Steadstyle Chicago
	June 2008 Theatre Review by Alan Bresloff
	Looking for a Ticket Broker? Check out the hottest broadway tickets from Gotickets.com Gutenberg! the Musical Critical Evaluation: ** out of **** Alex Goodrich and Breon Bliss star in "Gutenberg! The Musical" at The Royal George Theatre.  Photo by Johnny Knight. The Royal George Theatre on Halsted is a nice little venue with a variety of productions coming in and going out adding to the flavor of Chicago's dynamic theater scene.  While I have attended a great number of shows at this theater, I was unaware of a studio-type theater one flight up from the balcony of the main stage.  This theater is called the "gallery space" and has a small stage and 65 seats (of varying comfort) and currently is the home of "Gutenberg! The Musical".  This musical comedy is written by Scott Brown and Anthony King and directed by Alex Timbers and Ian Unterman.  This 1 hour forty-five minute two man musical (with piano/musical direction by T.O. Sterrett) has some very funny moments and some songs that are Broadway musical quality as they do what is termed a "backers reading" of their new musical detailing the life of Johann Gutenberg, the inventor of the printing press.  While the concept is clever and the two actors play over 30 roles in this play-within-a-play, it doesn't appear to be a show for the mass audience.  It seems as if this is a show for the younger crowd, perhaps a crowd that will see this show after a night of partying and drinking. The two men who portray the writers of this musical, Alex Goodrich as Doug Simon and Breon Bliss as Bud Davenport are truly solid performers with great energy and talent.  They almost make this script work, but as talented as they are they cannot overcome a script that just has too many flaws.  While this is a limited production, if it were reshaped and reworked, there is a possible play worthy of the talent that is in this production.  It's always a shame to waste good performers with material not worthy of the talent they bring to the stage.  There are moments in Act II that are brilliant (the "Chorus Line" spoof is adorable) and there is humor worth seeing, but I am not keen on the Holocaust material as well as the anti-semitism (does it really add anything to the story?). "Gutenberg! The Musical!" will run at The Royal George Gallery located at 1641 N. Halsted Street through July 27, 2008.  Performances are Wednesday,Thursday and Fridays at 8 p.m., Saturdays at 5 and 9 p.m., Sundays at 3 and 7 p.m.  Tickets are $35, seniors and students $25, and are available at the box office, by phone at 312-988-9000 or through any Ticketmaster outlet or online at www.ticketmaster.com.  For more info check out www.gutenbergthemusical.com.   About Alan Bresloff Alan Bresloff, once an actor himself, has been covering the Chicago Theater Scene since 1993, first as the Theater and Arts critic for LaRaza newspaper, then with Salsachicago.com and then onto Extra Newspaper and The EpochTimes.  He also writes for ElImparcial and TeleGuia.  His reviews can also be seen on www.theatreinchicago.com.  Alan does not call himself a "critic" but a "reviewer" as he tries to educate the reader about theater itself, what is a good value, what to look for in a play or musical and more.  "Exposure to theater is a very important part of a young person's life" he says. "Learning about the arts and culture is in fact learning about life" and he tries to explain more in his reviews than just if it is good or bad.  Even some of the poor productions have some value, he often says and he would love your feedback on shows that you have seen.  You can write him here or at albresloff@sbcglobal.net.