THEATER REVIEW:’Nerd’ will make you laugh

“The Nerd,” now playing at the Glendale Centre Theatre, is a very funny and fairly frothy comedy about people who have manners.

They know that having good manners is more than just saying “please,” and “thank you,” at the right times. It’s about love and loyalty, kindness and sacrifice. The characters in this play are so nice, in fact, that if a single one of them had been just a little farther over on the mean or selfish side, there wouldn’t even be a play, because someone would have soon told their sweetly annoying house-guest where else he could go.

At first glance, the Nerd referred to by the title must be the house-guest in question, Rick Steadman, a pleasant, if somewhat developmentally disabled, Vietnam War veteran who saved the life of architect Willum Cubbert. Poor dear Rick has no clue why his relatives keep moving without leaving him a forwarding address.

George Strattan, as Rick, couldn’t be more natural or more endearing as the man who came to dinner and then stayed and stayed and stayed. He is an absolute delight in his totally myopic inability to figure out what anyone else in the world might need.

Or maybe the Nerd is really Willum, played with charming sincerity by Brian Middleton, who is doing work he isn’t proud of, about to lose a woman he really loves, and wondering why he feels so miserable every day.

The elaborate lengths to which Willum and his steadfast friends will go to gently get rid of someone as dense as Rick are as loony as they are heartwarming. And the end result? Well, it’s a surprise.

As is always the case with the Glendale Centre Theatre, everyone on stage does exceptionally fine work. Kelly Flynn, Richard Large, Rae Stone and little Jacob Matthews are veteran scene-stealers. But special mention has to go to J.J. Rodgers as Tansy McGinnis, Willum’s radiant girlfriend, for creating a character who is natural, intelligent and gorgeous.

Her work is all the more amazing because Rodgers took on the job three days beforehand, and went onstage the evening of this review without a script in hand.

Everyone off-stage does exceptionally fine work, too. Pacing by director Charles Baker is just right. Any slower, and the audience might stop to think about how logical the plot really is.

Thanks go to set designers George Strattan and Tim Dietlein, technical director and lighting designer Jeremy Williams and costumer Angela Wood for adding to the credibility of the show instead of distracting the audience with missteps or untrue choices.

Although the smaller kids aren’t as likely to pick up on some of the finer funnies, “The Nerd” is still rated “G,” for gosh that was good, so go see it.