The Adding
Machine: A Chamber Musical
The Next Theatre Company
The Adding Machine: A
Chamber Musical is an intriguing, hard-to-pigeonhole piece of musical
theatre. With music by Josh Schmidt and
a libretto by Schmidt and Jason Loewith, The
Adding Machine is a through-sung work with glimpses of Sondheim’s Passion, Guettel’s A Light in the Piazza and LaChuisa’s Wild Party. Nonetheless, it is
set apart from these examples through its use of comprehensible melodies on top
of layered dissonances; changing time signatures juxtaposed with
sharply-syncopated choral chants. In its world-premier,
Though there is no intermission, the play is comprised of two distinct acts, delineated by the death of the main character, Mr. Zero (artfully played by the talented Joel Hatch). In the first section of The Adding Machine, the world is engulfed in numbers. The main character, Mr. Zero, works as an accountant. Mrs. Zero (wonderfully sung by Cyrilla Baer) is continually unhappy, contemplating the clichéd conclusion that Mr. Zero really is a zero, and she never should have married him.
Undoubtedly the work’s most mesmerizing section takes place
in the second scene of the well-delineated first act. Mr. Zero is at work, sitting at the first of
three tables, methodically and laboriously writing down numbers fed to him by
his assistant Miss Devore (Amy Warren). As the chorus, sitting at tables behind
him, hauntingly chants number after number (infusing clever asides, their
brains wandering away from numbers and instead to thoughts of beer and girls),
Zero relays that today is his 25th anniversary at the company, and
he’s sure he will get a promotion. The
boss, the stoic Mr. Charles (Michael Vieau) shows up. But instead of promoting him, Zero is canned,
being told that with the advent of the adding machine, his job can now be done
by high school girls at a sliver of his salary.
(Echoing the present day’s outsourcing of jobs to other countries, where
they are paid a fraction of our salaries).
That evening, at a dinner party thrown by Mrs. Zero, with Mr. and Mrs. One
(Rosalind Hurwitz and Steve Welsh) and the Two’s (Toni Inzeo and Kevin Mayes)
in attendance, her husband is arrested for murdering his boss. What follows is a clever scene in prison on
death row, where Zero meets the disturbing Shrdlu (Ian Westerfer), who has killed
his mother by cutting her throat instead of the lamb that his mother has made
for her son’s dinner. (i.e., mom turns into the sacrificial lamb?)
The second section, occurring after Zero has been put to death, falls flat, the storyline veering away from any kind of worthy conflicts and – as my father told me when trying in vain to teach me how to swing a baseball bat – no follow-through. We are supposedly in heaven, Shrudlu, the mom-killer, is there. Zero, too, is present. And Zero’s assistant, Mrs. Devore, just happens to also be there. Zero and Devore soon realize that they are in love. All this unexplained oddness abets an unfortunately dissatisfying ending.
The singing is mostly excellent. The characters have lovely, adaptable voices, and the music director, Jeremy Ramey, has done a great job blending the cast’s instruments, successfully honing the difficult syncopations of the choir. But a few of the main characters, specifically Zero and Shrdlu, do not have the chops to sing this discordant and often operatic score. In the beginning this is okay, as their wavering voices match their character’s woes. But this vocal crudeness becomes a problem near the end when these same characters are no longer suffering.
The design team has done a notable job, with the highest honor given to Keith Parham, the lighting designer. His design is dead-on, thoroughly matching and enhancing the dynamics of the story – dark and ominous in the first half and utopian in the second. In one remarkable scene, as Zero is entering heaven, the lights are cast in such a way that projects Zero as having wings. As the lighting changes, though, it is revealed that these “wings” are in fact just a coat thrown over his shoulder. This is some of the best lighting work seen in recent years.
Overall, if you’re an avid fan of new musical works, works
that push the boundaries of stereotypical musical theatre, The Adding Machine is worth seeing - even when taking into
consideration the aforementioned problems.
Indeed, the accounting scene alone is worth the price of the ticket. The score and orchestrations are exemplary,
matching much of what you’d hear on Broadway.
If only the show was just about the first act, it would be highly
recommended. Unfortunately this is not
the case.
Rating: Somewhat Recommended (2.5 stars)
Reviewed by Scotty Zacher