![]() ![]() ![]() As the youngest partygoer, Ray Barnhardt grows funnier, sexier and more assured as the party progresses. Michael Gaffney and especially Russell Scott Lewis are winning in the less flamboyant roles of the host Kevin and his old friend Philip. Kellum Lewis, who himself stars as the lascivious chorus boy Brian, has directed "Party" with wicked speed and inspires witty performances from everyone except the amateurish Gregory O'Neill as James. The appalling sight lines at the Cable Car mean that audience members sitting in row G or beyond may miss the games' sexier moments, but there is frankly more to "Party" than naked bodies. The two are throwing a party for friends old and new, all of whom arrive and begin what amounts to a protracted strip tease: The games they play involve acting out fantasies or simply removing their underwear. Kevin, a sensible, thirtysomething professor, has recently broken up with his lover of seven years and is sharing a two-bedroom apartment - platonically, as the action begins - with the much younger drama student Peter. It even begins awkwardly, as many parties do, but soon gets going, and then the laughter seldom stops. Closer to the "Hump the Hostess" bit in Edward Albee's "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" than to any version of "Truth or Dare" or to the serious gay games of "Love! Valour! Compassion!," the party games in Dillon's delicious sitcom are above all simply fun. "Party," too, is a fair sampling of the contemporary gay middle class, but the mood of Dillon's dish fest is decidedly happier than Crowley's. ![]()
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