Nerds: The Bill Gates vs. Steve Jobs Comedy Musical ★★

The first press release issued for the Edinburgh Fringe production of Nerds: The Bill Gates vs. Steve Jobs Comedy Musical touted that the show as a world premiere. Except it isn’t. Nerds premiered at a New York musical festival in 2005, then had runs in North Carolina and Philadelphia (where this reviewer saw it) in 2013 before announcing a Broadway run that infamously imploded while in rehearsals and never got to open. (The lead producer had not raised a fraction of the needed funds, and no one in Silicon Valley came to the rescue.) Except for the news stories and lawsuits that followed, that was the last anyone really heard of Nerds. Until now.

Which begs the question: Why is Nerds, a parodic telling of how Bill Gates and Steve Jobs came to be titans of technology, resurfacing now, two decades after the show first arrived on the theatrical landscape? Not only have American musicals evolved a great deal since then, the world’s perceptions of arrogant billionaire technocrats have shifted significantly in recent years, and not for the better. (Example A: HBO’s recent Emmy-nominated film about head-honcho tech bros, Mountainhead.)

Also not better: the show itself. It’s shorter, and that’s a major plus, but from beginning to end Nerds is banal and jejune. The entire enterprise is a singing-and-dancing heap of gleefully misplaced nostalgia, a period piece that feels hopelessly dated. When Bill Gates says “I’d like to give you a hand, Jobs” in the first ten minutes of the show — yuk yuk yuk — it’s clear that charming wit will be in short supply for all that follows.

Nerds would possibly be less exhausting if the songs were more than serviceable. Alas, they aren’t, and soon (if not already) AI will be popping out tunes just like these, ballads (and there are sooooooo many ballads) that disappear into the ether as soon as their last note is warbled. The cumbersome and dull set and underwhelming costumes don’t help matters much either, though, this being a Fringe festival, those elements could be more easily forgiven if they had been better considered and crafted. Or clever.

What saves this show is its fine ensemble. This is a five-star cast in a one-star show, and they’re the sole reason this show is getting more than a single, solitary star. Dionysus, if you’re listening, please give these deserving actors roles in shows worthy of their wonderful talents. ‘Cause this IT musical ain’t it.