Gutenberg! The Musical! Ends Broadway Run With Plans for a Cast Album

Bud and Doug have bid Broadway farewell, but they exit the stage with more dreams to feast upon. As Gutenberg! The Musical! played its final Broadway performance on January 28 at the James Earl Jones Theatre, the production, directed by Tony Award winner Alex Timbers, officially became a hit, recouping its initial $6.75 million investment. Gutenberg!, starring Andrew Rannells and Josh Gad, had a limited 20-week engagement that opened October 12, 2023. 

On the heels of its closing, the production has also announced plans for an Original Broadway Cast Album to be released this spring on Center Stage Records and Yellow Sound Label. Recording on January 29, the album will be produced and mixed by 12-time Emmy Award winner and three-time Grammy Award nominee Michael Croiter. Music supervision, arrangements and orchestrations are by T.O. Sterrett, with vocal supervision by Liz Caplan and music direction by Marco Paguia.

Gutenberg! is written by Scott Brown and Anthony King—the Tony-nominated book writers behind Beetlejuice (also directed by Timbers). The story follows Bud and Doug, a pair of aspiring playwrights, who perform a backer’s audition for their new project: a musical about printing press inventor Johannes Gutenberg. Bud and Doug sing all the songs and play all the parts with the hope that one of the producers in attendance will give them a Broadway contract.

Each night, the show welcomed a special Guest Producer to make Bud and Doug's Broadway dreams come true. Some of the illustrious stars who joined Rannells and Gad on stage include Hillary Rodham Clinton, Steve Martin & Martin Short, Billy Crystal, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Kerry Washington, Anne Hathaway & Anna Wintour, among many others. Six-time Tony Award winner Audra McDonald served as the show's final Guest Producer, sending off the musical two-hander in true Broadway style.