“Gutenberg! The Musical!” stars Ricky Jones and Elisha Cullins playing a variety of roles. The show opens Jan. 30 at the ProArts Playhouse in Kihei.

Famous for inventing the first printing press in Germany around 1440, Johannes Gutenberg’s revolutionary accomplishment inspired Anthony King and Scott Brown centuries later to create “Gutenberg! The Musical!” which opens Jan. 30 at the ProArts Playhouse.

“It’s very funny,” said Kristi Scott, the show’s director. “In its own way, it’s a love story to musicals. It’s topical, smart in places and it’s clever. The music is uplifting as well.”

The Tony-nominated writers behind “Beetlejuice The Musical” created a parody of biographical musicals featuring two clueless, aspiring playwrights attempting to put on a musical about the printing press inventor.

“That’s the joke within it, that these two guys chose to do such an obscure musical,” said Scott. “Like, let’s choose this theme and get information on it, and they created this ridiculous premise. The people who actually wrote this said, ‘Let’s choose Gutenberg.'”

The inspiration came from when King had a job in New York City, where he attended readings of new musicals and sorted through piles of unsolicited demo recordings.

“As with any open-submission process, most of them are terrible,” King told Time Out Chicago. “You kind of develop a sense of, ‘How do these people not know that this is bad?'”

Besides its subject matter, “Gutenberg! The Musical!” is unique in it stars only two actors playing around 25 different roles. “The premise is that they are presenting their idea for a musical to people so that they can get backing for it,” explained Scott. “It’s like a pitch, but in order to do the pitch, they feel they have to play all the roles and sing all the songs. They didn’t have the money to buy the costumes, so it’s just done with hats.”

The show’s protagonists, Bud Davenport and Doug Simon (played by Ricky Jones and Elisha Cullins), know virtually nothing about the real Gutenberg and fill in the blanks with historically inaccurate, absurd plot devices.

Labeling their play “historical fiction — fiction that is true,” the duo even throw in some references to anti-Semitism and the Holocaust to add gravitas to their effort. “Because, quote, every musical has to have a serious theme,” said Scott.

In the musical, Gutenberg is a wine presser in the depressing medieval German town of Schlimmer, where no one except Gutenberg can read. Intent on saving the townspeople from their own ignorance, Gutenberg turns his wine press into a printing press. The “cast” includes an evil monk who worships Satan and seeks to destroy the printing press, attempting to control the townspeople through inaccurate readings of the Bible.

When it played on Broadway, The New York Times praised: “Who knew that a musical about the life of the inventor of the printing press could have so many laughs?” Some of the songs include titles like “Monk With Me,” “Biscuits” and “Haunted German Wood.”

“The music is surprisingly catchy,” said Scott. “Stylistically, it’s more classical Broadway, like it gets into those anthemy type songs and ballads, and then the big dance numbers. It’s actually complicated, and the guys are really doing an amazing job. It’s catchy in its own way, and you’ve got to listen to the lyrics because they’re hysterical.”

“Gutenberg! The Musical!” will open at 7:30 p.m. Jan. 30 at the ProArts Playhouse. The show continues on select dates Jan. 31 through Feb. 15. Tickets range from $26 to $47 at proartsmaui.org.