Frank Rizzo As backers’ auditions go, “Gutenberg! The Musical!” — a wildly delusional conceit so full of itself that it boasts two exclamation points — doesn’t stand a chance of making it to Broadway.
That is, unless it can convince an audience of potential producers that it is witnessing the greatest creation since, well, the printing press.
It greatly helps that this starry-eyed writer-composer duo from Nutley, New Jersey who are desperately selling their show — emphasis on desperately — are played by Josh Gad and Andrew Rannells, reunited 12 years after their terrific pairing in “The Book of Mormon.” It almost makes it all worthwhile — almost.
But meta-musicals have lost a bit of their winking novelty since this show began nearly 20 years ago, first as an extended 45-minute sketch for the Upright Citizens Brigade, then later for an Off Broadway run starting in 2006, followed by regional productions.
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