Viral Comedy Album Good Guy With A Gun! Out Today
CLIPS OF THE ALBUM’S SONGS AND CAST HAVE SURPASSED 10 MILLION VIEWS ACROSS PLATFORMS PRIOR TO THE ALBUM’S RELEASE
Listen to the full Good Guy with a Gun! album here.
Art and bios/headshots of cast and creative team available here.
Watch the album trailer here.
Good Guy with a Gun!, the musical comedy concept album starring Chris Sullivan (Hadestown, “This Is Us”) and Kimiko Glenn (“Orange is the New Black,” Waitress, Spiderverse trilogy) first announced in June by Playbill, is available in full starting today at all DSPs. Learn more about the project at the album trailer here.
Early content from the project and its creators, like clips from the barn burning gospel number belted out by Rebecca Naomi Jones, “N-R-AMEN!” and the Les Mis-inspired climactic “On The Day (The Second Amendment Is Wiped Away), where the full ensemble relishes in and decries the repeal of the Second Amendment (“They came at night. They took the small ones first…glocks, small handguns you keep under your pillow.”) have garnered more than ten million views across social media platforms and profiles.
And these videos, often featuring the quirky humor of the show’s creators and ex-theatre kids Philip Labes and Micah O’Konis, are driving viewers to streaming services to hear more of the sleeper project: “N-R-AMEN!” increased streams by more than 2600% in the first week while reaching 1 million views on social platforms that same week.
As a result, gatekeepers in the Broadway/cast recording spaces have taken note: the four pre-release tracks have been featured on five editorial playlists among the three major streaming services – Spotify, Apple Music, and Amazon Music – and been featured on-air on Sirius XM’s “On Broadway.” Last week’s "On The Day (The Second Amendment Was Wiped Away)," the last song to be released prior to the album, is the highest first-week debut for any song along the rollout, an anomaly for pre-album release tracks and illustrating the hype surrounding the release of the full album, all organically grown.
The decision to make the full album available everywhere at once was an intentional choice by Labes and O’Konis, who didn’t want high ticket prices or a fixed stage production to be a barrier to the work.
“If you can’t make it to a Broadway theater, you can still have a Broadway-level experience listening to this album,” said Glenn, who stars as Jenna, the liberal teenage daughter of an NRA lobbyist. “The show is hilarious but will tug at your heart strings when you’re least expecting it.”
In addition to Glenn, Sullivan, and Jones, the cast features an unbelievable list of film, Broadway, and TV actors including Anthony Rapp (Rent), Yvette Nicole Brown (“Community,” “Curb Your Enthusiasm,” “The Office”), Jason Alexander (“Seinfeld,” Merrily We Roll Along), Richard Kind (“Mad About You,” “Curb Your Enthusiasm”), Kristen Schaal (“Flight of the Conchords”), and Emmy-winning actor Paul Walter Hauser.
Labes and O’Konis recruited friend/Musical Director/Executive Music Producer Hal Rosenfeld (The Greatest Showman, In The Heights, “Only Murders in the Building,” Top Gun: Maverick, and Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street) to bring the project to full sonic life, and one by one, the cast signed on to the project, fully believing in the trio’s vision.
“I’ve been blown away by Micah and Philip’s work along with my incredible castmates,” said Sullivan, who plays Ron. “Good Guy with a Gun! is the heir apparent to the musical, satiric throne.”
"In the face of rising fascism, brave political art is important!” said Brown, who portrays Ron’s wife and Jenna’s mother. “Some are probably already imagining Good Guy with a Gun! is just a cheap laugh at the expense of conservatives, but it's not -- it's a surprisingly even-handed, heartfelt comedy. It reminds us that despite the divisive words of certain politicians, what unites us is much more important than what divides us."
In an interview with O’Konis, The Los Angeles Blade calls Good Guy with a Gun! “An endlessly catchy journey filled with as much dark humor as it is astute critiques of modern politics.”
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About Good Guy with a Gun!:
Set in Washington, DC, Good Guy with a Gun! tells the story of NRA lobbyist Ron Barkley (Sullivan) and his daughter Jenna (Glenn), who attends protests with her stoner boyfriend (Labes). When Ron is confronted at gunpoint by a disgruntled keyboard warrior (Rapp), he prays to God (Alexander) for help and receives it in the form of a magical gun that makes people conservative. Ron uses the gun to brainwash Jenna's friends, driving the two of them apart, and in response, Jenna prays for a magical weapon of her own– a megaphone that turns people liberal. Now Jenna has the chance to turn her dad into the person she's always wanted him to be.
About the creators:
Philip Labes (he/him) is a musician, actor, and writer whose work has garnered a fanbase of hundreds of thousands. After ten years of street performing in LA, Philip gained quick viral fame on TikTok, where he was spotted by Jason Mraz and invited to open on the Grammy-winner’s North American tour. That experience was captured by documentarian Jeff Toye in collaboration with DreamOps Studios to create the new documentary, The Opener set to a soundtrack of Labes’ songs, executive produced by Mraz. His viral songs have generated tens of millions of views on TikTok and Instagram, and frequently reach the front page of Reddit and Tumblr. He has written for TV shows on the CW and digital, and acted in HBO’s “Watchmen,” “Minx,” and the upcoming Duster from JJ Abrams.
Micah O’Konis (they/them) is a writer and musician based in Los Angeles. They co-created the award-winning musical comedy Good Guy with a Gun, which ran for two years at Second City and toured to San Francisco. Micah creates musical comedy with their spouse as Couplet, online and in-person at this year’s Edinburgh Fringe Festival. Micah also writes and performs with “Quick & Funny Musicals” at the Upright Citizen’s Brigade monthly. Their music has been featured on FX, and their scoring accompanies the award-winning Cannes film Buster Baby, as well as a national tourism campaign for San Francisco.
Hal Rosenfeld (he/him) is a composer, music producer, percussionist, and orchestrator whose work can be heard in over 300 films, television shows, and video games. Hal has been involved with projects that have garnered Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony recognition, including The Greatest Showman, Fosse/Verdon, In the Heights, Fortnite, Only Murders in the Building, Top Gun: Maverick, and Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (2023). He recently produced songs for Paramount’s Robbie Williams biopic, Better Man, which became a #1 album in the UK, as well as songs for major label artists like Meghan Trainor, jschlatt, Elliot James Reay, Rosa Linn, as well as on albums that total millions of unit sales and over 1 billion Spotify streams, globally. Working outside of film and television, Hal has appeared with Ringo Starr, Lady Gaga, Laufey, Hozier, Yoko Ono, Jonas Brothers, Hans Zimmer, Kelly Clarkson, Andrea Bocelli, and Sting.
Good Guy with a Gun!
Philip Labes and Micah O’Konis, Book/Music/Lyrics
Hal Rosenfeld, Executive Music Producer/Musical Director
Italics denote dialogue tracks below. For a tracklist with performers noted, click here.
In The Beginning… (Dialogue)
I’m The Good Guy
I Can’t Talk To You
When Everyone Has A Gun
Protesters Gather (Dialogue)
Do The Lobby
Your Hot Boyfriend (Dialogue)
Liberal Love
Thanks For Dinner (Dialogue)
The Bad Guy
Do You Really Hate Me, Or Want To… (Dialogue)
Be Like Me
I Know It Sounds Crazy, But It’s Real (Dialogue)
N-R-AMEN!
Tips From A Master Debater (Dialogue)
Good Guy With A Gun
He Sounds Toxic (Dialogue)
Semi-Automatically
Ronpublicans vs. Jennacrats
On The Day (The Second Amendment Is Wiped Away)
I’d Rather Be At Brunch (Dialogue)
I Like To…
The Democratic Party (Dialogue)
Liberal Guilt Trip
A Perfect Life (Dialogue)
Simple and Easy
I Thought You’d Be Grateful (Dialogue)
I Can’t Talk To You (Reprise)
A False Dichotomy (Dialogue)
Heaven!
Was All Of This For Nothing? (Dialogue)
God Only Knows
What I Love (Dialogue)
The Other Side
This Just In (Dialogue)
Finale
CONNECT WITH GOOD GUY WITH A GUN!