THEATER : Silly Gags of ‘Nerd’ Often Draw a Laugh

As a study in silliness, Larry Shue’s “The Nerd” makes you laugh in spite of yourself--which is not necessarily a bad thing. The play is out-and-out ludicrous, and the gags have the sort of unalloyed dumbness found on “I Love Lucy.” This, too, is not a bad thing.

But what did Orange County playgoers do to deserve two productions of “The Nerd” within the span of just a few weeks? First there was the one that closed Sunday at the Costa Mesa Civic Playhouse. Now there is the one that opened here over the weekend at the Laguna Playhouse’s Moulton Theatre.

The answer is that the audience didn’t do anything. Nor is it likely that it will have seen both productions since there is scant overlap among subscribers to these two amateur companies. Therefore, consecutive appearances of “The Nerd” must be a form of revenge against the theater reviewers. The producers apparently had a secret meeting in the Adirondacks and decided to send us a message.

To wit: One of the play’s chief characters is a drama critic neatly skewered for his alcoholism and his cynical penchant for writing reviews even before getting to the theater. Shue understood how to plant the kiss of death on this curmudgeon’s lips, while also providing him with a lion’s share of the play’s snappiest lines.

Such an egocentric view is subject to doubt, of course. Drama critics are by nature hard to believe. Some prefer a combination of narcotics and amphetamines to booze--speedballs, we call it in the trade--and far from preconceiving their reviews, they often wander out of the theater more mystified by the home-grown productions they’ve just seen than before they went in.

Still, I can’t help feeling that “The Nerd” has particular significance for Orange County. Two revivals of this 1985 screwball farce in such a short period, far from being mere coincidence, must mean the producers have discovered a local subtext. Could it be that Shue really had the county in mind when he wrote “The Nerd,” despite its Terre Haute, Ind., setting?

The play revolves around the threesome of Axel (the critic) and his two best friends: Willum, an idealistic architect who is designing a hotel but who would rather be doing a museum, and Tansy, a budding career woman who is about to leave for Washington to become a TV weather girl. It’s hard to believe a trio like that could possibly exist in the whole state of Indiana, let alone Terre Haute (Jane Pauley notwithstanding).

In addition to those characters, we meet a rapaciously materialistic businessman unaccountably nicknamed Ticky (it does make for snatches of Abbott-and-Costello dialogue); his schoolmarm wife, Clelia, who teaches s-l-o-w learners and therefore speaks s-l-o-w-l-y; and their unbearable son, Thor.

Last--but hardly least--comes the nerd, a dim-witted Vietnam veteran who once saved Willum’s life during the Vietnam War. He arrives unexpectedly during a party for Willum’s 34th birthday and proceeds to throw all their lives into such chaos that it could happen only in a farce.

If you instinctively like plays in which people wander around with paper bags over their heads, and in which props such as toilet paper, broken dishes, macaroni and cottage cheese loom large, you’ll love “The Nerd.”

If buffoonery holds no interest for you and you happen to be caught at the Moulton by accident, you may make a polite dash for the exit early in the first act when Willum’s telephone answering machine speaks volumes and the players consequently have little to do but stand around and listen. Those moments are so lengthy and inert as to be sure show stoppers in the most literal sense.

The cast is ably guided, nonetheless, by Playhouse artistic director Douglas Rowe, who has milked the gags without completely abandoning reality to slapstick. He didn’t have to choose the play in the first place, but as long as he has, he can’t be expected to rewrite Shue’s work or edit out its vaster reaches of empty space.

Michael Bielitz plays the thankless role of the nerd with tireless energy and an abundance of humor. Michael Miller gives the most effective performance of the evening as Ticky, with some lovely slow burns of put-upon indignation.

Both John Bavaro as Willum and Catherine Rowe as Tansy could be more colorful, though just how is hard to say since both roles are written blandly to begin with. Paul Klees turns in a mildly urbane performance as Axel that could use more acid. Jennifer Myers Johnson has her moments as Clelia. And Nicholas Cagle is appropriately annoying as Thor.

‘THE NERD’

A Laguna Playhouse production at the Moulton Theatre. Written by Larry Shue. Directed by Douglas Rowe. With Michael Bielitz, John Bavaro, Catherine Rowe, Paul Klees, Michael Miller, Jennifer Myers Johnson and Nicholas Cagle alternating with Nathan Wood. Associate director Robert Kokol. Set design by Steve Maddy. Costumes by Marthella Randall. Lighting and sound design by Stephen Shaffer. The Moulton Theatre is at 606 Laguna Canyon Road, Laguna Beach. Performances through May 27. Tuesdays to Saturdays at 8 p.m.; matinees May 13, 20 and 27 at 2:30 p.m. Tickets: $11-$17. Information: (714) 494-8021.