Previews begin Thursday, January 25 with opening night on Wednesday, January 31. Performances run Tuesday through Sunday until February 25. Nerds://A Musical Software Satire will be featured in the Philadelphia New Play Festival: Where Theatre Begins, a program of the Theatre Alliance of Greater Philadelphia, taking place February 8 - 18, 2007. Tickets are $15 to $54 with discounts for students, seniors and groups.
Nerds://A Musical Software Satire is a funny and irreverent musical take on the parallel stories of computer pioneers Bill Gates and Steve Jobs as they blaze a path from garage inventors to warring titans of the computer revolution. Technology tycoons Gates and Jobs get skewered in this hilarious send-up of individuality versus corporate homogenization. With a rollicking original score featuring song titles including "Stroll Through the P.A.R.C.," "Think Different," Let's Merge" and "The Windows Rap," the King of Geeks becomes the King of Cool overnight and computer programmers moonlight as sex symbols. Nerds://A Musical Software Satire celebrates everyone's "inner nerd!"
"We are very excited to be presenting this fresh and funny new musical and to introduce Philadelphia audiences to the extraordinary talents of three rising voices of the musical theater scene," said Producing Artistic Director Sara Garonzik. "Philadelphia Theatre Company has a rich history of developing new works to the national theater landscape, including the world premieres of Adrift in Macao and Some Men which we produced last season and will both be receiving their New York premieres this winter."
Nerds://A Musical Software Satire was a featured selection in the 2005 New York Musical Theatre Festival. The Philadelphia Theatre Company production incorporates a new script, new characters and new songs.
Jordan Allen-Dutton and Erik Weiner (Book and Lyrics) are both recent graduates of New York University's Tisch School of the Arts where Allen-Dutton was recipient of the Artist Scholar Award and Weiner received the Outstanding Achievement Award and the first-ever Tisch Award. Together they wrote the smash Off-Broadway hit The Bomb-itty of Errors, a hip-hop ad-rap-tation of Shakespeare's The Comedy of Errors, which has played in London's West End, Chicago, Florida, Dublin, Edinburgh, and Los Angeles. It was nominated for the Drama Desk and Outer Critic's Circle Awards and won the Jefferson Award in Chicago and the Grand Jury Prize for Best Show at the HBO US Comedy Arts Festival in Aspen. The team co-created and starred in the hip-hop sketch comedy series "Scratch and Burn"for MTV and recently complete ten episodes of "Robot Chicken" for Cartoon Network's Adult Swim series.
A Fulbright and Henry M. Luce Grant Nominee, Allen-Dutton's latest solo work Kiera's Marbles, a futuristic hip-hop retelling of the Tower of Babel myth, with music by JAQ and The Grommits, was featured in the HOTINK Festival. Weiner made his feature film debut in Brown Sugar and was recently a series regular on HBO's series Unscripted.
Hal Goldberg (Music) has composed the music for The Children, Ma Vie En Rosewood, and A Play Without Gravity, with book and lyrics by Stan Richardson. He received a BFA in 1999 from New York University with a major in Drama (focusing on Musical Theatre), and a minor in Music, where he appeared in CAP 21's productions of Pippin and Hello Again.
Philip Wm. McKinley (Director) comes to Philadelphia having just directed the acclaimed production of The Most Happy Fella at New York City Opera. He directed the five-time Tony-nominated musical The Boy from Oz on Broadway as well as its premiere in Japan. McKinley directed several editions of Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey's The Greatest Show On Earth as well as the new one-ring circus Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Hometown Edition that is presently touring the United States, Canada and Puerto Rico. Regionally he has created productions at Theater Under the Stars, Paper Mill Playhouse, North Shore Music Theater, Kansas City Starlight, and The Muny.
Andrew Cassese (Paul Allen) has appeared on Broadway in Smile and Nine, and Off-Broadway in Caz Dies Alone, Christopher Blake, and The Day Babe Ruth Died. In additional to regional theater appearances at Queens Theatre in the Park, Sayville Musical Workshop and Theater Three, he has starred in HBO's Where or When and been featured in the films Revenge of the Nerds and Revenge of the Nerds II.
Aaron Cromie (Herbert) has earned three Barrymore Awards and eleven Barrymore nominations as an actor, choreographer, sound designer, and composer. His last Philadelphia Theatre Company performance was in Dinah Was. He has appeared at Arden Theatre Company, Mum Puppettheatre, Lantern Theatre, Walnut Street Theatre, 1812 Productions, and Philadelphia Shakespeare Festival.
Joseph Dellger (Watson) has been featured on Broadway in Lestat and Ragtime and on the first national tours of both Ragtime and Phantom of the Opera. Regionally he has performed at the Goodman Theatre, North Shore Music Theatre, Signature Theatre, Arena Stage, Seattle Repertory, A Contemporary Theatre, and the Encore Series in New York.
Michael Parrish Dudell (Dustin) is a recent graduate of the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music where he starred in multiple productions, including Merrily We Roll Along, The Mystery of Edwin Drood, Working, and Marat/Sade. He has since performed at Tampa Performing Arts Center, The Barn Theatre, Stamford Center for the Arts, and Theaterworks USA.
Charlie Pollack (Steve Jobs) starred on Broadway and in the first national tour in Urinetown, The Musical. Off-Broadway he has performed at the New York Musical Theater Festival, Mint Theatre, Greenwich Street Theater, and Gloria Maddox Theater. Regionally he has been featured at the Gateway Playhouse, Sacramento Music Circus, Cincinnati Playhouse and Zach Scott Theater.
Jim Poulos (Bill Gates) starred on Broadway in Rent and The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and in the national tours of Little Shop of Horrors and The Graduate. Off-Broadway he appeared in My Life with Albertine at Playwrights Horizons. Regionally he has performed at Goodspeed Theatre, Casa Manana, Weston Playhouse, and Geva Theater Center.
David Rossmer (Steve Wozniak) appeared on Broadway in Fiddler on the Roof and Titanic. His regional theater credits include productions at La Jolla Playhouse, Goodspeed, Syracuse Stages, and Pennsylvania Center Stage. He is the co-creator and host of the monthly comedy show Don't Quit Your Night Job at Joe's Pub @ The Public.
Chandra Lee Schwartz (Sally) comes to Philadelphia following appearances on Broadway in Gypsy and Hairspray, having also performed in the first national tour of Hairspray. Regionally, she has been seen in several productions at New York Musical Theatre Festival and Gateway Playhouse.
Emily Shoolin (Myrtle) makes her Philadelphia debut, having appeared in several productions at Sacramento Music Circus, including The Music Man, Fiddler on the Roof, and South Pacific. She has also appeared at Ravinia Music Festival in Anyone Can Whistle and at Chicago's Gafnee Theatre in On the Town. In New York she has appeared at the New York Fringe Festival, Theatre for the New City, and Arthur Seelen Theatre.
Nerds://A Musical Software Satire brings together the creative team of set designer David Gallo, lighting designer Mike Baldassari, costume designer Alejo Vietti, designer Fitz Patton, projection designer Zachary Borovay, and choreographer Joey McKneely. David Gallo (Bunny Bunny, Philadelphia Theatre Company 1996) is currently represented on Broadway with Company and received Tony, Drama Desk, and Outer Critics Circle Awards for The Drowsy Chaperone and a Tony nomination for Gem of the Ocean. Mike Baldassari co-designed the Broadway hit revival of Cabaret for which he received Tony and Drama Desk Award nominations and received the Entertainment Design Award. Alejo Vietti (Compleat Female Stage Beauty, Philadelphia Theatre Company 2001) has designed costumes for St. Louis Repertory, Goodspeed and Hartford Stages and served as Associate Costume Designer for the Broadway productions of Jersey Boys, Julius Caesar and Good Vibrations. Fitz Patton (Some Men, Philadelphia Theatre Company 2006) has designed sound for Broadway's As Long As We Both Shall Laugh and written the original scores for productions at The Acting Company, Actors Theatre of Louisville and Dallas Theatre Center. Zachary Borovay, named one of Live Design Magazine's five designers to watch in 2006, has utilized cutting-edge computer technology for projection designs for Off-Broadway's A Safe Harbor for Elizabeth Bishop and for productions at Primary Stages, Mark Taper Forum and the Barbican Center. Joey McKneely received an Outer Critics Circle Award for The Boy From Oz, a Tony nomination for Smokey Joe's Café, and both a Tony nomination and Outer Critics Circle Award for The Life.
By www.phillytheatreco.com
Posted December 24th, 2006 by ruzik_tuzik
