Larry Shue
Larry Shue was an American playwright and actor known for his ability to blend comedy with social commentary. Born in New Orleans in 1946, he graduated with honors from Illinois Wesleyan University and served in the army before establishing his career in theater. His notable works include "The Foreigner," which reflects his experiences in Japan and critiques social attitudes through humor, and "The Nerd," which achieved success in London’s West End. Shue's writing was recognized for its wit and depth, earning accolades such as the American Theatre Critics Association's Best Plays in Regional Theater award for "The Foreigner." He was also involved in acting, appearing in film and television. Tragically, Shue's life was cut short in a plane crash at the age of thirty-nine, but his contributions to theater continue to resonate. His legacy lives on through his influential plays that explore themes of identity and social dynamics.
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Subject Terms
Larry Shue
Writer
- Born: July 23, 1946
- Birthplace: New Orleans, Louisiana
- Died: September 23, 1985
- Place of death: Near Weyers Cove, Virginia
Biography
When playwright Larry Shue was killed in a plane crash at the age of thirty-nine, he had just begun to demonstrate his talent for intermixing mixed reviews in the United States, earned more money than any other American play broad comedy and farce with social commentary. His play The Nerd: A Comedy, which received produced in London’s West End in 1984. The preceding year, his prize-winning comedy, The Foreigner, was singled out by the American Theatre Critics Association as one of the Best Plays in Regional Theater, and it had one of the longest runs of any Off-Broadway play at that time.
Shue was born in New Orleans, Louisiana, in 1946, the son of Percy Howard and Marguerite Dolores Wilson Shue, both educators. He received his. B.F.A., with honors, from Illinois Wesleyan University in 1968, the year in which he married Linda Fay Wilson, an aspiring actress. Shue was actively involved in theater during his college days. He wrote the libretto for a one-act children’s musical, My Emperor’s New Clothes, that was produced at Illinois Wesleyan in 1968, as was his play Siliascoles.
He entered the army in 1969, serving until 1972. During his time in the army, he won the First Army Entertainment Contest and the Eddie Fox Award for Dramatic Excellence. Shue’s married ended in divorce in 1977. In 1980, he went to Toga-mura, Japan, to study with the Waseda Theatre Company.
By then, he had established an affiliation with the Milwaukee Repertory Theatre that lasted from 1977 until his death in 1985. The Milwaukee Repertory Company in 1979 staged his farce, Grandma Duck Is Dead. In 1981, this company staged The Nerd, which made it to London’s West End in 1984.
Shue’s next play, the semiautobiographical comedy, Wenceslas Square, staged in 1982, reflects his overseas adventures. It is about a professor who wrote a book about the Czechoslovakian theater of the 1960’s, a time of considerable artistic freedom in that country. Shue’s play, which uses flashback techniques throughout, follows the professor and the student photographer who accompanies him on his return trip to Prague as they track down the theater people who appeared in the professor’s book. Although this play is more serious than Shue’s other work, it still reflects the author’s keen sense of humor and strong satirical bent.
The Foreigner grew out of Shue’s experiences as a student in Japan. He found that the Japanese excused his blunders, attributing them to the fact that he was a foreigner. In Shue’s play, an Englishman comes to the American South and takes a weekend fishing trip to rural Georgia, where he pretends not to speak English. As a result, the rednecks around him, a minister and his cronies, speak freely of their intention to turn the fishing lodge in which they are staying into a Ku Klux Klan headquarters. Shue’s protagonist, however, thwarts their plans.
Shue was himself an actor, having appeared in the films A Common Cause and The Hungry Leaves and in the television soap operaOne Life to Live. At the time of his death, he was appearing on Broadway in the musical The Mystery of Edwin Drood, based on Charles Dickens’s novel.