Adding Machine: The Best New Musical of the Season

One of the highlights of my recent theater weekend in New York was getting a chance to see Adding Machine again before it closes July 20th. I was simply astonished the first time I saw the show (read my review), and I'm glad to report that the show holds up to repeated viewings.

And Joshua Schmidt's score, recently released on CD by PS Classics, just gets richer and more interesting the more I listen to it, and I've been doing so practically non-stop since the recording came out. I particularly enjoy trying to spot each motif that Schmidt has assigned to the characters as it recurs throughout the show, including Mrs. Zero's "Mrs. Twelve was sayin' to me..." and Daisy's "Darling, I'd rather watch you."

Director David Cromer had made a number of brave choices in putting the show together, such as eschewing applause breaks and casting...er...ordinary-looking people pretty much throughout the show. Another essential part of show is Keith Parham's neurasthenic lighting design, which does more than merely create a grim atmosphere, but rather punctuates the proceedings with stark slashes and staccato rhythms that firmly coalesce with the authors' intent.

As for that intent, Schmidt and his co-librettist Jason Loewith aren't afraid to portray Elmer Rice's downtrodden characters as stupid and bigoted, yet somehow sympathetic. The main character Mr. Zero emerges as a flawed but credible, three-dimensional anti-hero. "I'm like anyone else...What would you do?," he sings, as he confesses to the central crime of the show. Somehow, I felt for Zero, even as I said to myself, "Well, I was laid off recently by an asshole boss, but I didn't kill him. Much as I would have liked to..."

The show's performers maintain a high level of engagement and subtlety. Amy Warren as Daisy was particularly nuanced, giving every line reading what seemed to be a different spin from both the previous performance I saw and the recording. But they were all somehow equally effective. Warren is a marvel, fully embodying this woebegone drudge of a character. Also strong were Joel Hatch as Zero, Cyrilla Baer as his banshee of a wife, and a focused Joe Farrell as the intense and tortured Shrdlu.

Adding Machine is certainly not the feel-good hit of the year, although there seemed to be considerably more laughter from the audience this time. It didn't seem to stem from anything the actors were doing. Perhaps this crowd was simply more attuned to the comedy, or maybe I just don't fully recall the laughter from the first time I saw the show. I do have some minor quibbles with the production, including the inordinately long set changes. But on the whole Adding Machine is easily the most daring and satisfying musical of the year.