The rift and overall relationship between Bill Gates and the late Steve Jobs is something of technology lore.
It's also something that's apparently apt for Broadway. Vice's Motherboard has revealed that a musical about the Gates/Jobs rivalry will hit Broadway in April. The title? Nerds. What else?
The musical about the tech giants has been in the works for over 10 years now by Jordan Allen-Dutton and Erik Weiner, writers who worked together for five seasons on the Cartoon Network's Robot Chicken.
So, what should viewers expect from the musical, slated to hit New York City's Longacre Theatre on April 12? Well, in an interview with Motherboard, the duo explained how far back they delve into the Gates/Jobs rivalry.
"We start with the Homebrew computer club in '75 and basically hit a lot of the major checkpoints through to the Microsoft anti-trust," Allen-Dutton told Motherboard. "So first we watch Jobs getting us to the point of releasing the personal computer revolution on one hand with the Macintosh, and then you have Gates coming up with software in the context of the big heavy hitters from the '50s and '60s like IBM. You watch their rivalry in the sense that Gates is inspired by Job's innovation and Jobs could kind of give a f--- about Gates. But then Gates really comes up with this notion of software which pretty much smokes Jobs in the face."
Weiner added: "I think we play with the rivalry and hopefully transcend it. The fun part we had in writing this show is that Gates and Jobs kind of switch a little bit in terms of who is the antagonist and who is the protagonist. You're invested in both these characters. You kind of want to watch both of them succeed. But you kind of find yourself rooting for one side and then the other. I think that's where we keyed into the drama of the rivalry more than just within the technological innovations."
Considering that Gates and Jobs are two of the most influential minds to ever affect technology, it's safe to say that this won't just be any ordinary Broadway show. It's only right that there's a large degree of high-powered technology involved.
Weiner said that while it's still in the works, Nerds' producers will figure out a way to generate holograms in addition to the utilization of projection mapping. He also expects guests of the show to be able to use an app to control the plot and modify their musical experience.
