It all adds up to a good time

What not to say in front of your math teacher:

“This is so stupid. Like I’m ever going to need fractions.”

Especially in front of a teacher with the power to drive a kid crazy by transforming even the most mundane activities -- choosing what shirt to wear, for instance -- into head-scratching problems in addition, subtraction, multiplication, division and percentages.

Such a fate befalls bored, math-phobic sixth-grader Jamie in “Math Curse,” an uneven but entertaining family comedy at the Powerhouse Theatre in Santa Monica.

When Jamie (Kerry Lacy) sounds off in class, it’s the final straw for her harried teacher, Mr. Fibonnaci (Thomas Colby). Lights flash, and with a maniacal laugh he delivers his hex. Suddenly, everything Jamie sees and does is a math problem to solve, from getting on the bus in the morning to ordering pizza in the cafeteria. And, dreamlike, the problems get sillier and sillier: How many quarts in a gallon, how many inches in a foot, how many feet in her shoes, how many fingers in her class, how many chocolate candy pieces would it take to measure the length of the Mississippi River?

By the time the diabolical math curse has convinced Jamie that she will indeed use numbers in everyday life, she has met a pair of one- and two-fingered aliens from the planets Tetra and Binary; she has used one small, broken piece of chalk to form a “hole” and escape from a room filled with a lifetime supply of math problems; and she has watched Abraham Lincoln (he’s on the penny and the $5 bill) and George Washington (he’s on the quarter and the $1 bill) duke it out for monetary supremacy.

Although the wackiness is moderate fun, there’s potential for much more hilarity in this stage version of the clever children’s picture book by Jon Scieszka and Lane Smith. It’s smartly adapted by Heath Corson and Kathleen Collins, who originally staged it in Chicago, and they throw witty touches into the mix.

Jamie’s radio alarm clock, which, after the hex wakes her up with weather reports broadcast in fractions, also delivers the latest in the California governor’s race: Gary Coleman and comedian Gallagher are neck and neck for the lead. In one well-timed running joke, “Twilight Zone” and sci-fi movie themes accent the action, courtesy of nerdy, UFO-seeking classmate Russell (Will Moran) and his portable keyboard.

Finally, Jamie’s magical math conversion is celebrated with top-hatted musical takeoffs of “Puttin’ on the Ritz” and “One Singular Sensation,” from “A Chorus Line.”

Collins, who also directs, nicely varies the action on the Powerhouse Theatre’s small black-box stage, but the song-and-dance numbers need considerably more polish and energy (but not the big-grin, wide-eyed kiddie theater kind). The show needs a brighter spark of commitment from the actors, particularly from Lacy in the lead role, to reach its creative potential.

*

‘Math Curse’

Where: Powerhouse Theatre, 3116 2nd St., Santa Monica

When: Fridays, 7 p.m.; Saturdays-Sundays, 11 a.m., ends Oct. 5. Running time: 45 minutes.

Cost: $10.

Info: (866) 633-6246