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Nerdy Musical Turning Triangle Into Broadway Suburb

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=oZD5GrNzOUw

North Carolina could soon become a proving ground for Broadway shows if one local theater company gets its way. The North Carolina Theatre is showing the techno-geek comedy musical "Nerds" through February 3. It follows Steve Jobs and Bill Gates as they rise to power.

"Nerds" is basically the story of American ingenuity," said producer Carl Levin in an interview with Frank Stasio on "The State of Things." "What an amazing time for two gentlemen, born in 1955... to have parallel lives creating Apple and Microsoft."

"Nerds" is an original production, and that’s a first for the NC Theatre, which typically specializes in revivals. It was brought here by Levin, who had been working on getting the story made into theater for a long time. The death of Steve Jobs finally gave him, and co-writers Jordan Allen-Dutton and Erik Weiner,  the definitive conclusion they needed.

"I don’t want to ruin it," he said. "But Steve does leave us."

Levin and NC Theatre President and CEO Lisa Barrie hope that Broadway leaders who see the show decide it’s ready to make the leap to the big stage in New York City. If so, that could start an exciting precedent for Raleigh as a testing ground for future Broadway hits.

"If the show is about innovation, I think all of us in the performance arts need to think about how we innovate for the future," Barrie said.

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Alex Granados joined The State of Things in July 2010. He got his start in radio as an intern for the show in 2005 and loved it so much that after trying his hand as a government reporter, reader liaison, features, copy and editorial page editor at a small newspaper in Manassas, Virginia, he returned to WUNC. Born in Baltimore but raised in Morgantown, West Virginia, Alex moved to Raleigh in time to do third grade twice and adjust to public school after having spent years in the sheltered confines of a Christian elementary education. Alex received a degree in journalism from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He also has a minor in philosophy, which basically means that he used to think he was really smart but realized he wasn’t in time to switch majors. Fishing, reading science fiction, watching crazy movies, writing bad short stories, and shooting pool are some of his favorite things to do. Alex still doesn’t know what he wants to be when he grows up, but he is holding out for astronaut.
Longtime NPR correspondent Frank Stasio was named permanent host of The State of Things in June 2006. A native of Buffalo, Frank has been in radio since the age of 19. He began his public radio career at WOI in Ames, Iowa, where he was a magazine show anchor and the station's News Director.