THEATER REVIEW : ‘The Nerd’ Proves Funny

There’s a reserve about the Gaslamp Quarter Theatre Company’s production of “The Nerd” that politely restrains Larry Shue’s farce and reins it back to a drawing room comedy. Put it down to director Will Simpson’s own ineluctable sense of understated elegance. The show, if not in the side-splitting department, is honorably funny, a quintessential Gaslamp comedy.

Shue, an inventive young playwright, fills “The Nerd” with well-wrought physical comedy and droll humor. In one scene a grumpy theater critic speaks to a bottle of whiskey: “Have you had anything to eat?” he asks. “Here’s some of my stomach lining.”

Before he died in a 1985 plane crash, Shue wrote five pieces for the theater, including his popular “The Foreigner,” produced at the Gaslamp and at least two other local companies over the past year.

Casting seven solid theater veterans, Simpson has staged “The Nerd” in the Gaslamp’s intimate, 96-seat house. Scenic designer Robert Earl transformed the space into the post-modern home of architect Willum Cubbert.

Into Willum’s problem-filled life comes “The Nerd,” Rick Steadman, a.k.a. the Amityville horror. Marc Raia plays Rick with consummate skill as the kind of irritating nebbish that would turn even a mother’s love to vinegar.

Willum (Byron LaDue) is bound to accept Rick, however, who turns up for his 34th birthday party because Rick saved his life when they were in the Army in Vietnam. Rick turns out to be a self-centered bore, insulting one of Willum’s major clients and the man’s wife, along with Rick’s girl.

As Clelia, the client’s wife, Donna Walker is superb, a woman bent and withered by her spoiled child and living in the shadow of her successful husband.

In a bit of typecasting, Kathi Diamant, a co-host of a local television show, plays Tansy, a TV weathercaster who is changing jobs and moving out of Willum’s life. Without really fleshing out a specific characterization, Diamant conveys impressive stage presence.

Michael Dean Wise does an especially fine job as the curmudgeonly critic, Axel. Bill Maass plays Clelia’s self-made millionaire husband with comic anger and self-importance, and young Kevin Osgood is truly galling as their spoiled brat.

“The Nerd” plays Wednesday to Sunday through Sept. 18.