Ho-Hump
THEATER REVIEW: The First Day of School
 Mark Garvin
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Ho-Hump
Let's hear it for sex comedy — the sheer sense of naughty, vulgar, joyous release can be so invigorating. And the best sex comedies have something genuinely anarchic lying below the surface. The English are particularly good at it. (Maybe that's because they're so lackluster at actual sex.)
But the list of really good sex comedies is short, and it doesn't include The First Day of School, which, true to its title, feels like an assignment dispatched in haste by an inexperienced writer.
School concerns group adultery in the suburbs, which has proved fruitful sexcom territory. (Remember Paul Mazursky's Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice, a wickedly funny movie that, alongside wife-swapping, also detonated a number of '60s clichés, including group therapy and Esalen.) But the satire here is blunt and the targets are predictable: the stress of parenting and jobs, the dreary sameness of daily life. And this mismatched if likeable group of philanderers — two dads and three moms who use the first day of school as an opportunity to go wild — never come across as real people.
Most of the problem is inherent in Billy Aronson's script, which shows some initial cleverness but quickly wears thin and degenerates into shtick. The production bears some fault, too: Director Peter Pryor (who also stars) has pitched the comic delivery so high that the performances have nowhere to go, and the script's (admittedly few) nuances go largely unmarked. Credit where it's due, though: All seven actors — Pryor, Jennifer Childs, Chris Faith, Karen Peakes, Susan Riley Stevens, Eileen Cella and Michael Tomasetti — are real virtuosos. The evening's laughs — and there are some — are due largely to their ingenuity.
In the plus column, School showcases some remarkable and greatly beloved performers showing off their skills with brio. For some, that's recommendation enough. But if you're looking for an actual play — well, you won't find it here. Through Oct. 25, $25-$35, 1812 Productions at Plays & Players Theatre, 1714 Delancey St., 215-592-9560, 1812productions.org.
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