Think back to a time before Seth Cohen made geekiness a virtue, before Windows meant more than panes of glass and before nerds got their revenge. The year is 1975 and the war between Macs and PCs is barely a twinkle in any of Bill Gates' four eyes.
Nerds://A Musical Software Satire follows the now familiar story of the rise of the modern home computer. In the last quarter of the 20th century, Gates and Steve Jobs famously duked it out for that most dubious of distinctions: the title of Geek Supreme, Czar Nerd, Raja Dork. Creating a modern space race through their twisty spiral of one-upmanships, Gates' Microsoft vs. Jobs' Apple became the most epic battle since Starfleet vs. the Klingons.
In this musical rendition, a world premiere at the Philadelphia Theatre Company, Jim Poulos' Gates is an earnest dweeb, the foil to Charlie Pollock's Jobs, a cool stoner who enjoys the occasional moment of clarity. Their rivalry begins at the Homebrew Computer Club, a group the real Jobs was a member of in the '70s. Jobs wants to start a revolution, while Gates laments in song that he wants to be more than "just a nerd."
Like any good Behind the Music episode, before long the characters find themselves adrift. How did the once idealistic Jobs turn into a bore in his signature black turtleneck and jeans? How did Gates morph into a power-hungry mogul who owns, as his sidekick points out, 76 percent of everything? This is the point in the show that demands a heartfelt Act One-ending "things have really changed!" song (See: Avenue Q's "There's a Fine, Fine Line"; Wicked's "Defying Gravity"). In this case, it's the sweet-yet-original "I Always Thought the Last One Would Be You," sung by Chandra Lee Schwartz and Emily Shoolin who play Jobs' and Gates' love interests respectively.
From its Star Wars-style opening crawl to its unwieldy chess jokes, Nerds is an onslaught of geek gags. Some you'll get, others will only be funny post-Wikipedia visit. The best jokes, however, are those specific to the Microsoft/Apple saga. In real life, did Jobs personally steal both technology and beanbag chairs from Xerox? Well, not quite. Was "corporate date rape" really among the charges against Gates in the United States v. Microsoft lawsuit of the '90s? Again, no. But some of what makes this production so funny is its adherence to metaphorical, if not literal, truth.
This story's been done before in the made-for-TV movie Pirates of Silicon Valley, countless tell-all books and incidentally, real life. Though Nerds, with its sprightly score and nimble choreography, may be the best adaptation, it's certainly not the timeliest. Discounting one throwaway mention of the iPod (and not even the iPhone!), the whole play screams 1998. It's a consequence of technology: it reinvents itself every few years and musical theater wonks can't possibly keep up. All they can do is hope that by the time My Fair YouTube premieres in 2017, you'll still be interested. But if future romps through technology and song are half as good as Nerds, you should be.
