‘Nerd’ is the word

Larry Shue’s “The Nerd” is a comic farce, yet Shue’s life played more like tragedy.

A particularly brief tragedy, at that.

Shue, the playwright in residence at the Milwaukee Repertory Theatre, had just produced two comedy hits in a row – “The Nerd” and “The Foreigner” – when he was killed in 1985 in a commuter plane crash in the Shenandoah Valley. He was 39.

“I think he was the modern-day Neil Simon,” said Maria Caprile, who is directing “The Nerd” for the Spokane Civic Theatre production opening tonight.

“He could do drawing-room comedy. Who the heck does that anymore?”

While no one is likely to mistake Shue for Noel Coward, “The Nerd” is indeed an American comedy of manners – actually, bad manners.

It’s about a middle-aged man in Terre Haute, Ind., named Willum who owes a debt of gratitude to a soldier named Rick, who saved his life in Vietnam. Willum never got to meet Rick, but he wrote him and told him that if there was ever “anything he could do for him, anything at all …”

And then, during a birthday party, Rick shows up.

“He’s the most horrible, irritating, well-intentioned houseguest ever,” said Caprile. “He ruins Willum’s life.”

Yet he does so in a highly entertaining manner. Shue even manages to unobtrusively squeeze in a few social issues about the Vietnam War and men who have trouble committing (Willum is a 34-year-old bachelor).

Caprile’s cast features Paul Villabrille as Willum, Brian Lambert as Rick and Jaime Mathis as Tansy. Other cast members include Chad Hagerty, Dave Rideout, Ryan Patterson, Hunter Jasper and Spencer Lambdin.