As titles go, The Girl Who Forgot to Sing Badly takes some unpacking: why sing badly? Why forget to? Who’s the girl, anyways? As luck has it, this entertaining children’s show from the Dublin-based Theater Lovett, which opened this week at the New Victory, is all about packing and unpacking. There’s the ingenious set, first of all, which folds in and out like a Rubik’s Cube, with stackable segments that slide into place when they’re done serving as cars, houses, and sinking ships. There are also the foxes, squirrels, and people who get packed in and out of vans and boats by the story’s heroine, one Peggy O’Hegarty, professional Packer. And then there’s the actor, Louis Lovett, who makes this wacky tale possible: as our narrator and guide, he packs a good punchline with an inexhaustible bag of tricks, from physical buffoonery to improvised banter with his adoring primary school crowd.
The story in question has too many twists and turns to straighten out into a smooth narrative, but that’s just the way Lovett and his audience like it. Writer Finegan Kruckemeyer’s tale is constructed to continue the packing metaphor, with an endlessly expanding structure that Lovett ties up nevertheless into a comically neat-ish knot by show’s end. How he gets there takes some mental gymnastics on our part (Lovett’s DIY aesthetic would wince at special effects) and seemingly unlimited physical gymnastics on his. But get there we do, through storms, past madmen, and with the help of a clever mouse named Hildegaard. Just watch out for the squelcher or you might get packed up too. Parents will appreciate the subtleties of Lovett’s wit, while the kids (recommended for ages 7 and up) will just plain get carried away by the energy. Fun for all and all for fun.