Time Out New York: POWERHOUSE
**** [FOUR STARS]
To learn something new at the theater—at the Fringe, no less—is worth celebrating. Take this 75-minute biodrama by the splendid company Sinking Ship Productions. Many of us are familiar with the zany music that underscores Looney Tunes, but how many have heard of Raymond Scott? The obscure composer (1908–1994) was, apparently, a jazz-era innovator and pioneer in electronic music; he sold his catalog to Warner Bros. in 1943 but claimed to have never seen a cartoon. Cowriters Josh Luxenberg and Joshua Morris fill in this interesting gap between high and low art with a whimsical ride through the composer’s life, including ingenious original puppet sequences set to Scott’s music.
As the composer, Erik Lochtefeld creates a tender, shockingly credible portrait of the artist as a nebbishy perfectionist, while puppeteer and voice artist Eric Wright animates an otter and a blue-footed booby to delightful effect. The last half of the tale, which deals with Scott’s second marriage to a singing protégé (Hanley Smith), bogs down a bit—but you can forgive a little narrative laxness in Jon Levin’s kinetic and visually enchanting production. Aiming to honor the mad, creative urge to perfectly transmute ideas into art, this work succeeds beautifully.
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