Performances are Sept. 20-30 at the Sage Theatre, 711 Seventh Ave.

Not a simple biography of Johann Gutenberg, Gutenberg! The Musical is the story of Bud Davenport and Doug Simon, writers who attempt to bring a musical about Johann Gutenberg to Broadway. The show takes place at their backers' audition. With an unending supply of enthusiasm and idiocy, and accompanied by their pianist Larry, Bud and Doug sing all the songs and play all the parts in their crass historical epic, using only baseball caps to differentiate between the show's 30 characters.

Christopher Fitzgerald (Bud Davenport) has appeared on Broadway in the original companies of Wicked and Amour (Drama Desk nomination); and Off-Broadway in Observe the Sons of Ulster Marching Towards the Somme, Fully Committed, Saturday Night, Wise Guys, Babes In Arms, Corpus Christi and The Cripple of Inishmaan.

Jeremy Shamos (Doug Simon) has appeared on Broadway in Reckless and The Rivals. His Off-Broadway credits include Miss Witherspoon, Engaged, Observe the Sons of Ulster Marching Towards the Somme, The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged), Hamlet, Cymbeline, Race, The Alchemist, Stranger and Corpus Christi.

Gutenberg! The Musical! was first developed at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre in 2003. Its appearance in NYMF 2006 marks the first full American production. It was also shown in development at NYMF 2005 and received a limited London run at the Jermyn Street Theatre in January 2006. The writing team includes Anthony King, the artistic director of the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre in New York, and Scott Brown, a regular UCB actor and Entertainment Weekly writer.

(Playbill.com is a media partner of the New York Musical Theatre Festival 2006.)

For more information and to buy tickets, visit the
2006 New York Musical Theatre Festival website