Brown and King developed the show at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre in New York City, where versions of it played over the course of more than a year.

The piece concerns two earnest but clueless theatre composers, who present a highly inaccurate musical about the life of Johannes Gutenberg to potential investors.

Since Bud and Doug's research into the life of Gutenberg consisted only of a quick Google search, they have scant information about their subject and take a historical fiction approach, by which they mean that they just made stuff up.

Despite their ineptitude, Bud and Doug's high-energy and optimistic performance of their show launches their dreams, as they are awarded a Broadway production contract.

The show was originally produced as a 45-minute one-act musical, workshopped at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre in New York City by its creators, Scott Brown and Anthony King.

[5] In September 2008, the musical played at Strawberry Theatre Workshop in Seattle, starring Troy Fischnaller as Doug and MJ Sieber as Bud, with piano accompaniment by Don Darryl Rivera, and directed by Greg Carter.

[6] A review in Seattle Weekly said: "Fischnaller's Doug is giddily foul-mouthed with self-congratulation, and Sieber has a twinkle in his eye even as he works himself into a sweaty state of breathless zeal.

[11][12] Hoy Madrid wrote, "The show's adaptation and artistic/musical direction were handled by Guillermo Sabariegos and Javier Chicharro, who did a superb job in creating an apparently simple yet truly captivating production.

"[13] The original Broadway production at the at James Earl Jones Theatre began previews on September 15, 2023, and officially opened on October 12 as a limited run that played its final performance on January 28, 2024.

[15] Notable guests included Nathan Lane, Billy Crystal, Lin-Manuel Miranda, John Stamos, Josh Groban, Jordan Fisher, Marcia Gay Harden, Leslie Odom Jr., Lesley Stahl, Cynthia Erivo, Annaleigh Ashford, Ben Platt, Rory O'Malley, Eric Anderson, Richard Kind, Jonathan Groff, Ashley Park, Zachary Levi, Vanessa Williams, Sherri Shepherd, Dylan Mulvaney, Rachel Bloom, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Patrick Wilson, Christopher Sieber, Brian d'Arcy James, Martin Short, Steve Martin, Patti LuPone, Gaten Matarazzo, Sara Bareilles, Victor Garber, Santino Fontana, Kristin Chenoweth, Idina Menzel, Alex Brightman, James Monroe Iglehart, Jake Gyllenhaal, Will Ferrell, Chuck Schumer, "Weird Al" Yankovic, Grant Gustin, Brooke Shields, Lance Bass, Aaron Tveit, Al Roker, Kerry Washington, The Tenderloins, Santa Claus, Kerry Butler, Anna Wintour, Anne Hathaway, Amy Sedaris, Lena Hall, Darren Criss, Hillary Clinton, Jane Krakowski, Marilu Henner, Ariana DeBose, Triumph the Insult Comic Dog and Robert Smigel, Steve Guttenberg, Jennifer Garner, Shoshana Bean, Rachel Brosnahan, J. Harrison Ghee, Alex Newell, Christian Slater, Evan Rachel Wood, Rachel Dratch, and Audra McDonald.

[18] In May 2024, the production released an original cast recording featuring Gad and Rannells, with Mel Brooks playing the role of the Broadway producer in the finale track.