Brian Steen-Larsen and Hunter Powers take it to the next level with 'Gutenberg! The Musical!'

Paper Wing Theatre in Monterey delights audiences with the funniest material, being the default comedy stage for Monterey County. With Gutenberg! The Musical!, they have outdone themselves.

The fact that this two-person show by Anthony King and Scott Brown is hilarious certainly helps, but performers Brian Steen-Larsen and Hunter Powers deserve a standing ovation. They play two talented but desperate theater writers who try to get to Broadway with a nonsensical musical, not knowing a thing about historical Johannes Gutenberg. They simply have a dream, and that’s all that matters.

The best-friend energy between Steen-Larsen (playing Doug Simon) and Powers (as Bud Davenport) is palpable and the foundation of their success. They play all of the roles themselves, wearing hats with the characters’ names on them and switching them to indicate the change. Because they do it with efficiency, the effect is brilliant, adding another layer of absurdity onto this all-too-aware-of-itself musical.

Thanks to King (who wrote for such series as Broad City and Silicon Valley) and Brown (Sharp Objects, Castle Rock), we are dealing with the best contemporary scriptwriting around. The story takes place in a fictional medieval town of Schlimmer, curiously full of Nazis and other suspicious types, such as Monk, the mediator between the illiterate community and the word of God. Things change when a local wine presser, Gutenberg, comes up with the idea to print books, ultimately changing the world – even if the whole endeavor is at some point sabotaged by Gutenberg’s sweet but clueless love interest named Helvetica.

In addition to performing, the duo also directed and choreographed the play. They populate the stage with countless fun and recurring characters (such as Little Nazi Girl or Beef-fat Trimmer), becoming evil, smart, stupid or seductive in split seconds and keeping the public engaged at all times.

The songs are packed with punchlines, too. For example, “What’s the Word” is a sly street rap that paints the pious medieval town as a home of vicious gossipers, who won’t hesitate to put their job – say, milking a cow – on hold to acquaint themselves with the most recent Gutenberg rumor.

Gutenberg! The Musical! 8pm Fridays and Saturdays; 3pm Sundays until Feb. 15 (except Sunday, Jan. 25). Paper Wing Theatre, 711 Cannery Row, Suite I (upstairs), Monterey. $38; $84 with dinner on Saturdays. (831) 905-5684, paperwing.com.