Professor Ralph's Loss of Breath

Description
**** [FOUR STARS] Subtitled “Perseverance,” director Kevin Hale’s live-action production of a 117-year-old puppet play is truly a lesson in that virtue—in a good way. Based on Ralph Phillips’s adaptation of an outrageous Edgar Allan Poe short story, this comedy follows the fantastical misfortunes of Mr. Lackobreath, which begin on the day of his marriage, when he loses his breath during a heated argument with his shrill wife. Actors Robert Leeds (as Lackobreath) and Erik Gratton (as a guard, a horse, a cat, a scientist, the wife and many more) pack so much fun, folly and confusion into 90 minutes that you’re surprised they don’t keel over at the end. The mission of Playlab NYC is “taking fun way too seriously,” and these performers pursue it with relish; Gratton and Leeds make an excellent comic team, with impressive energy and timing. By the end of this production, with props manically scattered across the stage, the actors are understandably gasping for breath.—Jackie Bischof, TONY Guides intern