Broadway musical to tell story of epic rivalry between Steve Jobs and Bill Gates

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The famous rivalry between tech titans Steve Jobs and Bill Gates, whose companies Apple and Microsoft together shaped the modern computing world, is the focus of an upcoming Broadway musical comedy called "Nerds," set to open in April.




True to its name, "Nerds" will feature a host of onstage tech, including holograms, projection mapping and even a dedicated app, reports Rolling Stone. As part of the show, audience members are able to interact with the app (OS support is unknown at this time) to choose the play's ending.

Written by Jordan Allen-Dutton and Erik Weiner, alums of Cartoon Network's "Robot Chicken," "Nerds" won multiple local awards in its first staging put on by the Philadelphia Theatre Company in 2005. The musical was also staged at the North Carolina Theater as a limited engagement.

Both Allen-Dutton and Weiner grew up in cities heavily influenced by the technology industry. Allen-Dutton spent his childhood in Palo Alto, the same city where Jobs was raised, while Weiner grew up just north in San Francisco.

Directing the stage play for Broadway is Casey Hushion, while Emmy winner and Tony nominee Josh Bergasse has been tapped as choreographer.

The cast has yet to be decided, but today's report says decisions should be in within a few weeks. "Nerds" will open on Apr. 21 at the Longacre Theatre.

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 8
    Spare me please ... Enough corniness.. Lets see some serious movie that truly captures the times and these incredible personalities. Though a low budget tv production.. To date i have not seen anything come close to," pirates of silicon valley". And i have seen them all.. Including documentaries. Truly captures the spirit .. If you have not seen it .. Highly recommended !
    wvdirk
  • Reply 2 of 8
    dsddsd Posts: 186member
    I'm going to wait for the sequel - Springtime for Ballmer.
    cornchipwvdirk
  • Reply 3 of 8
    jonljonl Posts: 210member
    Sounds horrific.

    cornchipSpamSandwich
  • Reply 4 of 8
    jd_in_sbjd_in_sb Posts: 1,600member
    I think the market for such a play is pretty close to zero. The average Joe doesn't care about that story.
    cornchip
  • Reply 5 of 8
    It would be kind of funny if Apple didn't approve the app.
  • Reply 6 of 8
    And it'll shut down after just one night.

    Wonder if this one is also being bankrolled by Scott Forstall?

    http://macdailynews.com/2015/05/12/ex-apple-employee-scott-forstall-re-emerges-on-broadway/
    edited January 2016
  • Reply 7 of 8
    zoetmbzoetmb Posts: 2,654member
    This does sound absolutely horrible.   The primary market for most Broadway shows are tourists and old ladies from New Jersey who come as part of a group.   Would they really be interested in such a musical?   A serious non-musical drama about this might be interesting, but even that is questionable.   Years ago I saw "Breaking the Code" with Derek Jacobi playing Alan Turing that was quite good, although much of that centered around his prosecution for being gay.    The level of drama between Jobs and  Gates isn't quite the same as a (probably on-spectrum) mathematician who broke the Nazis' code.   And singing about it?   No thank you.    

    What's Jobs going to sing: "Think I'll Wear A Black Turtleneck Today", "You Can't Be Too Thin", "Here's To the Crazy Ones" and "One More Thing"?   Is there going to be a bit in the show with tons of flashing strobe lights and loud psychedelic music where they introduce the 'Steve Jobs Reality Distortion Field' big number?      What's Gates going to sing:  "It's So Hard Being a Grey Box", "What's the Big Deal About U.I.", "You say Mac, I say P.C., Let's Call the Whole Thing Off",  "Don't Cry For Me Mr. Jobs, After All You Need My Investment" and "Jobs Please Get Calmer or I'll Give You Balmer"? 

    Although I wouldn't have guessed that "Hamilton" would have succeeded so well either, especially with a largely hip-hop score or "The Book of Mormon" either.  


  • Reply 8 of 8
    steviestevie Posts: 956member
    Bill Gates is pure evil. He is trying to depopulate the earth with GMOs.
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