‘The Nerd’ delivers payoff late, but it’s worth the wait

The Nerd – the title character with buckteeth and plaid pants – makes himself more obnoxious to his fellow human beings with every passing minute.

Yet “The Nerd,” the play, becomes more enjoyable, funny and endearing as the evening wears on. In fact, all of the things that I thought were weaknesses in the first half of the play – the appalling nerd stereotype, the unexplained side plots, the sitcom feel of the set-up – all turn out to be part of playwright Larry Shue’s grand plan. They end up as strengths, not weaknesses.

I can’t explain exactly how this happens – that would be giving too much away. All I can say is that I was totally won over by the end, and I am confident that most people will be, as well.

Director Maria Caprile deserves the credit for putting together a terrific triumvirate in the three key roles – Paul Villabrille as Willum, Chad Hagerty as Axel and Jaime Mathis as Tansy. These are the three “normal” people of the play, whose lives are blasted to comic smithereens by the arrival of Rick Steadman, aka, The Nerd.

Brian Lambert plays The Nerd, and he deserves plenty of credit and admiration as well, for taking every last appalling, anti-social, nerdy stereotype and rubbing it cheerfully in our faces. His character is thoughtless, rude, selfish, mind-numbingly literal and completely un-self-aware. He plays “The Star-Spangled Banner” on tambourine. If that isn’t enough, he has toilet paper stuck to his shoe and his shirttail protruding from his open fly.

Need I go on? Take Steve Martin in “The Jerk” and multiply by Jerry Lewis in “The Nutty Professor.”

The invariably sympathetic Villabrille is ideal for the role of Willum, a nice young architect whose main problem is that he is too nice. He can’t tell Rick, his old Army buddy, to leave, and he can’t tell the young weathercaster Tansy not to leave. (She is about to leave Terre Haute for a new job in Washington, D.C.)

Mathis is utterly natural and charming as Tansy, with a real knack for comic line-readings. She also threw herself, quite literally, into one chase scene in which she makes a hard landing on the couch. She’s a good physical comedienne.

Yet Hagerty, as the curmudgeonly Axel, was my favorite. He’s got the comic instincts of John Candy, yet he added a sharp cynical edge to almost every line. Even his facial expressions and body language exude an air of tough-minded intelligence.

“Tough-minded intelligence” won’t be the first characteristic to come to mind during Shue’s many farcical situations. In one scene, all of the characters run around the living room with bags over their heads (it’s a nerdy parlor game). Caprile orchestrates all of this action cleverly, getting many, many laughs from sly physical jokes. She also has drilled her actors with the essential idea that they must inhabit their characters all the time – not just during their lines. Their reactions are often funnier than the actual lines.

Still, I must warn you that the first act has an unmistakable air of sitcom. It feels like a dated “Friends” or “Seinfeld” episode. Be patient. Director Caprile correctly allows Shue’s plot and true characters to manifest themselves slowly. Believe me, it all pays off in the end.

By the way, to add to the good feelings at the end of Saturday’s performance, the Civic announced that its production of “Assassins” had just won the regional community theater competition in Tacoma. Next stop, the nationals.

“The Nerd” continues through April 22. Call (509) 325-2507 for tickets.