‘The Nerd’ sports three standouts> 2 actors, set design dominate

Rick Steadman wears plaid. He snorts when he laughs, trails toilet paper on his heel, and stockpiles pencils in his shirt pocket. Classically speaking, he’s a nerd.

In fact, he is ostensibly THE nerd in Larry Shue’s farcical comedy “The Nerd,” which Penobscot Theatre opened to an uproarious crowd Friday at the Opera House in Bangor.

The real problem with Rick isn’t that he drops conversational bombs and has the uncensored enthusiasm of a 12-year-old. The problem is that Rick saved Willum Cubbert’s life back in Vietnam, so when he shows up unexpectedly at Willum’s home and insinuates himself into every part of Willum’s life, the situation gets hairy.

It comes down to this: If someone saves your life, what do you owe him back? You may bust a gut watching Shue’s answer to that question, but by the end of the show, you may also find yourself questioning the definition of nerdhood when it comes to issues of love and war.

To push that any further would be to reveal a final plot twist, which director Collene Frashure has crafted carefully. This is part “Saturday Night Live,” part Dean Martin-Jerry Lewis, and for the most part, the evening is a hoot. But despite the outstanding ensemble work and the sharp attention to timing that this seven-member cast achieves, the show has only three blazing stars.

The unmistakable one is Ron Adams in the title role. The stage comes to life when he shows up partway through Act I as everyone’s nightmare of a house guest. As Rick Steadman, he makes outlandish suggestions and blunt commentaries with dorky yuks, gawky manners and gangly gaucheness. Adams plays the total dweeb and it’s downright poetry. He knows when to go for the gusto, and, more importantly, when to fade into the scenery. When he leads the group in a scatterbrain game of “Shoes and Socks,” the result is catastrophically funny, and you won’t want to miss his rendition of “The Star Spangled Banner” — on tambourine.

Kent McKusick’s portrayal of Warnock Waldgrave, a real estate tycoon, is another winning contribution to the success of this production. Whether he’s about to burst from frustration or wheel-and-deal with his young son (played energetically by Nick Cyr), McKusick is in control. While others sometimes fall short of bringing plausibility to their characterizations, McKusick takes up the slack. In a silly play in a silly role, he has integrity and panache.

The remainder of the cast doesn’t fly quite as high, and the show moves along ploddingly at times because of that. Leslie K.A. Michaud, as Waldgrave’s uptight wife, Clelia, has funny moments but can be overly stiff; Andrew Lyons offers a very pained Willum whose whining gets annoying; and Allen Adams swallows too many of his lines to do justice to the wit of Axel Hammond, Willum’s close friend. Although she can be a tad mechanical, Kimberly Shute is endearingly manic and warm as Tansy, Willum’s girlfriend.

And the third star of the show? Michael Reidy’s sturdy, expansive, split-level set design. He adapts the Opera House stage fearlessly and intelligently — using every inch efficiently and blacking out the rest to create a modern living room in which the actors can confidently race about.

Costumes by Ginger Phelps are regular street clothes that are nevertheless very conservative or, as in the case of Shute, unfortunately Kmartish and unflattering. Lighting by Lynne Chase is perfectly pert.

When it rocks, this is a side-splitting production of “The Nerd.” By the end, you may shift your position on who the real nebbish is. And persnickety theatergoers may get impatient with the absurdity of the plot, but even the harshest of them won’t get out of the Opera House before laughing out loud.

Penobscot Theatre will present “The Nerd” through March 21 at the Opera House on Main Street in Bangor. For tickets, call 942-3333.