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Track Listings
| 1. Prelude 2. Something to Be Proud Of 3. Office Reverie 4. In Numbers 5. I'd Rather Watch You 6. The Party 7. Zero's Confession 8. Once More/Ham and Eggs 9. Didn't We? 10. The Gospel According to Shrdlu 11. A Pleasant Place 12. Shrdlu's Blues 13. Daisy's Confession/I'd Rather Watch You (reprise) 14. Freedom!/The Flinch 15. In Numbers (reprise) 16. Freedom! (reprise) 17. The Music of the Machine |
Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com
Musicals are not all big razzamatazz enterprises playing on the Great White Way. The remarkable Adding Machine is a somber, modernist chamber work that opened in Chicago in 2007 before a successful Off-Broadway run, the following year. Based on Elmer Rice's 1923 expressionist play, the musical centers around antihero Mr. Zero (Joel Hatch), a number-crunching drone stuck between a surreal soulless office job and a drab home life. It's simply amazing that this downer premise could turn into such a compelling show. Successfully melding vocals that range from theatrical to semi-operatic with synthesizer-heavy arrangements, composer Joshua Schmidt has come up with a series of weird little art songs. This is not "fun," escapist music; it demands the listener's full attention, and does not shy away from harshness and dissonance, making the oases of beauty all the more compelling, and the rewards all the more satisfying. Is this what a David Lynch-penned musical would sound like? -- Elisabeth Vincentelli
Review
THE ADDING MACHINE
Elmer Rice's 1923 Expressionist classic The Adding Machine influenced a good deal of 20th-century endeavors (it even has a 1969 film version with Phyllis Diller!), but the prospect of a musical that crams its three-hour abstractions into a distinctive, coherent 90-minute work seems a Herculean task, no? Not for Joshua Schmidt and Jason Loewith, the creators of Adding Machine, a brave, brilliant re-imagining of Rice's tale of Man vs. Machine. It centers on the hapless, deadpan Mr. Zero (marvelously played by Joel Hatch), who learns that after a quarter-century as a bookkeeper, he's getting the boot in favor of advanced technology, sending him on a surreal tour through imprisonment, death, and even afterlife where Mr. Zero discovers the true nature of his being. Directed with chilling acuity by David Cromer, who also helmed this production last year in Chicago, Adding Machine gives off an effect a little like being trapped in the coolest '80s music-video fever dream imaginable. With nods to seminal works like Fritz Lang's Metropolis, and lit with a speakeasy smokiness, the work is unsparing in its angst, yet never defeating especially in the stirring scenes between Mr. Zero and his co-worker/soulmate Daisy (Amy Warren, in a richly emotional, heartbreaking turn), whose unlikely romance suggests a slanted Sondheim. You have to work a bit to fully derive this musical's pleasures and many will not want to but it rattles in your brain long after you've left the theater. (Tickets: 212-307-4100 or
Ticketmaster.com) Grade: A. --Entertainment Weekly
Elmer Rice's 1923 Expressionist classic The Adding Machine influenced a good deal of 20th-century endeavors (it even has a 1969 film version with Phyllis Diller!), but the prospect of a musical that crams its three-hour abstractions into a distinctive, coherent 90-minute work seems a Herculean task, no? Not for Joshua Schmidt and Jason Loewith, the creators of Adding Machine, a brave, brilliant re-imagining of Rice's tale of Man vs. Machine. It centers on the hapless, deadpan Mr. Zero (marvelously played by Joel Hatch), who learns that after a quarter-century as a bookkeeper, he's getting the boot in favor of advanced technology, sending him on a surreal tour through imprisonment, death, and even afterlife where Mr. Zero discovers the true nature of his being. Directed with chilling acuity by David Cromer, who also helmed this production last year in Chicago, Adding Machine gives off an effect a little like being trapped in the coolest '80s music-video fever dream imaginable. With nods to seminal works like Fritz Lang's Metropolis, and lit with a speakeasy smokiness, the work is unsparing in its angst, yet never defeating especially in the stirring scenes between Mr. Zero and his co-worker/soulmate Daisy (Amy Warren, in a richly emotional, heartbreaking turn), whose unlikely romance suggests a slanted Sondheim. You have to work a bit to fully derive this musical's pleasures and many will not want to but it rattles in your brain long after you've left the theater. (Tickets: 212-307-4100 or
Ticketmaster.com) Grade: A. --Entertainment Weekly
Customer Reviews
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
It all adds up,
By
This review is from: Adding Machine: A Musical (Audio CD)
On this recording, the remarkable score comes off even better than it does in the theater. Joshua Schmidt employs a range of styles, from minimalism to 1930s pop, and to great effect in this harrowing work about a man named Mr. Zero who is replaced by an adding machine. Joel Hatch's nearly anti-musical vocal performance brings out the depth of the score as he croaks his way through an essentially untuneful or anti-tuneful life as underscored by the brilliant singing of the support ensemble, particularly Joe Farrell as the matricidal fellow inmate. Of course, the score can't capture the stunning break in visual style the stage production employs, but the last third of the music really goes many unexpected places, just as the characters do. Each listening brings fresh insights.
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A unique score that is well worth having.,
By
This review is from: Adding Machine: A Musical (Audio CD)
The recording of Adding Machine perfectly captures the entire musical with its wonderful performances and unique score that is unlike anything else currently running in New York. If you have had the good fortune to see this production on stage, you will know what a unique theater experience it is. When I saw the show I knew that my appreciation for the score would only grow in repeated listenings, which it has. The musical performances both define the characters and further the plot and are true to the original Elmer Rice play. Once again PS Classics has identified and recorded a show that will not be forgotten once the original production has ended.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Loved it at the Minnetta Lane, even better on CD,
By
This review is from: Adding Machine: A Musical (Audio CD)
After seeing this show in June I decided I would take the experience home with me to give the score a few more listens. I am overwhelmingly glad I did. I enjoyed it even more on 2nd 3rd and 10th listens.
I would have to say, CAUTION: This is not your mother's musical theatre! Elmer Rice's (the original playwright) bleak world view is perfectly illustrated and expanded upon by this mathematical and rewarding show. Granted, this might not be a CD that you want to put on your 'Jog and Workout Playlist', but if you want something to stimulate you and challenge you sonically as well as philosophically, this cast recording packed with stellar acting and singing is a winner. It is NOT 'Funny Girl' or 'Hello Dolly', but it has just as much artistry, heart, intelligence as anything I can think of. Particular Standouts on the Disc are: The Music of the Machine, I'd Rather watch You (a tin pan alley pastiche), and The Party.
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