Photo by George Katsekes Jr.
Larry Shue’s stage play The Nerd was kind of a forerunner for movies like Dumb & Dumber, Billy Madison and, well, a lot of Jim Carrey and Adam Sandler movies, actually. While it’s true that the socially awkward clown has been around in pop culture for as long as pop culture has been around, but Shue’s peculiar mix of weirdness and semi-obnoxiousness seems kind of stylistically early for 1981 when it would have debuted.
Nearly 35 years later, the classic stage comedy is being brought to Elm Grove as the Sunset Playhouse presents the comedy. Brian D. Zelinski directs the show, which stars Zach Zembrowski as Willum Cubbert: an architect who is visited by a man who saved his life in Vietnam. The man in question is the title character: a socially skewed gentleman named Rick Steadman who is played here by Robin Christiansen. Steadman is maddeningly awkward and downright annoying, but as he had saved his life, Willum is unwilling to demand that he leave him alone.
It’s a fun script with some inspired and vaguely surrealistic moments, most notably when the ensemble is talked into playing a game led by Steadman which involves everyone wearing paper bags over their heads. This is one the manages to remain fresh with every new production.
The Sunset Playhouse’s production of The Nerd runs March 12 through March 29 at the Furlan Auditorium on 800 Elm Grove Road. For more information, visit sunsetplayhouse.com.
