Review: GUTENBERG! THE MUSICAL! - a theatrical pitch you can't miss
Experience how a crazy idea becomes pure theatrical joy.
GUTENBERG! THE MUSICAL!
Wednesday 15th April, 7:30pm, 2026, Hayes Theatre
Written and composed by Scott Brown and Anthony King. Director Richard Carroll brings the first production of Gutenberg! The Musical! to the Australian stage at the suitably innovative Hayes 2026 season.
This musical within a musical follows Bud Davenport (Ryan Gonzalez) and Doug Simon (Stephen Anderson) two Broadway hapless, naïve Broadway wannabes who present their poorly googled concept at a reading, with aspirations that it’s a backer’s audition. Their story of Johannes Gutenberg is factually and hilariously inaccurate as they create a cheesy musical full of the stereotypical tropes.
Bud and Doug use the budget conscious props including cardboard boxes and labelled baseball caps to play all the roles, as they passionately present their work in a style that is reminisce of a prep school teacher who, self-projects, thinks that the concepts need simple explanations.
We joyously watch this good-hearted pair who passionately present the story of Gutenberg. A humble wine presser in the illiterate town of Schlimmer who dreams of creating the printing press. His beautiful but dim assistant, Helvetica, secretly loves him, while the villainous Monk — an evil, Satan-worshipping monk who strokes a cat named Satan — tries to destroy the invention to keep the townspeople ignorant so he can control them by reading (and misreading) the Bible.
Gonzalez and Anderson are the prefect Bud and Doug. Both being triple threats with the bonus of comic timing and the mutual chemistry, their GUTENBERG THE MUSICAL is on fire. We love the clueless confidence of the pair and the generosity to the audience is sublime, Gonzalez and Anderson soak up these roles and make a smash hit out of this ‘wannbe smash hot’ story.
The is an insightful funny perspective of creating a stage musical that aims for the Broadway stage. Working through the hurdles of stepping into professional producing, Doug and Bud’s script pull out the tropes of musical theatre. This is a clever device for Brown and King to satire these devices while deliciously enjoying them. We too delight, as this endearing; energetic journey is filled with snappy humour and wonderfully smart songs. “A motif is when you use the same music over and over again, but it’s not lazy.”
The characters set the audience up as if we are there to see this pitch of their new project. “This is the one and only performance of GUTENBERG THE MUSICAL”
The smaller Hayes stage beautifully transports us to their world. Carroll’s production delivers Broadway standard experience (without the need to sell your car to but a couple of tickets). Shannon Burns choreography is an absolute joy, in it’s inventiveness and how it is tightly woven into the manic and energetic performances of Gonzalez and Anderson. This rollicking night is superbly lit by Veronique Benett, setting up the audition room with inspired glimpses of production beyond the rehearsal.
GUTENBERG THE MUSICAL, another gem on the current Sydney theatre scene.
Buy the extra petrol or catch the train and get to this Backer’s audition, you never know which Broadway producer you just might meet.
Photo @ John Macrae
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