"I think I'm a kid at heart."
For Josh Gad, the path to returning to Broadway following his star-making performance in Book of Mormon wasn't easy. "Book of Mormon is a once in a generation thing...you're not going to replicate that. So why are you trying?" But one part Gad is willing to replicate from his Mormon days in his new musical, Gutenberg! The Musical! (currently on Broadway) is his Mormon co-star, Andrew Rannells, who "literally makes me better every time I'm on stage next to him." The musical follows Bud (Gad), the "naive one," and Doug (Rannells) as they workshop a musical about the less-than-factual story of Johannes Gutenberg, the inventor of the printing press. "Gutenberg gives us a chance to come back and flex our muscles comedically in a way that is both familiar, but different." Gad calls the physicality of Gutenberg "20 times harder" than Mormon because "we don't leave the stage once except for intermission." Gad is aware there will be comparisons to Mormon, and that's okay. "I am forever grateful for that experience and that unbelievable roller coaster ride."
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Editor's Note: This conversation has been edited and condensed for publication.
It's so exciting to finally have you back on Broadway. How exciting is it for you?
It's exciting beyond measure for a number of reasons. First of all, it's my first time back on a Broadway stage in over a decade. Since Book of Mormon. It's a return to the stage with a person who literally makes me better every time I'm on screen or on stage next to him, and that's Andrew Rannells. It's a script that, for many reasons, kind of fell into my arms at a time in which I wasn't expecting [it] and had become a little cynical about what was going to be the thing that brought me back to the stage. Because it wasn't for lack of trying, I just hadn't found the right thing to follow Mormon. I had looked into doing A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum. Nothing felt entirely right. And then Alex Timbers, the brilliant director, calls me one day and he goes, "Look, I know we've been discussing Forum, but as we're dealing with the rights issues on that, have you ever heard of Gutenberg! The Musical?" And I said, "No, I haven't." He goes, "Alright, here's a show that I directed off-Broadway, was one of the first shows I ever directed in 2006. I'd love for you to read it and listen to the music." And I was like, "Okay." What I didn't say to him was, I'm very skeptical of anything called "the musical" because it just feels slight and it feels a little silly. I was very hesitant. And I was also like, do I want to do a show that's already been out there? So I read the script with great skepticism, very glass half empty. And despite all of my initial protest, I was so floored by how effortlessly funny it was. And even though it would go on a much longer journey to really come into the version that we've created now, it was immediately transparent, like its heart was just in the right place. And I listened to the music, sung brilliantly by the original stars, and was just floored by how good the songs were. So I called him back and I said, "Okay, I would pursue this, at least to hear it out loud. But I would want to do it with only one person, Andrew Rannells." And he said, "Well, I'm glad you said that because I sent the script to Andrew." And I was like, "You f*****. Of course you did." So we got together with the creative team [and] over the course of a five-day period, otherwise known as a week, we did this workshop of it, just for the five of us in a rehearsal space in southern California, and we all just were like, "This feels really right. I think let's take the next steps." That was March of 2020. Days later, the world shut down. So that put the pause button on, and then it became out of sight, out of mind. And then late last year, Alex calls us up and goes, "Look, there's real interest in you guys doing this on Broadway. What are your thoughts?" I kind of struggled with it, because it's always going to mean a personal sacrifice of leaving my family—my girls are older now, they're in school, I don't want to disrupt their social lives—so it would have to be a limited run and it would have to be in a window where Andrew and I could realistically do it. They said, we can make that happen. We said, let's do one more reading, see how it feels, and then go from there. So at this point, Bad Robot and J.J. Abrams had come aboard to produce. We went to their offices, we did another version of it with music stands and once again, it just jumped off the page. We were like, "Yeah, we got to do this." And so here we are.
There must have been a lot of pressure to pick the right musical, considering how big The Book of Mormon was.
One hundred percent. That pressure, whether it was valid or not, was very much a weight that I carried making this decision. And it started to become a sword of Damocles; I got a little tired of having to compare every decision that I was going to make to Book of Mormon because, I finally realized, nothing's ever going to be Book of Mormon. And that's okay. Book of Mormon is a once in a generation thing, right? It happened. It's, to my understanding, the last musical comedy to do what it did and transcend the genre, running for over a dozen years now. And you're not going to replicate that. So why are you trying? And in a way, I didn't want to replicate it. I wanted something new. I wanted a different challenge. And Gutenberg, for me, was sort of the culmination of everything Andrew and I had learned post Book of Mormon, doing what we've been doing. It gives us a chance to come back and flex our muscles comedically in a way that is both familiar to those who fell in love with us in Book of Mormon, but different in that it's a whole different type of comedy than Book of Mormon, even though they're both laugh-out-loud and raucous. That really felt like a nice challenge. And that felt really exciting.
How is Gutenberg different from Book of Mormon?
The differences start with the conceit of the musical. Book of Mormon is, ironically, a very traditional musical. It's part of why I think it works so effectively, because Trey [Parker] and Matt [Stone] and Bobby Lopez, obviously, were all students of musical theater. There's a reason that Stephen Sondheim called [Parker and Stone's] Team America the best musical of the decade when it came out. I think with this, going into it, it's a completely different type of show. The conceit of the show is these two guys are doing a one-night-only stage reading or workshop of this thing that they've written about Johann[es] Gutenberg, the inventor of the printing press. They've spent every last penny they both collectively have to rent the theater, buy some lights and put on the show, playing every single character themselves by using 120 hats to distinguish between each character. So right off the bat, you have this very meta entry way into this, that is fundamentally different than Book of Mormon. This is like, you are coming into it and the audience is watching these two guys who have no business being on stage, let alone doing this, suddenly do a show that literally could not possibly be dumber, in that it doesn't answer any factual questions about Johann[es] Gutenberg, but you somehow fall in love with them. And therefore, you fall in love with the version of the story they're telling. And the theme of the show is really about dreaming. There's a great song at the end of the show called "We Eat Dreams" that's really tender and very sweet. And the whole show is about will these guys be able to see their dream to fruition? And at a certain point, it's a very interesting case study, where you watch everybody at the beginning of the show sort of leaning back in their seats laughing, going, who the hell is this guy? By the end of the show they're leaning forward, sometimes tears in their eyes because they're so overwhelmed with joy. It's a really beautiful and a profound thing.
What about your character Bud did you respond to?
On day one, they posed the question to us, which of you wants to be Bud and which one wants to be Doug? And a part of the decision-making came down to what characters does Bud get to play? What characters does get to play? Of course, I've often compared Andrew and I in comedic stylings to an Uzi and a sniper rifle. Me being the Uzi. And there's always collateral damage either way. But I sort of felt like Bud offered more of that scattered chaos that I love to tap into. And what's so brilliant about Andrew is he's always the anchor. And it felt like he needed to anchor the show by playing Gutenberg. And what Andrew does so effectively, he plays that sort of arrogance in such a winning way that you can't help but fall in love with him. And Gutenberg just exudes that arrogance, and he just does that better than anyone. And then in terms of Bud and Doug, what I love about Bud is he's sort of the naive one of the two. He's the one who's going along with what Doug is encouraging him to do, but he's not as sure-footed as Doug. And I always loved playing those characters. It's Olaf [from Frozen], there's something about naïveté and being a kid. I think I'm a kid at heart and that really fascinates me with those types of characters. So, for both of those reasons, I fell in love with with Bud.
How does it feel to be part of an iconic Broadway duo like you and Andrew are. You're right up there with Matthew Broderick and Nathan Lane. Have you gotten that before?
We really have, to the point that people have asked us if we would ever do a revival of The Producers, the answer to which is no. Matthew and Nathan are also our idols, so I don't think it's a fair comparison, because I think we still have a ways to go to be in the same orbit as those two legends. I'll tell you, I went to go see The Producers when I was at Carnegie Mellon, and I was so desperate, I had no money and I somehow was able to pull out the last $100 in my bank account. And like a young, naive schmuck, I'm walking through Times Square, and tickets were not available. This was close to the opening. And a guy comes up to me, he goes, "Tickets to The Producers, orchestra seats." So I give him $100. And he goes, "I gotta go get the tickets." And I'm like, "Well, no, I can't." He goes, "Here, you hold my walkie talkie, I'll come back, and you have something." He disappears, never to be heard from again. I have a walkie-talkie, a plastic walkie-talkie with no batteries. And I am so devastated. I go to the ticket booth and I'm crying and I tell them the story. And they're like, "Oh, you poor thing. You're in luck, because we have a cancellation. It's $150." So I call up my mom and I was like, "Can I put this on the credit card?' I went to see it, and it transformed my life. And to get those comparisons is such a an out-of-body experience, because I remember seeing Nathan in A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum and that's what made me fall in love with musical theater. I remember seeing he and Matthew in The Producers, and being like, this is the greatest thing I've ever seen in my life. So, when you hear people say that about us, it really humbles me because, for Andrew and I, it makes us feel like our work matters. And to even be in the same breath as those two means that we're doing something right. So, it's a true honor.
Doing a Broadway show is such a physical challenge. How do you keep up the stamina?
Let's get something out of the way: This show is 20 times harder for me than Book of Mormon was. We don't leave the stage once except for intermission. We are each playing a dozen or so roles. We have over 120 hats that we have to account for and wear at some point in the show. We are our own crew, and we are doing choreography that is supposed to infer that we are actually a cast of 30 and the show is so physically challenging. And my vocal coach once said to me the hardest thing about doing Broadway is staying well enough to do Broadway. And it's really accurate. I live, breathe and eat Gutenberg. And that was part of why it took me so long to come back, because I remember the sacrifices. And it's the hardest part about doing this thing, you really put it all out there in a way that is oftentimes debilitatingly draining. When I get off the stage, I want to collapse, I'm covered in sweat and I'm out of breath. But what brings me back is that relationship with the audience and that joy that is contagious when you see them sit up in their seats and stand up at the end and just be so moved, and so excited, and so grateful. There's nothing more addictive as a performer than then getting that kind of response. And so it's worth the pain and the endurance test that I'm putting myself through because the end seemingly justifies the means.
COVID really hit Broadway hard, and it's still rebounding. Have you noticed the changes?
Audience habits have definitely changed. It's very different. I think a part of why I'm so grateful to be doing Gutenberg right now on Broadway, instead of in 2021, which we had originally looked to do, is the show is a love letter at its core to musical theater. It really is. It's just an uncynical, pure, full-throated endorsement of why we love musicals and musical comedies. And so that part of it has been really interesting because the relatively few audiences that have thus far seen it—we've done two-and-a-half weeks [of] previews—I forgot how much I love a theater response. And that's been really beautiful to watch. I think tourist habits have changed. From what I understand, a lot of people now come to New York and they don't see five shows anymore. They basically come in, they see one or two shows and those shows are usually staples, and then they leave. So encouraging audiences to go see a Sondheim show or an original musical like Gutenberg is definitely harder than it used to be. And audiences are a little bit more loosey-goosey in terms of etiquette. It's been really funny. The other day, somebody in the front row literally rested their Playbill on the stage where he [Rannells] and I were dancing. I was like, Oh, my God. But in general, it's still the same love affair that it always was.
So much of your career was made because of Book of Mormon. Since then you've gone on and done other big things, but do people still bring up Book of Mormon to you?
It's wild. I mean, there's an expectation that when you do a show, because of the virtue of just the numbers, you can only get [a certain number of] people a night in that theater. So relatively speaking. Not a lot of people saw me in Book of Mormon when you think about a movie like Frozen, for instance, or something like that. Book of Mormon was a very intimate experience for a couple of hundred thousand people who got to see it while I was in it. And yet, not a day goes by where somebody doesn't come up to me and tell me how much that show and my performance meant to them. And that's wild. You see it happen with shows like Hamilton, Dear Evan Hanson, where actors break out in a way that just doesn't seem traditional, because it's not a medium that translates to start them usually. And yet, in that case, it really did lead to stardom for both Rannells and I, and I am forever grateful for that experience and that unbelievable roller coaster ride.
I do have to say, if you and Andrew campaign for a Tony, it needs to be the most unhinged campaign ever.
Andrew and I are both Tony losers. It's a very rarefied category to be in. And we haven't gotten so far as thinking about that. In a way I'm so grateful, because, man, is that whole experience. So stressful and that's going to be happening long after I'm done. So, I'm like peace out. But but I will definitely take that to heart.
Please. I want something ridiculous.
Regardless, I'm sure it'll be ridiculous. Nothing about the show isn't ridiculous.
Listen to H. Alan Scott on Newsweek's Parting Shot. Available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you listen to podcasts. Twitter: @HAlanScott
