Edinburgh Festival Fringe: Bill Gates musical dubbed 'Fyre Festival of Broadway' resurrected after a decade
The show centred on Bill Gates was pulled from Broadway two weeks before it was due to run.
It was dubbed the “Fyre Festival of Broadway”, after a much-heralded New York run collapsed at the 11th hour amid a debacle that culminated in a $6 million lawsuit linked to claims of financial mismanagement by its maverick producer.
Now musical Nerds, based on the lives of Steve Jobs and Bill Gates, is to finally be resurrected after more than a decade at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, which the creators of the show described as “the world’s scrappiest, boldest stage”.
The musical was pulled two weeks before it was due to start its Broadway run in 2016 after investment many involved had understood to have been already secured by producer Carl Levin failed to materialise. It was one of the few times in Broadway history such a thing has happened.
The show sees Microsoft founder Mr Gates meet Apple head Mr Jobs. Nerds chronicles the rise from their early days in the tech industry to the influence their creations now have over the world.
It was premiered at the New York Musical Theatre Festival in 2005, and subsequently had two runs at the Philadelphia Theatre Company and North Carolina Theatre in 2013. Two weeks before it was due to launch at the Longacre Theatre theatre on Broadway, after years in production, Nerds was suddenly pulled by Mr Levin, who claimed the show had “lost a major investment”.
However, a subsequent lawsuit brought by investors who said they were told by Mr Levin that all funding was in place claimed in reality only $200,000 [£149,041] of more than $6m needed had been raised. The lawsuit, which was eventually thrown out due to a technicality, also claimed Mr Levin had said Mark Zuckerberg’s sister and Microsoft were also backing the venture.
Now, almost a decade after the 2016 saga - dubbed “the Fyre Festival of Broadway” by the Hollywood Reporter - the show is to open at the Fringe on Thursday.
Glasgow’s failed Willy Wonka experience, which hit the headlines last year when members of the public complained after being sold £35-a-head tickets for a near-empty warehouse, has also been compared to Fyre Festival.
Mr Levin is no longer involved in the production.
Creators Jordan Allen-Dutton, Erik Weiner and Hal Goldberg, said: “Nerds is a musical about two revolutionary, socially awkward geeks - Bill Gates and Steve Jobs - who accidentally reinvented civilisation by building things that go beep in the garage. It’s a funny and touching dot-comedy, with bad fashion, robotic jazz hands and a rap battle that might just redefine nerd-kind.
“We’re bringing it to the Edinburgh Fringe because no matter how wild tech gets, nothing beats the raw, analogue magic of live theatre - and there’s no better place to unleash a scrappy origin story than the world’s scrappiest, boldest stage.”
Producer Paul Taylor-Mills said: “I’m thrilled to be bringing Nerds to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival this summer after the success of I Wish You Well and My Son’s a Queer, both having played the Fringe before taking the West End and the world by storm.
“There’s few better places in the world to premiere new work than the thrilling, creative climate of Edinburgh. Nerds is a joyous, camp and hilarious look at some of the most iconic figures in tech history, just what the world needs right now.”
Nerds will be shown at Cowbarn, Underbelly Bristo Square, from July 30 to August 25.
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