Theater: Minetta Lane Theatre / 18 Minetta Lane, New York, NY, 10014
Synopsis:
This adaptation of Elmer Rice’s 1923 expressionist masterpiece tells the story of Mr. Zero, a cog in the great machine of American business. His journey through life, death and romance in the Elysian Fields is set to an eclectic and stirring score by composer Joshua Schmidt, with influences from Stravinsky to American blues to Rodgers and Hammerstein.
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February 26, 2008: Do those sunny Broadway songfests make you want to gag? Would you rather go to the dentist than come to the cabaret, old chum? Maybe you secretly think that “Spring Awakening” is too treacly, despite the teenage sex-and-suicide angle?
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February 26, 2008: Aside from dropping the "the" in the title of The Adding Machine -- Elmer Rice's 1923 assimilation of German expressionism -- and aside from substituting one new sequence, composer-co-librettist Joshua Schmidt and co-librettist Jason Loewith have been commendably true to the source material for their new chamber musical, Adding Machine. The faithfulness will fill some Minetta Lane patrons with awe, especially as presented in a David Cromer production so meticulously designed to echo the period that it often resembles a film F. W. Nosferatu Murnau might have shot or a 1920's industrial setting that Lewis Hine could have photographed.
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March 4, 2008: Chicago may be famous for its arctic-like wintry breezes, but it is heating up New York this season with theatrical productions that originated there. First, there was the Steppenwolf production of Tracy Letts’ August: Osage County, which has taken up residence on Broadway, and, now, from Evanston’s Next Theatre Company, comes Adding Machine, a beautifully calibrated work of art that has opened at the West Village’s cozy Minetta Lane Theatre and where it will hopefully remain until every serious theater-goer, who either lives here or is passing through, gets a chance to see it at least once. As far as I’m concerned, it can run until their children see it, too. I can think of no other show in town that provides such ample evidence that miracles are still possible in the theater.
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February 25, 2008: That click-clack-click you hear might be the sound of an ending, but it also heralds an exciting beginning. Let it calculate and sweep away the mistakes and the misdeeds of the past, for an uncertain future can sometimes sound as sweet as an angel’s choir. In the daring and often invigorating new musical Adding Machine, which just opened at the Minetta Lane Theatre, you’ll be amazed at how genuinely alive the walking dead can be.
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February 25, 2008: Is there a knowledgeable audience out there for Elmer Rice's 1923 masterpiece of American Expressionism, "The Adding Machine?" If so, then these bright bulbs should immediately line up to see this austerely beautiful musical treatment by Joshua Schmidt and Jason Loewith. But the mere fact that this question needs to be asked indicates that David Cromer's brave production respects the material without making any attempt to update or otherwise mess with its vintage message to make it relevant for contempo auds that might not share Rice's angst about modern technology.
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