Episode 45 Jenny to the Power of One

“Imagine, if you can, that magic and mathematics are one and the same… that deep underneath all the gooey times-tables, and long division molasses lies the power to turn invisible, step through time, and do other cool stuff to impress your friends…”

Just in case your imagination comes up short in fulfilling the young heroine’s opening prompt, this first installment of a full-length musical goes a long way in sketching out those very possibilities. Jenny to the Power of One is an adventurous mix of real, knock-your-socks-off math wizardry, and the old world sort.

Eleven-year-old Jenny discovers her mathematician father slipping away into an increasingly impenetrable haze. Following up on a serendipitous slip in a weather forecast calling for “a chance of frogs,” Jenny stumbles upon a typewriter repair shop, which is actually a front for a whole lot more.

Her determined curiosity entices the proprietor to tell the unusual story of a sorcerer who was “there,” 800 years ago, during the momentous transition period between Roman numerals and the Hindu-Arabic system we use today. Sensing his “old” ways are being superseded by the magic and power of this new math system, he summons – from all corners of the globe — the greatest mathematic minds of the time.

When the masters reject his plan to co-opt the new system for financial gain, he conjures up a nasty spell sentencing them to the land Underneath. There, they spend eternity churning out calculations of every sort, shape and discipline, which he, in turn, sells to private industry.

Their only salvation is a 7-digit number which – if typed into an old manual typewriter – will release them and thousands of others enslaved Underneath. To obtain the correct digits, a math puzzle must be secreted down through heavily guarded portals to the masters in each of the seven subterranean worlds for solution. The bulk of the story chronicles Jenny’s daring exploration of the math worlds Underneath.