Larry Shue

Larry Shue (July 23, 1946 – September 23, 1985) was an American playwright and actor, best known for writing two often-performed farces, The Nerd and The Foreigner.

Early life

Shue was born in New Orleans, Louisiana, and grew up in Kansas and Chicago, Illinois. He graduated cum laude from Illinois Wesleyan University in 1968, served in the Army during the Vietnam War, and then began his career as a professional actor and playwright. He worked in repertory and in New York, and appeared in One Life to Live. Film appearances include the shorts A Common Confusion; Another Town; and The Land of the Blind: or The Hungry Leaves; and the feature-length Sweet Liberty.

Career

Shue's two best-known plays were written and first performed while he was playwright-in-residence at the Milwaukee Repertory Theater:

• The Nerd premiered in April 1981, and was produced successfully in London's West End. It transferred to Broadway in 1987. It is a simple character-based comedy, in which a normal dinner party, interrupted by the house-guest from hell, dissolves into insanity.
• The Foreigner premiered in 1983, and transferred to Off-Broadway. The central character is Charlie Baker, who, while on a vacation in a Georgia hunting lodge, pretends not to be able to understand English, so as to avoid the attentions of the other guests. His plan backfires and he soon finds himself the confidant of everyone there, especially a young boy named Ellard, who thinks he is teaching Charlie English. Charlie ends up having to foil the schemes of the local Ku Klux Klan chapter without revealing his secret.

Death

Shue's success was short-lived. He died in the crash of a commuter plane in the Shenandoah Valley near Weyers Cave, Virginia, at the age of 39.

Posthumous recognition

Both The Nerd and The Foreigner have become staples of the professional and amateur theatre. His other plays include:

• Grandma Duck is Dead
• My Emperor's New Clothes
• Wenceslas Square