Is Gutenberg! The Musical! okay for kids?

It suits teens better than kids. There is no sex or graphic violence, but there is an antisemitic character played as satire, a dark joke about a child dying, and crude humor. It works best for 13 and up who already love musicals.

Can you still see Gutenberg! The Musical! on Broadway?

No. The Broadway run ended on January 28, 2024. The Original Broadway Cast Recording with Josh Gad and Andrew Rannells came out in May 2024, and the show is licensed for regional productions.

Is Gutenberg! The Musical! like The Book of Mormon?

It shares two stars and a love of musical-theater jokes, but it is much milder. The Book of Mormon has constant strong profanity and explicit religious satire; Gutenberg! has a handful of edgy jokes inside a goofy parody.

Gutenberg! The Musical! – WISE Score & Parent Review

Name: Screenwise
Author: Screenwise

Where to Watch

Loading streaming options...

Where-to-watch data byJustWatch

Screenwise Verdict

Gutenberg! The Musical! is a two-man comedy about writing a bad musical, and it is funniest for people who know a lot of good ones. Bud and Doug, a pair of hopeful amateurs, perform their show about Johannes Gutenberg for a room of potential investors. Their Gutenberg turns a wine press into a printing press, falls for his assistant, Helvetica, and battles an evil monk, and nearly none of it happened.

The 2023 Broadway run reunited Josh Gad and Andrew Rannells, the leads of The Book of Mormon, and it closed on January 28, 2024, after recouping its costs. Each night a celebrity walked on at the end as the Broadway producer who says yes; Lin-Manuel Miranda, Billy Crystal and Audra McDonald were among them.

It is a lot cleaner than The Book of Mormon, but it still has edges a parent should know about. The joke of the show is that Bud and Doug try to add a serious message and do it terribly, and one of their results is a little flower girl who sings that she hates Jews. Teens who love theater will laugh, and the gag is a good one to talk through afterwards.

Age Fit

Best at 13 and up, for teens who already love musicals and can tell when a show is mocking its own characters. Younger theater kids can enjoy the cast album with a parent ready to skip or explain the flower-girl song. Running time is about two hours with an intermission.

WISE Breakdown

Wholesome

60

At heart it is a story about two friends who will not give up on a ridiculous dream, and that warmth carries the show. It gets laughs from material that is mean on purpose, as a joke about how badly Bud and Doug write.

Imaginative

82

Two actors play an entire village with a rack of labeled caps, and the show-within-a-show format makes the bad writing the comedy. Clever, inventive staging on a near-empty stage.

Safe

55

An antisemitic flower girl sings a hateful lyric for laughs, the villain monk has a cat named Satan, there is a joke about a child dying from a misread medicine label, and plenty of crude humor. No sex scenes or graphic violence.

Enriching

60

Teaches a teen a lot about how musicals are built, from the I Want song to the big finale, by breaking each rule badly. Historical facts are wrong on purpose and labeled as such.

Parent Info

✓

Why It Might Be Great

Two performers carry a whole cast through hat changes, which turns into a running physical gag that teens enjoy
A crash course in musical-theater structure, because every bad choice Bud and Doug make has a name a theater kid will recognize
Bud and Doug's friendship and earnestness keep it warm even when the jokes get dark
The cast recording with Gad and Rannells includes Mel Brooks as the producer, a nice bridge to The Producers

⚠

What to Watch For

An antisemitic flower girl character sings hateful lines; it is satire aimed at the writers, and a teen should know that going in
Dark jokes about a child's death from a misread medicine label
A villain monk with a cat named Satan and running crude humor
Most jokes depend on knowing musical theater; younger kids or non-fans may sit through a lot of material that goes over their heads

Conversation Starters

"Bud and Doug wanted their show to say something serious. Why did their attempt go so wrong?"
"How did you keep track of who was who when the actors kept switching hats?"
"Is it okay to laugh at a terrible character if the joke is on the person who wrote them?"
"If you wrote a musical about an inventor, who would you pick and what would the big song be?"

Deep Dive

Gutenberg! is a love letter to musicals disguised as a terrible one

Scott Brown and Anthony King wrote it at the Upright Citizens Brigade in New York, and it premiered off-Broadway in 2006. The 2023 Broadway production, directed by Alex Timbers at the James Earl Jones Theatre, starred Josh Gad as Bud and Andrew Rannells as Doug, two friends who have written a musical about a man nobody knows much about.

Josh Gad and Andrew Rannells on the Original Broadway Cast Recording.

Two actors, one village

The gag runs the whole show. Every character, from Gutenberg to Helvetica to the monk, is a cap with a name printed on it, and Gad and Rannells stack, swap and wave them to show who is talking.

The satire has teeth

Bud and Doug decide their show needs a dark theme and land on antisemitism, because, as they put it, Germans in history did not like Jews. The result is a flower girl who sings a hateful lyric with a smile. The joke is on Bud and Doug for handling a serious subject so clumsily, and critics split on whether it lands. For a teen, it is a good starting point for a conversation about who a joke is aimed at.

For more of Gad's work, from Olaf to the adults-only Book of Mormon, see the Josh Gad guide.

What Parents Ask

Ask Anything

Get a personalized guide on any topic

Related Guides

Josh Gad: Beyond the Snowman

How to navigate the prolific career of the voice behind Olaf, from Disney hits to his more mature Broadway and streaming projects.

Writing about Gutenberg! The Musical!? Put this WISE score on your site