"The Nerd" - by Larry Shue - Stratton Players (Fitchburg, MA.) - REVIEW
(Cover Photo: Peter Russo as "Rick Steadman" with Jim Ethier as "Willum Cubbert" in a scene from Larry Shue's "THE NERD" presented by Stratton Players in Fitchburg, MA. now playing through September 27, 2025. Photo Credit: Jen Knight)
By Kevin T. Baldwin
METRMAG Reviewer
# 774-242-6724
“I'll remember never to send you out for seafood."
- ("Alex") / Larry Shue
Stratton Players
Presents Larry Shue's
"THE NERD"
Written by Larry Shue
Directed by Andrew DeSisto
Cast Includes: Jim Ethier as "Willum Cubbert," Peter Russo as "Rick Steadman," Chelsey Patriss as "Tansy McGinnis," Margo Thompson as "Axel Hammond," Adam P. Conn as "Warnock Waldgrave," Aurora Grabill as "Clelia Waldgrave," James DeSisto as "Thor Waldgrave."
Additional Creative Team:
Stage Manager - Mary Phillpotts; Assistant Stage Manager - Jen Knight; Lights and Sound - Nyk Fischer; Set - Hal Smith, Amy Newberg; Props and Costumes - Suzan Wentworth; Stage Crew - Adriana Tardiff, Barbara-Jo Hamel, Tim Fischer; Program - Andrew DeSisto, Sally Cragin; Publicity - Andrew DeSisto, Nancy Lemont, Jen Knight, Sally Cragin; Producers - Nancy Lemont, Amy Newberg.
Performances:
September 19, 2025 through September 27, 2025
(Contact Box Office for Exact Times)
Christ Church, 569 Main Street, Fitchburg, MA.
TICKETS:
For Tickets Contact the Box Office at # 978-345-6066 or via email at strattonplayers@gmail.com
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COVID 19 PROTOCOLS
Contact Venue for Most Updated COVID-19 Safety Protocols and Information.
(Warning: The following review may contain spoilers)
Stratton Players ends summer and kicks off the first week of fall with a fun, occasionally absurd show with "THE NERD" a show that will remind people why certain promises should never be made under duress.
The two-act comedy comes from Larry Shue, who also wrote the highly acclaimed award winning “The Foreigner” - and the Stratton cast and creative team give this "NERD" its all under the capable guidance of director Andrew DeSisto.
The initial performance of "THE NERD" (debuting in 1981) had an impressive run in London's West End. By 1987, “THE NERD” transferred to Broadway in a production starring Mark Hamill and directed by Charles Nelson Reilly which ran until 1988, closing after 441 performances.
Other notable actors who have taken on the title role of "THE NERD" include Gary (“Radar”) Burghoff of “M*A*S*H*” fame and British comedian Rowan Atkinson.
(Photo: The CAST of Larry Shue's "THE NERD" presented by Stratton Players in Fitchburg, MA. now playing through September 27, 2025. Photo Credit: Jen Knight)
Stratton Players' "THE NERD" takes place in Terre Haute, Indiana in late 1979 where we meet architect Willum Cubbert (Jim Ethier).
Some ways you can tell the time and place (outside of the tacky late seventies-styled furniture) is in a number of archaic references (such as how reheating food isn’t referred to as being “microwaved”) or in how people still had answering machines requiring a Master’s Degree in Nuclear Engineering to figure out.
Also, there’s a bar with enough booze on it (a la "...Virginia Woolf") Willum would need to be required to have his own liquor resale license.
Willum is having an important dinner party for an important client, Warnock Waldgrave (Adam P. Conn), his stressed out wife, Clelia (Aurora Grabill), and their rambunctious (in lieu of other more accurately descriptive synonyms) son, Thor (James DeSisto).
The party gets interrupted by the arrival of an ape-clad clod who turns out to be Rick Steadmnan (Peter Russo), an old army “buddy” that reached out to Willum earlier thinking they were invited to the party and, as such, plans to stay after the party with Willum…indefinitely.
This is the crazy premise of "THE NERD" and, because of a battle line promise Willum made to Rick in Vietnam, he feels obligated to put up with the myriads of mayhem Rick brings not only to the party but to Willum’s life.
(Photo: Peter Russo as "Rick Steadman" with Jim Ethier as "Willum Cubbert" in a scene from Larry Shue's "THE NERD" presented by Stratton Players in Fitchburg, MA. now playing through September 27, 2025. Photo Credit: Jen Knight)
Ethier is outstanding as the sorely conflicted Willum whose own lack of backbone combined with his substantial moral compass seems equally detrimental to him, exacerbating much of the chaos Rick brings into his home.
Meanwhile, Russo as Rick (aka "THE NERD"), fresh from a “chalk making factory” (a backstory that needed more fleshing out), is relentlessly annoying and, from the moment he comes through Rick’s door (dressed up as an ape), his very presence instantly serves as itching powder to everyone else on stage.
Two of Willum’s closest friends, Tansy (Chelsey Patriss) and Axel (Margo Thompson) watch helplessly as Rick seems to upset and upend everything just as he simultaneously ups Willum’s blood pressure.
Patriss as Tansy impresses as the intelligent supportive friend (and not-quite girlfriend) of Willum while Thompson is delightfully humorous as the sarcastic and quick-witted Alex, a drama critic.
Tansy has her own troubled sub-plot which tends to get lost in the turmoil Rick brings to Willum.
(Photo: The CAST of Larry Shue's "THE NERD" presented by Stratton Players in Fitchburg, MA. now playing through September 27, 2025. Photo Credit: Jen Knight)
Conn as arrogant, humorless businessman and hotelier Waldgrave nails the amalgamized appeal of David White's “Larry Tate” (“Bewitched”) and Gale Gordon’s “Mr. Mooney” (“The Lucy Show”), serving as an old-timey “sitcom boss” - and it is that very sitcom “feel” that is where a lot of Shue’s plot for "THE NERD" ultimate tends to land.
There is a strong sense that this play feels more like an elongated episode of an old sitcom, straight out of the days of “Lucy” “Bewitched” or “Three’s Company.”
As written, Thor, for actor James DeSisto, is given very little to do outside of being an annoying child and react to the insanity Rick brings forth - yet for what little his character has been given to do DeSisto does exceptionally well with the material.
As Waldgrave’s intensely wound-up wife, Clelia, Grabill probably provides some of the plays most unexpected laughs, especially in how Clelia deals with her own highly stressful moments.
The only way Rick and friends can correct the new downward spiraling trajectory of his life is to somehow, some way, get rid of Rick.
The second act is far funnier than the first with a lot of twists and turns near the end, which elevates the material from its dated sitcom leanings.
Stratton Players' "THE NERD" continues tormenting Willum in Fitchburg until September 28th, 2025 and for those that are into schadenfreude (Google it), this is the show over which you’ll just go ape.
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Approximately two hours with one intermission.
Kevin T. Baldwin is a member of the American Theatre Critics Association (ATCA)
@MetrmagReviews
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ABOUT THE SHOW
Set in Terre Haute, Indiana in late 1979, "THE NERD" centers on the hilarious dilemma of a young architect who is visited by Rick Steadman, a fellow ex-GI whom he has never met but who saved has life after he was seriously wounded in Vietnam.
Willum is delighted when Rick shows up unexpectedly at his apartment on the night of his thirty-fourth birthday party.
However, Rick's awkward manner and inappropriate behavior throw the occasion into shambles.
It turns out that Rick is a stupid "NERD" who overstays his welcome with a vengeance.(STAGEAGENT)
ABOUT STRATTON PLAYERS
STRATTON PLAYERS continues to provide a creative outlet for men and women interested in any aspect of play production, whether it be acting, costuming, set design or construction, publicity, stage management, or tickets.
98 Prospect Street
Fitchburg, Massachusetts 01452
Phone # 978-345-6066
strattonplayers@gmail.com
