[2] Set in Terre Haute, Indiana in late 1979, The Nerd presents the story of Willum Cubbert, an unassuming young architect, who is landlord to friends Tansy and Axel.
While Willum is hosting a dinner party for his client (Warnock Waldgrave, for whom he is designing a hotel), Rick shows up.
Eventually at his wit's end, Axel devises a plan to get rid of Rick, which Willum decides to take a chance on.
They serve warm water and cottage cheese for the meal, and talk about imaginary traditions from their youth, such as shooting down planes.
The intruder is actually an actor, Kemp Hall, who was persuaded by Axel to impersonate Rick Steadman in order to make Willum understand his real priorities.
It was directed by Braham Murray at the Royal Exchange, Manchester and starred Derek Griffiths as Rick and David Horovitch as Willum.
The play ran on Broadway for 441 performances (March 22, 1987 – April 10, 1988), starring Mark Hamill and directed by Charles Nelson Reilly.
In the 1987 production, the action diverged from the play in places, such as Robert Joy (as Rick) squawking like a chicken when the guests at Willum's party begin to eat deviled eggs and, later, spraying Redi-Whip into his mouth.
[5] In 1989, NBC commissioned a sitcom pilot adapted from the play, with John Dye, Harley Jane Kozak and Robert Joy, who reprised his role.
The show starred Robert Walsh (Willum Cubbert), Ellen Harvey (Tansy McGinnis), Jeff Levy-Lyons (Axel Hammond), William A. Kilmer (Warnock Waldgrave), David Benoit (Rick Steadman), Benari Poulten and Jamey Dereshinsky (Celia Waldgrave).
In many ways, this play resembles the short story "The Unrest-Cure" by Saki, in which a young man interferes with a household in order to make the denizens appreciate what they have.
Author Thomas M. Disch gave a mixed review of a 1987 performance, saying that the play "has whole half-hours that border on the moronic," yet it "racks up more laughs, and louder, than any farce this side of Alan Ayckbourn.