ASPHYXIATING

Neither the excellent quartet playing quality pieces that are at times rousing, nor Karl Ruckdeschel’s lovely period costumes, are enough to make Solitary Light, with music and lyrics by Randy Sharp and Paul Carbonara, a tolerable experience. With an artless libretto that is sentimental and always on-the-nose, the lack of a meaningful, or even a coherent, plot, the absence of characters and drama, choreography that has performers rushing aimlessly around the stage like startled chickens, and Mr. Sharp’s helpless direction, the best thing about this 80-minute musical, which concerns itself with the tragic Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire of 1911, is that it’s not longer.