Mathematics can be abstract or concrete but never subjective. That's part of its appeal: The high school popularity curve is unplottable, but the quadratic formula is a reliable friend. Kathryn Walat's Victoria Martin: Math Team Queen is formulaic, too, but it offers sarcastic one-liners and a squishy heart. Director Loretta Greco's top-notch cast and fast pace balance this fish-out-of-water equation beautifully. Costume designer Valerie Marcus Ramshur's math-nerd outfits, with their high-water trousers and wallaby shoes, are inspired.
The blond title character is the third most popular sophomore girl, right behind her best friends, "the Jens." She is "detentioned" into joining the math team. Long before she or her nerdy cohorts do, we know that her participation will alter and empower her. Like Cher in the film Clueless and Elle in Legally Blonde, Victoria is Barbie with a brain. Jessi Campbell nails this role with quicksilver flashes of little-girl-lost beneath a comic flair.
The kids on the math team are working out the complex equations of friendship and sexual attraction. There's a coming-out story, a misguided-loyalty story, and a love triangle. Zachary Booth as Peter, a senior going to M.I.T., nicely displays quiet, doesn't-know-he's-handsome-yet appeal. As freshman Jimmy, Adam Farabee is a puppy with a Nerf ball; he's adorable even when the playwright has him announce to his teammates how special Victoria is (and to the audience, who know already).
Walat's script is at times heavy-handed. A climactic moment at a math meet in Act 2 doesn't make sense, and the play's end is too worked out on all fronts. Still, her rendition of teenage angst and wisecracks is delicious. "I totally listen to cookies," says Victoria about a fortune cookie that says she will do great things. And we do see the proof of that.
Presented by Women's Project
at the Julia Miles Theater, 424 W. 55th St., NYC.
Jan. 21-Feb. 11. Tue., 7 p.m.; Wed.-Fri., 8 p.m.; Sat., 2 and 8 p.m.; Sun., 3 p.m.
(212) 239-6200 or (800) 432-7250 or www.telecharge.com.
Casting by Paul Fouquet.