THIRD PARTY: A MOONLIGHT MATING GAME OR MIDSUMMER APPROACHES . . . , Party Productions, at the Theatre Building. David Dillon has cranked the handle on his money-making Party machine a third time, and the results are truly depressing. Party itself always struck me as a case of the emperor’s new clothes: starved for any sort of positive representation, the gay community good-naturedly embraced the production, ignoring the fact that it’s ultimately a rather shallow comedy. Yet Party has a certain joyful abandon, an abandon that seemed calculated in Girl Party, which was less successful: sitcom high jinks and the promise of nudity proved less of a draw for the lesbian crowd. And in Third Party the abandon is downright contrived. Here playwright, actor, and codirector Dillon brings together characters from Party and Girl Party to spend the weekend at a gay resort, where they’re forced to share a one-bedroom cabin for the night.
