Susi Damilano and Bill English, the talented actors/directors who founded SF Playhouse, think that since life is hard, theater should be fun, so they have planned a whole season of smart and sexy comedies.

SF Playhouse has launched its season with First Day of School, a sly updating of an old quote about mice who play while the cat's away. Summer vacation is over and David (English) and his wife Susan (Zehra Berkman) take the kids to school, and then linger in the halls to find someone of their own age to play with. "Should we find other couples to have sex with" they wonder, "or should we go home and fix the dryer?" No contest here.

Susan waylays anxious parent Peter (Jackson Davis), who is terrified at the guilt that would be involved--but interested. David tackles Kim (Marcia Pizzo), who responds with a torrent of protest laced with an energetic lust. Propriety wins out for this hyper PTA mother, and she ends up saying no. "Well," consoles Susan, "it was only your first try." In her own initial seduction attempt, she has gotten Peter to share a bagel. David moves on to uptight lawyer Alice (Stacy Ross), who stumbles through a litany of complaints about her fellow attorneys--all of whom are quick to grab, touch or bump but none bold enough to ask directly, as Bill has, "Do you want to have sex with me?"

Director Chris Smith keeps the non sequiturs going at a fast pace in playwright Billy Aronson's surprising and funny dialogue, as the five characters talk about sex, their children and their aging parents with equal concern.

First Day of School is not Noel Coward or even Neil Simon, but it does hit funny bones. Actors English, Berkman, Davis, Pizzo and Ross are all perfectly cast, and while their characters may be hapless adulterers, we can't help but sympathize with the desperate need for connection that has David and Susan soliciting sex, and Peter, Kim and Alice thinking it might be the ticket to ride.

SF Playhouse delivers in its first play of the season, First Day of School.

• • • •

American Idiot is an appealing home-grown punk musical featuring the music of Berkeley's own Green Day, with Michael Mayer as co-creator. Mayer has already brought in the younger set with his musical of misunderstood youth, Spring Awakening. There is no misunderstanding in this case: The three young protagonists follow their destinies as they perform lyrics of political outrage in Bush-time.

Characters are more schematic than developed, there to push the scalding music. Will (Michael Esper) slumps on a couch, trapped by suburbia and a pregnant girlfriend; Johnny (John Gallagher Jr.), full of rage at the hypocrisy he sees around him, moves to the city no-limits zone; and Tunny (Matt Caplan) follows the band to join the Army. All end up wounded, but not before audiences get a wild ride on the Green Day tour bus. The nine-piece, onstage band delivers all the fury and lyrical passion of the CD; they make sound visible. And the 19-member cast is tightly choreographed whether shooting up, hanging from the ceiling, marching in formation or backing up the arresting St. Jimmy (Tony Vincent), who delivers his cynical cure-alls.

Recently alienated youth had their day on musical stages. Spring Awakening and the currently running Rent have strong story lines (one from a 19th-century play, and the second from an opera). Comparisons with either are not valid here. In American Idiot the music is the story and Green Day's music is the star. You don't want to miss a note of the stirring title song or the softer sounds of "Wake Me Up When September Ends."

NOW PLAYING

First Day of School runs through Nov. 7 at SF Playhouse, 533 Sutter St., S.F.; 415/677-9596, www.sfplayhouse.org.

American Idiot runs through Nov. 15 at Berkeley Repertory Theatre's Roda Theatre, 2015 Addison St., Berkeley; 510/647-2949, www.berkeleyrep.org.

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