A man, 5 bands and 100 musicals

When he took the stage at the Wilshire Ebell Theatre on Saturday with his band the Magnetic Fields, Stephin Merritt didn’t look much like a man who’s going to revive the film musical and take over Broadway. Drably dressed in brown and tan, he sat on a tall stool and moved only as much as necessary as he sang and strummed his ukulele.

He didn’t much sound like it either, singing in a morose voice that suggested Leonard Cohen with a head cold.

But then there were those songs -- meticulous chamber-pop miniatures such as the aching “It’s Only Time” and the brisk “I Don’t Believe You,” whose words hug the contours of the melody like a sports car on a twisting road.

Merritt’s songs sketch full characters and dissect relationships with lacerating wit and wide-open vulnerability. Over the course of Saturday’s concert, they revealed a command of a century’s worth of American pop vernacular that seems a natural fit with Merritt’s dream future.

“I want to do 100 Hollywood musicals of fantastic quality and fame and be vastly wealthy, while revolutionizing Broadway,” Merritt said in an interview preceding the concert.

It might or might not be hyperbole.

“I think we’re seeing the beginning of that, with the two plays he’s written music for in that last year or two,” says David Bither, senior vice president of Nonesuch Records, the Warner Bros.-affiliated “mini-major” label that signed the Magnetic Fields in 2002.

“In terms of his interest and his ability to create something with his own voice for that medium, I think he is capable of doing many different things,” Bither said. “When he says that’s his goal, while there may be hyperbole in the numbers, I don’t think there’s any hyperbole in his ability to do work at that level.”

That would be a fitting destiny for a songwriter who has been called the Cole Porter of indie rock. That’s the world in which the New York-based musician labored in obscurity for years before releasing Magnetic Fields’ “69 Love Songs” in 1999. The three-CD set, each of whose songs represented a specific musical genre, made him an instant critical celebrity and, like David Byrne and Tom Waits before him, a serious player in the borderlands where pop music and serious theater mingle.

That’s part of the reason it took Merritt five years to come back with another Magnetic Fields album, “i,” which was released in May. He’s been a busy man, and not just with his four recording bands (the others are the Future Bible Heroes, the 6ths and the Gothic Archies) and one live-only group, the 3 Terrorists.

There are also movie soundtracks (“Pieces of April”) and the musical stage. He’s currently working on “My Life as a Fairy Tale,” based on the life and stories of Hans Christian Andersen, for Lincoln Center and the Danish National Theater, and an adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s children’s story “Coraline.” Not to mention a musical screenplay with frequent collaborator Daniel Handler.

Merritt has collaborated twice with director Chen Shi-Zheng on modernized Chinese operas, “The Orphan of Zhao” and “Peach Blossom Fan.” The latter was staged at the REDCAT Theater at Walt Disney Concert Hall in L.A. earlier this year, at which time Chen described Merritt’s work as “suitably witty, dark yet comic.”

Which pretty much sums it up.

“I prefer lyrics that have drama and conflict and tension,” Merritt said during the interview. “I get very bored with happy love songs. ... but humor is important. I like being free to write lyrics that will be funny. It opens up the rhyme scheme a lot more. As with Cole Porter and Bob Dylan, you can say a lot more if you’re willing to be silly.”

So on Saturday there he was at the Wilshire Ebell, singing the bouncy ditty from “69 Love Songs” that likens his love-struck heart to a chicken with its head cut off, and a new one that articulates a universal desire: “I wish I had an evil twin/Running round doing people in ... I’d get no blame and feel no shame.”

The current album, whose title is reflected in the fact that every song begins with the letter “i,” is more modest than its epic predecessor, designed as a soft-rock variety show, according to Merritt, whose eclectic tastes range from ABBA to Queen to Irving Berlin.

Most of the music has the buoyant lift required to overcome the considerable gravity of Merrit’s deep, doleful croon, and often the darkest words are paired with music that has a lightness of spirit. The group had released a dance remix of “I Thought You Were My Boyfriend” (one of his few songs that specifies his gay orientation) that makes it sound even more like a New Order song than the acoustic version on the album.

Saturday’s sold out concert at the Wilshire Ebell was a rare Los Angeles appearance for Magnetic Fields -- Merritt, keyboardist and singer (and group co-founder) Claudia Gonson, cellist Sam Davol and guitarist John Woo. Merritt dislikes performing, and along with the playful and extensive banter there were some prickly moments during the 90-minute show.

Merritt discouraged the shouting of requests, and he chided the audience for applauding over the opening line of “Book of Love,” because, he said, those unfamiliar with the song wouldn’t know what it’s about.

So Merritt, as only a man who loves words would, stopped the tune and began it again. This time everyone was listening.