Stage listings are compiled by Molly Freedenberg. Performance times may change; call venues to confirm. Reviewers are Robert Avila, Rita Felciano, and Nicole Gluckstern. Submit items for the listings at listings@sfbg.com. For further information on how to submit items for the listings, see Picks.

THEATER

OPENING

Beautiful Thing New Conservatory Theatre Center, 25 Van Ness; 861-8972. $22-40. Previews Fri/6-Sat/7 and Nov 11-13, 8pm; Sun/8, 2pm. Opens Nov 14, 8pm. Runs Wed-Sat, 8pm; Sun, 2pm. Through Jan 3. New Conservatory Theatre Center performs Jonathan Harvey's story of romance between two London teens.

A Body of Water Exit Theatre, 156 Eddy; 1-800-838-3006. $18-24. Opens Fri/6, 8pm. Runs Fri-Sat, 8pm; Sun, 7pm. Through Nov 22. A man and a woman wake up not knowing who they are in Lee Blessing's comic drama.

Stories High XI Climate Theater, 285 Ninth St; www.brownpapertickets.com. $15-20. Opens Thurs/5, 8pm. Runs Thurs-Sat, 8pm. Through Nov 21. Bindlestiff Studios presents new works culled from its Stories High workshop series.

Tings Dey Happen Marines Memorial Theater, 609 Sutter; 771-6900, www.marinesmemorialtheatre.com. $35-45. Opens Thurs/5, 8pm. Check website for schedule. Through Nov 29. Dan Hoyle's solo show about his year studying the West African oil frontier returns for a limited run.

BAY AREA

Large Animal Games La Val's Subterranean, 1834 Euclid, Berk; www.impacttheatre.com. $10-20. Previews Thurs/5-Fri/6, 8pm. Opens Sat/7, 8pm. Runs Thurs-Sat, 8pm (no show Nov 26). Through Dec 12. Impact Theatre presents Steve Yockey's relationship drama.

ONGOING

Barbarella Stage Werx, 533 Sutter; www.stagewerx.org. $20-$25. Thurs/5-Sat/7, 8pm. From the producers of this year's smash hit Stale Magnolias comes another trio of deadly B-movies brought to life by an intrepid acting ensemble.

Destry Rides Again Eureka Theatre, 215 Jackson; www.42ndstreetmoon.org. $34-44. Wed, 7pm; Thurs-Fri, 8pm; Sat, 6pm; Sun, 3pm. Through Nov 15. 42nd Street Moon presents this classic western musical staring Connie Champagne.

*East 14th Marsh, 1062 Valencia; 1-800-838-3006, www.themarsh.org. $20-35. Fri, 9pm; Sat, 8:30pm. Through Nov 14. Don Reed's solo play, making its local premiere at the Marsh after an acclaimed New York run, is truly a welcome homecoming twice over. It returns the Bay Area native to the place of his vibrant, physically dynamic, consistently hilarious coming-of-age story, set in 1970s Oakland between two poles of East 14th Street's African American neighborhood: one defined by his mother's strict ass-whooping home, dominated by his uptight Jehovah's Witness stepfather; the other by his biological father's madcap but utterly non-judgmental party house. The latter—shared by two stepbrothers, one a player and the other flamboyantly gay, under a pimped-out, bighearted patriarch whose only rule is "be yourself"—becomes the teenage Reed's refuge from a boyhood bereft of Christmas and filled with weekend door-to-door proselytizing. Still, much about the facts of life in the ghetto initially eludes the hormonal and naïve young Reed, including his own flamboyant, ever-flush father's occupation: "I just thought he was really into hats." But dad—along with each of the characters Reed deftly incarnates in this very engaging, loving but never hokey tribute—has something to teach the talented kid whose excellence in speech and writing at school marked him out, correctly, as a future "somebody." (Avila)

*First Day of School SF Playhouse, 533 Sutter; www.sfplayhouse.org. $40. Wed/4-Sat/7, 8pm (also Sat/7, 3pm). Good sex comedy should surprise you with how long it can keep its premise up and satisfying. By that measure, Billy Aronson's new farce, First Day of School, is a humdinger. But it gets A's in other departments too, like playing well with others, and having something interesting to say when the panting stops. SF Playhouse's world premiere packs a very solid, comically lithesome bunch of actors on its intimate middle-class, middle age, middle school sofa, where unexpectedly open-minded married couple Susan (Zehra Berkman) and David (Bill English) have forthrightly invited some fellow parents home for some "other people" action on the first day of school—the only calendar day not completely scheduled, managed, harried and over-determined in anyone's modern suburban calendar. Susan has asked Peter (Jackson Davis), instantly reducing him to a quivering bowl of horny and guilt-laden jello, while good-natured hubby David has coaxed an equally neurotic lawyer-mom, Alice (Stacy Ross), over to his son's room down the hall. David is temporarily flummoxed, however, by the social challenge of having his first choice, the vivaciously self-righteous Kim (Marcia Pizzo), change her mind and show up after all. Parents today&ldots; It's all winningly helmed by Chris Smith, whose last effort with SF Playhouse, Abraham Lincoln's Big Gay Dance Party, was another world premiere with inspiration extending well beyond the title. (Avila)

The Future Project: Sunday Will Come Intersection for the Arts, 446 Valencia; 626-2787 x109, www.theintersection.org. $15-25. Thurs/5-Sat/7, 8pm. A young couple (Erika Chong Shuch, Sean San Jose) struggle with the implications of their goldfish's imminent demise in this first-time collaboration between Campo Santo and Erika Shuch Performance Project (ESP), both resident companies at Intersection for the Arts. The comical situation elaborates a theme woven into Shuch's recent and more sprawling After All at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, and is basis for some striking movement, tentative yet searching dialogue (courtesy the performers and playwrights Philip Kan Gotanda and Octavio Solis), and intermittent song (in glancing accompaniment and counterpoint from musician-composer Denizen Kane)—all exploring the ways the future figures in our personal and social development, including our sense of mortality, our capacity for empathy, and the way we figure both present and past. This gives rise to, among other things, some evocative, tightly choreographed passages around a kitchen table (actor San José proving a fluid, engaging match to dancer-choreographer Shuch), playful humor and, at worst, a bit of easy sentiment. There are memorable moments, but the repetitive goldfish-bowl nature of the 60-minute piece—including its dramatic oscillations and its specific catalog of gestures—begins to ware thin, even as a theme, while the musical and dramatic component provided by Kane never feels completely integrated. (Avila)

Ghosts of the River BRAVA Theater Center, 2781 24th St; 641-7657, www.brava.org. $20-25. Wed/4-Sat/7, 8pm; Sun/8, 2pm. ShadowLight Productions announces the world premiere of this multidisciplinary shadow theatre work tackling the subject of the US/Mexico border.

Goldfish Magic Theatre, Bldg D, Fort Mason Ctr; 441-8822, www.magictheatre.org. $25-45. Thurs/5, 8pm; Fri/6, 6:30pm; Sun/8, 2:30pm. Magic Theater's 43rd season opens with the sporadically effective comedy-drama Goldfish, first of two back-to-back plays from John Kolvenbach, whose companion-piece, Mrs. Whitney, runs with Goldfish in repertory beginning October 21. Under direction of Magic's Loretta Greco, Goldfish's first hour zips through the story of a smart but awkward young man (Andrew Pastides) with working-class roots who makes it into an ivy league university only by assuming a precociously parental role vis-à-vis his relatively young but troubled single father (Rod Gnapp), hobbled by a serious gambling addiction. In school, his hermetic study habits attract the attention of an attractive but equally oddball peer (Anna Bullard), whose mother, Mrs. Whitney (Patricia Hodges)—emphasis on wit—is herself a single parent, embittered in love, and ever ready with a scathing mid-morning cigarette-and-cocktail remark. The young couple seeks success where their parents so clearly failed, but their parental relationships get in the way. The majority of this plot unfolds pretty tediously, with the artificial tonalities, breezy pacing and rimshot blackouts of a sitcom. But then something interesting starts to happen: The son and father grow deeper and more intriguing—aided in no small way by two very fine performances from Gnapp and Pastides. It's not even too little too late, since one leaves moved rather than exhausted, and genuinely curious to see what will happen with Mrs. Whitney. (Avila)

I Prefer Fur Off-Market Theatre, 965 Mission; www.brownpapertickets.com. $15. Sun, 6pm. Through Nov 15. In Sylvie's world, depression is just an unpleasantly clinical term for what she describes as "feline behavior," including her love of napping and her habit of invisibility. Trapped by circumstance in a strange relationship by a man for whom language comes less than habitually, Sylvie develops a crush on her kitty—no, not the erotica magazine kind—but on her real life marmalade cat, Buttercup. Together they develop a fondness for pet talk radio, Italian sausages, and the crotchety next door neighbor, while Sven, her linguistically-challenged human mate is out bread-winning. It's an odd little tale, and Victoria Doggett's solo storytelling is fluid and free of hesitation. Her accordion-playing adds more than just musical texture, but an entire soundscape of suitcases falling down stairs, knocks on doors, creaking bedsprings, and overturned pet food displays. A thread of darkness winds through the narrative, which makes the lurking violence less shocking when it finally takes the stage, but no less climactic. A languid, mostly cautionary fable about the obsessive nature of love—not to mention a unique spin on the term "crazy cat lady." (Gluckstern)

*Loveland The Marsh, 1074 Valencia; 826-5750, www.themarsh.org. $15-$50. Thurs, 8pm; Sat, 5pm. Through Nov 14. Los Angeles–based writer-performer Ann Randolph returns to the Marsh with a new solo play partly developed during last year's Marsh run of her memorable Squeeze Box. Randolph plays loner Frannie Potts, a rambunctious, cranky and libidinous individual of decidedly odd mien, who is flying back home to Ohio after the death of her beloved mother. The flight is occasion for Frannie's own flights of memory, exotic behavior in the aisle, and unabashed advances toward the flight deck brought on by the seductively confident strains of the captain's commentary. The singular personality and mother-daughter relationship that unfurls along the way is riotously demented and brilliantly humane. Not to be missed, Randolph is a rare caliber of solo performer whose gifts are brought generously front and center under Matt Roth's reliable direction, while her writing is also something special—fully capable of combining the twisted and macabre, the hilariously absurd, and the genuinely heartbreaking in the exact same moment. Frannie Potts's hysteria at 30,000 feet, as intimate as a middle seat in coach (and with all the interpersonal terror that implies), is a first-class ride. (Avila)

A Night at the Black Hawk CBD Community Center, 134 Golden Gate; (650) 438-3964, www.sfrecoverytheatre.org. $20. Fri/6-Sat/7, 8pm. SF Recovery Theatre presents a tribute to the San Franciscan jazz hot spot of the '60s.

November American Conservatory Theater, 415 Geary; 749-2228, www.act-sf.org. $10-$82. Tues-Sat, 8pm; Sat-Sun, 2pm. Through Nov 22. American Conservatory Theater presents the West Coast premiere of David Mamet's fiendishly funny, over-the-top new comedy.

Oleanna Royce Gallery, 2901 Mariposa; (866) 811-41111, www.oleannasf.com. $10. Thurs-Sat, 8pm. Through Nov 21. Expression Productions presents David Mamet's intelligent, subtle, thought-provoking story.

Pearls Over Shanghai Hypnodrome, 575 Tenth St.; 1-800-838-3006, www.thrillpeddlers.com. $30-69. Sat, 8pm; Sun, 7pm. Through Nov 22. Thrillpeddlers presents this revival of the legendary Cockettes' 1970 musical extravaganza.

Shocktoberfest Hypnodrome Theatre, 575 10th St; (800) 838-3006, thrillpeddlers.com. $25-69. Thurs-Fri, 8pm. Through Nov 20. Thrillpeddlers announces their signature Halloween show.

The Who's Tommy Victoria Theatre, 2961 16th St; www.roltheatre.com. $25-36. Thurs/5-Sat/7, 8pm (also Sat/7, 3pm). Ray of Light Theatre presents the Tony award-winning musical.

The Woman in Black Phoenix Theatre, 414 Mason; www.phoenixtheatresf.org. $15-25. Fri/6-Sat/7, 8pm; Sun/8, 2pm. This winter thriller by Stephen Mallatrat is the bone-chilling, insidiously eerie story of a solicitor sent to a remote home on England's bleak East Coast.

Zombie Town EXIT Theatre Stage Left, 156 Eddy; 913-7272, www.sleepwalkerstheatre.com. $14-20. Fri/6-Sat/7, 8pm. Sleepwalkers Theatre presents the premiere of this horror-comedy from Tim Bauer.