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The Perfect Party
the perfect party.
- GenresPlays
72 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1998
16 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
April 21, 2013
I better like it, considering I'll be playing the lead in a community theater production in two months.
A professor in an upstate New York college is determined to throw "The Perfect Party" and brings in a reviewer from a major New York City reviewer to reviewer it. This being a comedy that borders on farce, things go haywire, including the creation of the professors's imaginary and quite vulgar twin brother. This not being a dark comedy, things work out in a (hopefully) unexpected way at the end.
A professor in an upstate New York college is determined to throw "The Perfect Party" and brings in a reviewer from a major New York City reviewer to reviewer it. This being a comedy that borders on farce, things go haywire, including the creation of the professors's imaginary and quite vulgar twin brother. This not being a dark comedy, things work out in a (hopefully) unexpected way at the end.
July 30, 2024
Upper-middle-class satire of a college professor determined to throw the perfect party, and a humorless (though very funny) party-reviewing critic who challenges his ability to do so. The final moment of profundity didn’t quite land for me (at least on the page), but the characters and story on their own made me laugh out loud more than once.
WILMA: Listen, I may have been crude out there. I may have forced a transition or two. But at least I was reaching out toward other people and other subjects. I didn’t retreat, and commandeer the couch, and indulge in a lot of macho chest-thumping and groin-scratching with a ruptured rapist from Rhode Island! (p. 51)
SALLY: (describing the party’s unsuccessful start) … [T]he older folks have congealed in a gloomy corner, where they reminisce about Lawrence Welk and accuse each other of having Alzheimer’s disease. … The gays and born-agains eye the goings-on with some contempt, depressed with our condition and their own. Even the caterers are losing interest. (p. 52)
WILMA: Listen, I may have been crude out there. I may have forced a transition or two. But at least I was reaching out toward other people and other subjects. I didn’t retreat, and commandeer the couch, and indulge in a lot of macho chest-thumping and groin-scratching with a ruptured rapist from Rhode Island! (p. 51)
SALLY: (describing the party’s unsuccessful start) … [T]he older folks have congealed in a gloomy corner, where they reminisce about Lawrence Welk and accuse each other of having Alzheimer’s disease. … The gays and born-agains eye the goings-on with some contempt, depressed with our condition and their own. Even the caterers are losing interest. (p. 52)
January 11, 2023
Clever dialogue, funny, with exaggerated characters and plot, but overall enjoyable. The ending seems rushed and contrived, but the whole thing is preposterous anyway, so why not?! Not Gurney's best, but still would be fun to produce or perform.
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May 21, 2012Good story, interesting idea, but again nothing useful.
June 18, 2012
The first act is just okay. The second act actually starts off really good, with some funny moments. Unfortunately, it gets really preachy at the end, which really spoils the moment.
February 15, 2017
Feels super dated. Not my favorite by Gurney
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews