Phillyist Reviews... Nerds://A Musical Software Satire

It takes a lot to make me literally go slack-jawed, especially when I'm watching a play. I'm well aware that, not only is it unflattering, it can actually be quite frightening as an actor to look out and see certain reactions from your audience.

The Act One finale of Nerds://A Musical Software Satire, Philadelphia Theatre Company's offering at the Philadelphia New Play Festival, however, caught me in a rare moment. My mouth was open for five full minutes while I watched Bill Gates (Jim Poulos) and Paul Allen (Andrew Cassese) perform a rap about Windows. I honestly couldn't believe what I was seeing. I don't mean that in a good way or a bad way. I just didn't know how to process it.

Nerds is a clever and funny, if not necessarially historically accurate, musical comedy about the beginning of personal computing. In addition to Gates and Allen's rap about Windows, you've got Steve Jobs (Charlie Pollock) and Steve Wozniak (David Rossmer) singing about the early days of Apple Computers, and the nerdiest ingenues (Sally, played at the performance I saw by Megan Lawrence, who is actually the production's understudy, and Myrtle, played by Emilyl Shoolin) ever to grace the musical theatre stage.

If you're thinking about going to see Nerds, be warned: sticklers for historical accuracy would probably be much happier renting The Triumph of the Nerds—it's at least a documentary—than they would be sitting in the audience at Plays and Players watching the new Jordan Allen Dutton/ Erik Weiner/ Hal Goldberg musical. But then, sticklers for historical accuracy aren't usually the people who you see gravitate naturally toward musical theatre, anyway. The people who do tend toward musicals, though, will likely have themselves a grand ol' time in the audience. It's got everything you could look for in a musical: an exceptionally talented cast, fun choreography, a clear conflict, and a happy ending. The set design, by David Gallo, is quite innovative: the proscenium is decorated with silver glitter-painted computer hardware, and the set was, for the most part, projected on the scrim upstage. Using computers. (How fitting.)

As much as I enjoyed Nerds, and admired the talented cast (which also included Michael Parrish DuDell, Brian M. Golub, and Joseph Dellger) and the orchestra (under the helm of Music Director Matt Doebler), I did find that the book was sometimes a little weak. This is a pretty common phenomenon in musical theatre, and far more forgivable than a weak script in a non-musical play, but as this show is a world premiere and therefore still in its early stages of development, I would suggest taking another look at some of the dialogue.

So long as the "Jobs" jokes stay in. The twelve-year-old boy inside me insists.

From left to right: Emily Shoolin, Jim Poulos, David Rossmer, Andrew Cassese, Brian M. Golub, Charlie Pollock, Chandra Lee Schwartz, and Michael Parrish DuDell in Philadelphia Theatre Company’s premiere production of Nerds://A Musical Software Satire running now through February 25th at 1714 Delancey Street. For tickets, call 215.985.0420 or visit www.phillytheatreco.com. Photo Credit: Mark Garvin.