The Young and the Restless : Theater Review: High school kids wrestle with budding sexuality in the naive ‘Album,’ at Orange Coast College.

Next to getting a driver’s license, the greatest dream of most teenage boys is their sexual coming of age. According to David Rimmer’s slight 1980 play “Album,” girls are as curious as boys.

The first production of Orange Coast College’s Repertory Theatre Company’s 15th season in Costa Mesa takes two young men and their girlfriends and charts their course to this end throughout their high school years. By today’s AIDS-aware standards, it’s a naive little play that has its moments, some very funny, some touching, and all true to their time.

In the beginning, Trish Dugan (Tawny Johnson) is obsessed with Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys, filling her family’s photo album with her idol’s pictures. About halfway through, those photos have been replaced by pictures of the Beatles. Trish’s friend Peggy Knight (Dahlia Alony) doesn’t believe in satisfying her desires in so simple a manner.

The boys--self-centered, pseudo-macho Billy Buddwing (John Bajorek) and his panting pal Boo Piercy (Chris Fowler)--are equally matched to the girls. Billy hints at past conquests, but Boo knows he’s only bragging.

Billy thinks the Beach Boys and Beatles are “girl stuff,” and so is Peggy’s obvious flirting. They have a better idea to get things started as the lights first go up: strip poker. They’re barely down to underwear when the giggling girls secret themselves in another room, and the boys fume and fuss in the hallway.

Libidos rage throughout the play until the final moment, when all four have crossed the threshold on the eve of graduation and innocently believe, in a moment of juvenile camaraderie, that they are now fulfilled, mature adults.

Along the way, hints of the real adults they will become are sprinkled casually throughout. Billy already is a heavy drinker, and his girl Peggy has done “it” already. Trish’s insecurity and concerns about romance are matched by Boo’s desperate attempts to prove he’s a free spirit, including singing many of his lines as though he were Bob Dylan.

All of this is well-delineated and clear-cut in Pamela Russell’s direction, and her staging is visually interesting.

Alony sometimes gets a little too ditsy for Peggy’s obviously more advanced eroticism, but Johnson’s sincerity and surface confusion, with a throbbing sexuality simmering underneath is very effective.

The macho facade seems manufactured in Bajorek’s portrait of Billy Buddwing, appearing as though he hasn’t yet made a solid connection with his character. The show is almost stolen by Fowler’s giddy, flippant Boo, fed by a solid sense of humor and a real sense of what it’s like to be very, very young.

* “Album,” Drama Lab Studio, Orange Coast College, 2701 Fairview Road, Costa Mesa. Saturday, 8 p.m.; Sunday, 2 and 7 p.m. Ends Sunday. $6. (714) 432-5640. Running time: 1 hour, 55 minutes.

Tawny Johnson: Trish Dugan

Dahlia Alony: Peggy Knight

Chris Fowler: Boo Piercy

John Bajorek: Billy Buddwing

An Orange Coast College Repertory Theatre Company production of David Rimmer’s comedy-drama. Director: Pamela Russell. Scenic design: David Scaglione. Lighting design: Shawn Shryer. Costumes: Cynthia Corley. Stage manager: Steve Mathis.