christopher Fitzgerald, of Young Frankenstein, is currently starring as leprechaun Og in Finian's Rainbow on Broadway.)
The Gutenberg! track listing is as follows:
1. "OK! Here we go!"
2. Prologue/Schlimmer!
3. "Friendly…but also suspicious."
4. I Can't Read
5. "Did Helvetica actually exist?"
6. Haunted German Wood
7. The Press Song
8. I Can't Read (reprise)
9. "A giant tree…of goodness."
10. Biscuits
11. "This show is not about biscuits!"
12. What's the Word?
13. "Helvetica is crying in her bucket…"
14. Stop the Press
15. "We're about to send you rocking to the restroom…"
16. Tomorrow Is Tonight
17. "Here we go again! The second act!"
18. Second Prologue
19. Words, Words, Words
20. Monk With Me
21. (Might as Well) Go To Hell
22. "Suicide is never the answer…"
23. Festival!
24. Finale
25. Gutenberg! Megamix!
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Founded in 2000 by Tommy Krasker & Philip Chaffin, and a four-time Grammy nominee (for its cast albums of Assassins, Nine: The Musical, Grey Gardens and Company), PS Classics "celebrates the heritage of Broadway and American popular song" through its critically acclaimed cast recordings; solo albums by such artists as Maureen McGovern, Victoria Clark, Jessica Molaskey and Christine Andreas; and recordings drawn from rare sound archives, including "Sondheim Sings." Its newest releases are solo albums by Liz Callaway, Rebecca Luker and Kate Baldwin, plus its all-star studio cast recording of Kitty's Kisses. For more information, visit www.psclassics.com.
For more information about the show, visit gutenbergthemusical.com.
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Christopher Fitzgerald and Jeremy Shamos in Gutenberg! The Musical!, Off-Broadway in 2006-07.
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| photo by James Ambler |
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