Combs is incandescent in “Nevermore”

Jeffrey Combs disappears into the humor, pathos and morbidity of Edgar Allan Poe in "Nevermore"

Jeffrey Combs disappears into the humor, pathos and morbidity of Edgar Allan Poe in "Nevermore"

This last Friday night, I caught Jeffrey Combs’ performance in “Nevermore,” a one-man show based on the life of Edgar Allan Poe written by Dennis Paoli and directed by Stuart (FROM BEYOND) Gordon.  And nothing could have prepared me for the delightful shock in store for me.

There are a number of ways to measure the caliber of an actor.  Among them: You can consider the sheer power of the emotions they convey.  You can look at their craft and the technical points of how they carry out their performance.  You can take into account the degree to which they vanish into their character, taking you on a journey into another world and showing someone that they manifestly are not.

In Jeffrey Combs’ case, he apparently chose to ace “all of the above” for his depiction of Poe, with an amazing and entertaining performance that lights up the stage.

Fans of Combs’ work are legion, but they will be met with the same astonishing surprise that I received from his Poe.  It’s simply this: I sat 8-10 feet away from him, and for the first 15 minutes of the play, I wondered… is that really Jeffrey Combs up there?  It isn’t merely the top-quality makeup, costume and hairstyling that startlingly change his appearance.  It’s his voice, his mannerisms, everything else as well.  Rather than the beloved Herbert West, or Crawford Tillinghast, or any of the characters he’s brought to life, it’s a fascinatingly real and human portrait of an author who is often misunderstood — in our time, and in his own.

Combs’ Poe isn’t a stock figure of macabre imagination like something out of THE ADDAMS FAMILY.  He’s a troubled Southern writer and editor suffering from his very real demons while trying to entertain a mid-Victorian salon (the audience) that can’t help but see all of his flaws.  A great deal of Poe’s verse and prose is distractingly florid and purple on the page, and Combs (and Paoli and Gordon) makes no effort to hide this.  In fact, he emphasizes how 19th century actors (like Poe’s own parents) would declaim the words on a stage, yet does so without lampooning Poe in any way.

Come to “Nevermore” and be surprised by the humanity of Poe and the brilliance of Combs, Paoli and Gordon.  You can see the show at the Steve Allen Theater on Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m. from now until Halloween weekend.  Tickets are $20.  For more information, see www.steveallentheater.com.