Students Produce and Perform “Riotously Funny” Two-Man Musical Comedy Gutenberg! The Musical! at Drexel
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The “riotously funny” (Time Out New York) two-man musical spoof "Gutenberg! The Musical!" will take center stage in the new Black Box Theater in Drexel University’s URBN Center Annex (3401 Filbert St.) from Thursday, May 30 – Saturday, June 1 at 8 p.m.
Demonstrating the culmination of their undergraduate studies, Drexel students Dan Toll and Justin Romeo, seniors in the entertainment and arts management program in Drexel’s Antoinette Westphal College of Media Arts & Design, are producing the show as their capstone project. This production marks the first time a musical and a fully student-produced show have been performed in Drexel’s brand new Black Box Theater.
Toll and Romeo are also serving as the play’s director and production manager, respectively. The two have performed all the various roles required of a theater company over the past 14 months in order to get the production off the ground.
The production stars Chris Feindler, a student in the music industry program, as Bud Davenport, and Vince Giannone, a student in the electrical engineering program in the College of Engineering, as Doug Simon. Chrissy Piccirillo, a student in the entertainment and arts management program, serves as the show’s musical director and will play piano on stage during the performance.
Tickets are $5 for students and $10 for general audiences, and will be available at the door or by emailing dugutenberg@gmail.com.
Called “hilarious and immensely satisfying…a delicious comic success” by the Village Voice, "Gutenberg! The Musical!" centers around Doug Simon and Bud Davenport, authors of a big, splashy new musical about printing press inventor Johann Gutenberg. In need of support, they perform a backers’ audition for some of the biggest producers in New York. They have no actors, no sets and no costumes, but Bud and Doug can sing, dance and, most importantly, they have hats!
Written by Scott Brown and Anthony King, "Gutenberg! The Musical!" was the first Off-Broadway transfer for the acclaimed Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre. After the developmental run at UCBT, the show made its world premiere to critical acclaim at the Jermyn Street Theatre in London in January 2006. In September 2006, the U.S. premiere was presented as part of the third annual New York Musical Theatre Festival, where it received three awards, including Excellence in Musical Theatre Writing (Book) for Scott Brown and Anthony King. The Off-Broadway production closed in May 2007.