Video: What's GUTENBERG! THE MUSICAL All About? The Creative Team Explains!

Every day is surreal that it's happening

It's so exciting. I mean, again, it's a show about two guys wanting to take their show to Broadway

written by two guys who never thought this show would go to Broadway. So it's unbelievable

How excited are you to be bringing this to Broadway? I am so excited

We've been, you know, I've been in love with this musical for about 17 years

And so to actually get to do it on Broadway's total dream come true. So what's it been like taking it to Broadway

Broadway now with these two. It's been amazing. You know, I've worked on like trying to hatch something

with Josh Dad for years and years and years. And so the opportunity to get to do something with Josh

and Andrew who like I fell in love with watching Book of Mormon many years ago to get to actually like work in a room with them

it's it's incredible. Okay, let's talk about what it's like being in the rehearsal room

with those two comic geniuses. Yes, it is very fun and it is hard to stay focused

because they're always cracking me up. So, we're, but we're getting a lot of work done

And you know, what's incredible is on other shows, you know, you have other characters that come in

or other people that sing songs, you get time off stage, or like a stage hand moves a thing

and you get to like not do that. They're doing everything. They're moving all the props, all the scenery

playing 50-some characters. They go through something like 140 hats in the show playing all these different characters It is incredible It one of those shows that we grew up on like Stones Pockets like that kind of thing Like oh hello

Like, where you're just, like, just blown away by two comics virtuosity

So take me back to the beginning, like, how did you come up with this incredible idea? It started when I was an intern at the Manhattan Theater Club in the musical theater department

And all I would do is go to readings of new musicals and read new musicals

And usually they would come with, like, a CD. of songs, often sung by the author, and they were full of so much passion

Some of them weren't very good, but they were so specific and so..

So specific. And so we started talking about, like, who are these people

What are their lives? How do they get so excited about such a weird idea

And it led to what is a weird idea that we could explore, and it was Johann Gutenberg

inventing the printing press. Because audiences have already fallen in love with this. How do you describe this musical to people that ask you

Wow, I mean, I would say it's about two guys with a big idea that's so big that they can't actually reproduce it with the resources they have, but they're going to try anyway

They're kind of trying to try to recreate a cast of thousands musical with just the two of them and a whole bunch of hats so they can literally wear different hats and play different roles

They can make sounds with their mouths and create all the sound effects They can tell you to imagine all the scenery It just the pure inventiveness of theater no matter how wrongheaded that gets

I was going to ask you, what is it like just working with two people? You've done it before, but you know, you do these massive musicals too

which I don't know how you do those either. But what's it like just working with two people putting a show together

It's extraordinary to strip everything away to not really be relying on design or spectacle at all

and just be about like just two human beings in a theater. connecting with the audience and just focusing on the comedy

You know, I work a lot with, you know, like John Mullaney on his stand-up specials. I did the pee-wee show

And my background before theater was improv and sketch comedy. That's how I got in a theater

So reconnecting with that is just, it's awesome. So take me back to the beginning when you first got this from Anthony and Scott

Yeah. What made you say the first time around I want to direct this? I fell in love with this because it's so scrappy and smart

It's, you know, the conceit, it's a high concept comedy. a backer's audition for a musical

So it's these two writers pitching it, but these writers don't know a lot about their subject

so they've had to make up a ton. And what I loved about it is it uses like DIY theater techniques

sort of in the vein of Peter and the Starcatcher and Robert Bridegroom to just conjure these whole worlds

But the comedy is so sharp and funny. You know, Anthony and Scott right on Broad City

what hot American summer, so it got this really kind of like edgy left kind of comedic vibe and that one of the things I fell in love with So many of us think this is the perfect show right now for Broadway What do you each hope audiences take away after seeing this

I hope that it's such a chaotic time in the world right now that I hope it is a place where

for two hours people get to just feel joy and warmth and laugh together

It's the show, especially with Josh and Andrew, it's full of so much warmth

Their friendship is so front and center. And you just can't help rooting for them

That's what I hope is it's like a place of solace in this insane world right now

I mean, that's always been what theater has been for me. I think for both of us, I think for a lot of people

I mean, we grew up together. We met in like middle school

We did theater together. That's a chaotic time, you know. And theater was this place where you can just create a shared reality that makes sense

Maybe not to anybody else, but it does to the two of you. And then you can, starting from that, you can really get something

So I feel like one of the things that this is just like a vehicle for joy

And it is so fun and it is like hilarious from the beginning to the end and then a little moving and hopeful at the end as well

And so for me like when I go to a theater, I want like a really big, vivid experience and this thing

Hopefully you're leaving floating on a cloud and just just delighting in these two brilliant, brilliant performers who are a great comedy duo