Initially, Stephin Merritt's somber basso profundo is unsettling. And although he's not the kind to mince words, everything he says is so well-considered that extended moments of silence make you wonder whether something you've just said is heretic, or worse, stupid. But then you realize that The Magnetic Fields/The 6ths/The Gothic Archies/Future Bible Heroes frontman is, even in mid-conversation, is verging on his next stroke of brilliance. His latest such display -- an off-Broadway adaptation of Neil Gaiman's Coraline -- began at the West Village's Lucille Lortel Theatre last week. And so, Merritt carved out a little time to discuss the three-dimensional triumphs of the stage and men in gorilla suits.