Not since Neil Simon's Rumors has the sound of so much laughter filled a theater. Playwright Peter Ackerman's Things You Shouldn't Say Past Midnight fits like a glove into the Promenade Theater, where the laughter comes from all sides. Couple this with the best sight lines in New York and this evening of irreverent comedy becomes nothing less than incredible.

Nancy (Erin Dilly) and Ben (Mark Kassen) are noisy lovers. She likes her sex "nasty" and, as they go at it center stage, the squeals and moans are thunderous. At the climactic moment, however, Nancy suddenly blurts out, "Fuck me, you hook-nosed Jew!" Whoops. Ben does not take this slur lightly, and he leaps off Nancy's naked body. "What'd you say?" he asks like a bewildered pooch, bending his head to one side. "No really - what'd you say?" Are we ever allowed to slip just a little, the playwright seems to be asking, and say what's on our minds? To say whatever pops into our heads without worrying what others (especially our loved ones) might think? When Ben reveals to Nancy that he might - just might - be gay, Nancy goes bonkers. Who's zooming who now?

What playwright Ackerman has concocted here is a startling and utterly fresh view of life and love. Not for the purde, this show really does discuss things you shouldn't say past midnight, delivering a short evening of theater devoted to alternate lifestyles and kinky sex that would make the Happy Hooker blush. Ackerman adds to the mix racial and ethical debates that aren't usually funny but become so under his shrewd pen.

Besides Nancy and Ben, there are Bene (Jeffrey Donovan) and Grace (Clea Lewis), who occupy a bed stage left. She's into sleeping with hit men; he's a hit man and a neatnik who places his shoes just so next to the bed before they have sex. Stage right, we find Mark (Andrew Benator) and Mr. Abramson (Nicholas Kepros) in the throes of passion. Mark's into older men...much, much older men: "Seventy and above," reveals Grace to Gene, who is Mark's brother.

The intermissionless evening finds Nancy seeking advice from Grace, who then calls Mark, who happens to be Grace's therapist. Eventually a three-way call hooks Gene, Grace and Nancy up with Ben, and then with Mark and Mr. Abramson. A hilarious bedroom phone farce ensues, with speaker phones and cordless phones zipping through the air.

With split-second timing, the gifted director John Rando (Mere Mortals) works his devilish best with these dueling characters and the actors who portray them. As Gene, Donovan (A View From the Bridge) gets an opportunity to set the stock Italian stud character on its ear. He's perfection, right down to his aligned bedroom slippers. Lewis (Audrey on the TV series Ellen) is a burst of hysterical starlight. The rest of the cast, including the seasoned pro Kepros, is just as delightful.

Rob Odorisio's set design begins as a wall of nightlights, and easily transforms itself into three different playing areas with three beds.

Picking ourselves up off the floor after Past Midnight's final trio of uproarious stage orgasms, we're reminded of how marvelous it feels to laugh with a room full of strangers.
-- Ricky Spears