singing in polyphonic harmony

I'd never heard of it before, but a musical about making a musical? Count me in. (There actually seem to be quite a few musicals with this premise. I guess I'm not the only one who likes the meta of it all?) This production was at the Hayes Theatre. It's basically a two person show, plus one musician on the piano.

Doug and Bud are best friends and musical fans, who have written a show about Johannes Gutenberg. Their dream is to get it onto Broadway, so they're putting on a demo version of it, in the hope a producer will pick it up. Their vision is of spectacular sets and costumes and cast - but for today, it's just them playing all the roles on a bare bones stage, and us using our imagination.

They describe their musical as historical fiction (ie they make stuff up) about Johannes Gutenberg, who is inspired to heroically bring mass literacy to the people, and decides to convert his wine press into a printing press. (A cardboard box labelled "PRINTING PRESS". All the props were cardboard boxes.) His assistant is Helvetica, who is in love with him but pining away silently. His antagonist is an evil Monk, who wants to keep the townsfolk illiterate, so he can control what they are told the Bible says. (Doug and Bud want him to be a nuanced villain, who isn't just evil for no reason. So his backstory is that he met the Devil in a haunted German wood and sold his soul for power.)

Because Doug and Bud play all the many characters between them, they've come up with a way to distinguish them - baseball caps with the names printed on them. (This worked well in a small theatre where you could read the names, but I can imagine it would lose some impact if you couldn't.) Doug and Bud swapped hats, sometimes multiple times within a scene, with deft choreography. And one of the showstopper songs featured a chorus line of hats, strung on a laundry line suspended across the stage. (Doug and Bud also earnestly tell us that although they're playing all the parts now, in the actual show a woman character will be played by a woman: "Because representation matters.")

Along the way, Doug and Bud explain to the audience the structure and beats and tropes of a musical. It was mostly entertaining and funny. Except when they tell us, very seriously, that every musical needs to address an important theme - and theirs is Nazis. So you get a minor background character, Lil Nazi Flowergirl, who pops up a few times to be prejudiced, before getting a verbal smackdown by our hero towards the end. (I know it's supposed to be cringeworthy. But maybe it was less fraught before the rise of fascism again?)

This is the kind of show that lives or dies by its two leads. But it worked. They had great comic timing and great character chemistry. Doug and Bud were played with a lack of self-awareness that was hilarious. But at the same time, they were played with absolute sincerity, and the moments when they were awkward or vulnerable or hurt, felt raw and real. And their genuine bond was very heartwarming - they were each other's hype man and constant cheerleader.

Even though Doug and Bud's musical is kind of terrible, their enthusiasm is inspiring, and their friendship is endearing. And you know what? In these days of AI being shoved down our throats, there's something stirring about humans making bad art with all their heart and soul.