The Review is in...

And "The Nerd" gets a rave!

Big Idea Theatre has fun with 'The Nerd'
By Jim Carnes - jcarnes@sacbee.com
3 stars

Published 12:00 am PST Monday, February 18, 2008
Story appeared in the Sacramento Bee SCENE section, Page E3

Larry Shue's comedy "The Nerd" seems tailor-made to the small stage at the Big Idea Theatre on Del Paso Boulevard – and to the comic talents of Kirk Blackinton, who plays Rick Steadman, the nerd of the title.

Blackinton is a combination of Howie Mandel and Jerry Lewis as he twists his face and his limbs, brays and spews various foods and drinks in a grossly hilarious, gradually (intentionally) grating performance. Steadman is the kind of guy who gives lie to the old saying about company being like fish, beginning to smell after three days.

Shue was an actor (he appeared on TV in "One Life to Live" and in the film "Sweet Liberty") and a playwright; he died in a commuter plane crash in 1985, after completing just two full-length plays, "The Nerd," which premiered in 1981, and "The Foreigner," which debuted in 1983. Neither play won any major prizes, although both have become staples of community theater.

"The Nerd" takes place at an indeterminate time in the 1980s. Willum Cubbert (played in the world premiere by Shue, on Broadway by Mark Hamill, and here by the very clever Christian St. Croix) is an aspiring young architect in Terre Haute, Ind., who appears to have it all – a promising career, good friends and a special girlfriend, Tansy (played by Jessica Lynn Berkey).

At a dinner party celebrating his 34th birthday, Willum gets a surprise visit from Rick Steadman, a man he's never met but who saved his life when he was wounded and unconscious in Vietnam many years before.

A grateful Willum had written to Steadman, after both had returned to the States from the war, that as long as he was alive, "You will have somebody on Earth who will do anything for you."

Steadman decides to take Willum up on the offer, and thinking he's attending a costume party, shows up in a skeleton outfit. Lacking in social graces as he is, he proceeds to make fun of the other attendees' outfits: "businessman," "ugly old teacher," etc.

First the party disintegrates; then Willum's life follows suit.

After a series of nightmarish incidents all involving the annoying "friend," Willum decides maybe his life wasn't worth the promised devotion to his savior. With the help of his good friend, sarcastic drama critic Axel Hammond (Melissa Rae Frago, who co-starred with Blackinton in "The Colorado Catechism" at this same theater), he schemes to "out-nerd" the nerd. It culminates in an ending that is both satisfying and surprising.

Director C.L. Houts rightly emphasizes Blackinton's role as Rick – clearly the best-written part, and perfectly cast. She also gets plenty of mileage out of Roger Clark as Warnock Waldgrave, the hotel builder who has employed Willum to design his latest residence hall. Clark is big and burly and wonderfully blustery, particularly in a party scene in which Rick has everyone barefoot and with bags over their heads, to play a game called "shoesandsocks!"

As Clelia Waldgrave, Warnock's wife, Deborah Forester portrays a mostly one-note character, but Forester makes the most of Clelia's one wacky eccentricity. Emma Forester plays Helena Waldgrave, the couple's bratty little daughter. (The part originally was written as Thor Waldgrave, to be played by a young male. The cast list includes Dillon Lammers in that role, but there is no indication when he performs.)

• WHEN: Continues through March 16 with performances at 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, 2:30 p.m. March 2, 9 and 16 and 7:30 p.m. March 13.
• WHERE: Big Idea Theatre, 1616 Del Paso Blvd.
• TIME: Approximately 2 1/2 hours, including intermission
• TICKETS: $15 general
• INFORMATION: (818) 416-0093, www.bigideatheatre.com