The CEO of Apple is certainly no stranger to the stage, being known for giving keynotes that typically have the effect of rendering tech geeks into little piles of goo after the announcement of a new product. But now Mr. Jobs — or at least, the story of his career — will be gracing a new stage: an Off Broadway theatre.
Playwright Mike Daisey wasn’t scheduled to perform his new monologue about the Apple head honcho until next year, but popular demand from New York’s Ensemble Studio Theatre has pushed up the premiere of Notes Toward the Agony and Ecstasy of Steve Jobs to a one-night-only run on April 22. The venue’s artistic director was reportedly so excited about the work that he commissioned a one evening run even though the play is officially a “work in progress and not ready for review.”
Surely the success of the iPad, whose upwards of 500,000 units sold in the first week was enough to throttle the supply chain and push back the international launch of the device by one month, has everything to do with the extreme demand for the Jobs stage treatment. Daisey counts himself among the many Apple faithful, but contends the show will also look critically at labor issues reported by Apple’s suppliers in China — among much else in Jobs’ life and career.
Notes Toward the Agony and Ecstasy of Steve Jobs will start its official run next January at California’s Berkeley Repertory Theatre. Are you interested to see the life of Apple’s CEO given the stage treatment? Let us know in the comments.