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Adding Machine: A Musical

Presented by SpeakEasy Stage Company at Calderwood Pavilion at the BCA

March 12-April 10, 2010

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A musical adaptation of Elmer Rice’s incendiary 1923 play, Adding Machine tells the story of Mr. Zero, who after 25 years of service to his company is replaced by a mechanical adding machine. An eclectic score gives passionate and memorable voice to this stylish and stylized show.

• At-a-
  Glance

  • Venue Info

    Calderwood Pavilion at the BCA

    527 Tremont Street
    Boston, MA 02116

    Full map and directions

  • Admission Info

    Tickets:

    Reg Adult tickets: $51 Tuesday-Friday Reg Adult tickets: $54 Saturday & Sunday Students/Seniors: $5 off at all times Flat rate $30 gallery seats (row K) Student rush: $14, 1 hour before curtain with a valid student ID

    Info Phone: 617.933.8600

    Email

    Buy Tickets

    Buy ½ price tickets at BosTix.org

  • Dates & Times

    Dates:
    March 12-April 10, 2010

    Times:
    

    Wednesday & Thursday : 7:30pm Friday : 8:00pm Saturday : 4:00pm and 8:00pm Sunday : 3:00pm **Tuesday, April 6, 2010 at 7:30pm**

  • Accessibility Info

    

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  • Member Reviews

    Add review/comment

    • Event Name: Adding Machine: A Musical
      "FASCINATING"
      Review posted by: Melrose theatrebuff from Melrose, MA, Apr 12, 2010
      

      Fascinating, haunting, challenging,nightmarish, yet still entertaining.

      Fascinating, haunting, challenging,nightmarish, yet still entertaining.

    • Event Name: Adding Machine: A Musical
      "fascinating!"
      Review posted by: showstopper from boston, ma, Apr 12, 2010
      

      without overanalyzing this, thought it was great-unusual, entertaining, interesting and clever.

      without overanalyzing this, thought it was great-unusual, entertaining, interesting and clever.

    • Event Name: Adding Machine: A Musical
      "Most disapointing play or musical of the season!"
      Comment posted by: M. Cohen from Needham, MA, Mar 30, 2010
      

      Did not live up to the reviews. After the first scene, we knew we did not like the music, and it didn't get any better. In fact we were hoping for the ending much sooner than it happened. It was a... Expand

      Did not live up to the reviews. After the first scene, we knew we did not like the music, and it didn't get any better. In fact we were hoping for the ending much sooner than it happened. It was a real downer, and a waste of talent. Only the set design was interesting. If you want to attract a younger audience, this was not it. Collapse

    • Event Name: Adding Machine: A Musical
      "Dark and interesting"
      Comment posted by: Elaine P Levine from Jamaica Plain, Mar 30, 2010
      

      All the critics loved this telling us to rush and see it. I liked it. The music fit the play and did its job. It was dark as was the theme. It was shrill or monotonous as was the singing character.... Expand

      All the critics loved this telling us to rush and see it. I liked it. The music fit the play and did its job. It was dark as was the theme. It was shrill or monotonous as was the singing character. Rice's play is not a happy one and the billing of it as a musical sets up unrealistic expectations. The cast was fabulous; the settings were wonderful; everything was great. But it, to me, wasn't engaging. I disagree with Rice's take on humanity, and I didn't like or relate to the characters. No one element caught me up to really care. However, all that said, I liked it. Collapse

    • Event Name: Adding Machine: A Musical
      "Do you like dicordant Greek choruses?"
      Comment posted by: Disappointed from Boston, MA, Mar 23, 2010
      

      I was looking forward to this musical, but very disappointed. The story line and plot were worthwhile, but the disharmony of the music gave me a headache. If you favor atonal, "modern" vocal works,... Expand

      I was looking forward to this musical, but very disappointed. The story line and plot were worthwhile, but the disharmony of the music gave me a headache. If you favor atonal, "modern" vocal works, loudly amplified, you might like it. I certainly didn't, nor did my wife, and we like musicals as well as dramatic works. Somehow this mix of the two doesn't work. Collapse

    • Event Name: Adding Machine: A Musical
      "Adding Machine -- Pluses and Minses"
      Review posted by: Bill Marx/The Arts Fuse from Somerville, MA, Mar 22, 2010
      

      Elmer Rice’s pale imitation of German Expressionism in The Adding Machine strikes me as little more than sub-Nietzschean melodrama, adolescent fatalism masked by blather about the tyranny of the... Expand

      Elmer Rice’s pale imitation of German Expressionism in The Adding Machine strikes me as little more than sub-Nietzschean melodrama, adolescent fatalism masked by blather about the tyranny of the “slave mentality.” Rice has a reputation as a radical political playwright and an influence on Clifford Odets, but the musical version of his play suggests that capitalism unbound (or, as the Texas textbook board would have it, the free market) isn’t to blame for the spiritual poverty of the proletariat. "Adding Machine" argues that the uninspired are responsible for their own misery. If they would make like supermen, disregard ethics and morality and grab for the gusto, all would be fine. Nothing here about the supermen-in-charge trying to monopolize the market. For the rest of The Arts Fuse review: http://blog.theartsfuse.com/2010/03/20/theater-review-%E2%80%98adding-machine-a-musical%E2%80%99-%E2%80%93-pluses-and-minuses/ Collapse

    • Event Name: Adding Machine: A Musical
      "Noir-ish, Brechtian, cinematic"
      Review posted by: loisanneproctor from Ayer, MA USA, Mar 16, 2010
      

      Elmer Rice's 1923 play is a stunning and incisive study of a man trapped in a loveless marriage and a thankless job. You may dislike Mr. Zero, you may despise his wife, but in the SpeakEasy Stage's... Expand

      Elmer Rice's 1923 play is a stunning and incisive study of a man trapped in a loveless marriage and a thankless job. You may dislike Mr. Zero, you may despise his wife, but in the SpeakEasy Stage's current production you will feel what he feels. The fact that you are detached from the characters in an Expressionistic intensfies your own gut reaction. No, the music is not melodic; it is almost mechanical. If you think of it as a film score, it will draw you in until you feel trapped, oppressed, and powerless. This excellent production of a very difficult work will leave you questioning, "Do things ever really change?" Half price? Go see it! Collapse

    • Event Name: Adding Machine: A Musical
      "Should not have been a Musical"
      Review posted by: Paul and Norris from Cape Cod, MA, Mar 16, 2010
      

      If this was not a musical, it would probably have been a pretty good play. The music was in the way of the story, and spoiled the experience.

      If this was not a musical, it would probably have been a pretty good play. The music was in the way of the story, and spoiled the experience.

    • Event Name: Adding Machine: A Musical
      "Challenging and rewarding musical"
      Review posted by: BarbaraT from Braintree MA, Mar 13, 2010
      

      Not for the faint of heart, this expressionistic piece is a unique theatrical experience.There's no humming of tunes while exiting the theater, but if one stays in the moment, one feels the story's... Expand

      Not for the faint of heart, this expressionistic piece is a unique theatrical experience.There's no humming of tunes while exiting the theater, but if one stays in the moment, one feels the story's message. Talented artists at work here. I loved it. Collapse

• Media
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  • All Media Gallery

    Video | Images Images

• Member
  Reviews

  • Member Reviews

    Add review/comment

    • Event Name: Adding Machine: A Musical
      "FASCINATING"
      Review posted by: Melrose theatrebuff from Melrose, MA, Apr 12, 2010
      

      Fascinating, haunting, challenging,nightmarish, yet still entertaining.

      Fascinating, haunting, challenging,nightmarish, yet still entertaining.

    • Event Name: Adding Machine: A Musical
      "fascinating!"
      Review posted by: showstopper from boston, ma, Apr 12, 2010
      

      without overanalyzing this, thought it was great-unusual, entertaining, interesting and clever.

      without overanalyzing this, thought it was great-unusual, entertaining, interesting and clever.

    • Event Name: Adding Machine: A Musical
      "Most disapointing play or musical of the season!"
      Comment posted by: M. Cohen from Needham, MA, Mar 30, 2010
      

      Did not live up to the reviews. After the first scene, we knew we did not like the music, and it didn't get any better. In fact we were hoping for the ending much sooner than it happened. It was a... Expand

      Did not live up to the reviews. After the first scene, we knew we did not like the music, and it didn't get any better. In fact we were hoping for the ending much sooner than it happened. It was a real downer, and a waste of talent. Only the set design was interesting. If you want to attract a younger audience, this was not it. Collapse

    • Event Name: Adding Machine: A Musical
      "Dark and interesting"
      Comment posted by: Elaine P Levine from Jamaica Plain, Mar 30, 2010
      

      All the critics loved this telling us to rush and see it. I liked it. The music fit the play and did its job. It was dark as was the theme. It was shrill or monotonous as was the singing character.... Expand

      All the critics loved this telling us to rush and see it. I liked it. The music fit the play and did its job. It was dark as was the theme. It was shrill or monotonous as was the singing character. Rice's play is not a happy one and the billing of it as a musical sets up unrealistic expectations. The cast was fabulous; the settings were wonderful; everything was great. But it, to me, wasn't engaging. I disagree with Rice's take on humanity, and I didn't like or relate to the characters. No one element caught me up to really care. However, all that said, I liked it. Collapse

    • Event Name: Adding Machine: A Musical
      "Do you like dicordant Greek choruses?"
      Comment posted by: Disappointed from Boston, MA, Mar 23, 2010
      

      I was looking forward to this musical, but very disappointed. The story line and plot were worthwhile, but the disharmony of the music gave me a headache. If you favor atonal, "modern" vocal works,... Expand

      I was looking forward to this musical, but very disappointed. The story line and plot were worthwhile, but the disharmony of the music gave me a headache. If you favor atonal, "modern" vocal works, loudly amplified, you might like it. I certainly didn't, nor did my wife, and we like musicals as well as dramatic works. Somehow this mix of the two doesn't work. Collapse

    • Event Name: Adding Machine: A Musical
      "Adding Machine -- Pluses and Minses"
      Review posted by: Bill Marx/The Arts Fuse from Somerville, MA, Mar 22, 2010
      

      Elmer Rice’s pale imitation of German Expressionism in The Adding Machine strikes me as little more than sub-Nietzschean melodrama, adolescent fatalism masked by blather about the tyranny of the... Expand

      Elmer Rice’s pale imitation of German Expressionism in The Adding Machine strikes me as little more than sub-Nietzschean melodrama, adolescent fatalism masked by blather about the tyranny of the “slave mentality.” Rice has a reputation as a radical political playwright and an influence on Clifford Odets, but the musical version of his play suggests that capitalism unbound (or, as the Texas textbook board would have it, the free market) isn’t to blame for the spiritual poverty of the proletariat. "Adding Machine" argues that the uninspired are responsible for their own misery. If they would make like supermen, disregard ethics and morality and grab for the gusto, all would be fine. Nothing here about the supermen-in-charge trying to monopolize the market. For the rest of The Arts Fuse review: http://blog.theartsfuse.com/2010/03/20/theater-review-%E2%80%98adding-machine-a-musical%E2%80%99-%E2%80%93-pluses-and-minuses/ Collapse

    • Event Name: Adding Machine: A Musical
      "Noir-ish, Brechtian, cinematic"
      Review posted by: loisanneproctor from Ayer, MA USA, Mar 16, 2010
      

      Elmer Rice's 1923 play is a stunning and incisive study of a man trapped in a loveless marriage and a thankless job. You may dislike Mr. Zero, you may despise his wife, but in the SpeakEasy Stage's... Expand

      Elmer Rice's 1923 play is a stunning and incisive study of a man trapped in a loveless marriage and a thankless job. You may dislike Mr. Zero, you may despise his wife, but in the SpeakEasy Stage's current production you will feel what he feels. The fact that you are detached from the characters in an Expressionistic intensfies your own gut reaction. No, the music is not melodic; it is almost mechanical. If you think of it as a film score, it will draw you in until you feel trapped, oppressed, and powerless. This excellent production of a very difficult work will leave you questioning, "Do things ever really change?" Half price? Go see it! Collapse

    • Event Name: Adding Machine: A Musical
      "Should not have been a Musical"
      Review posted by: Paul and Norris from Cape Cod, MA, Mar 16, 2010
      

      If this was not a musical, it would probably have been a pretty good play. The music was in the way of the story, and spoiled the experience.

      If this was not a musical, it would probably have been a pretty good play. The music was in the way of the story, and spoiled the experience.

    • Event Name: Adding Machine: A Musical
      "Challenging and rewarding musical"
      Review posted by: BarbaraT from Braintree MA, Mar 13, 2010
      

      Not for the faint of heart, this expressionistic piece is a unique theatrical experience.There's no humming of tunes while exiting the theater, but if one stays in the moment, one feels the story's... Expand

      Not for the faint of heart, this expressionistic piece is a unique theatrical experience.There's no humming of tunes while exiting the theater, but if one stays in the moment, one feels the story's message. Talented artists at work here. I loved it. Collapse

• Media
  Reviews

  • Media Reviews

    • Event Name: Adding Machine: A Musical
      Article: Tension and tenderness alongside art and academia
      Boston Globe - Oct 29, 2010
      By Don Aucoin

      Body Awareness offers “much more than just laughs. [It’s] the deepest and richest of the Shirley, VT plays, and features a quartet of outstanding performers” Expand

      Body Awareness offers “much more than just laughs. [It’s] the deepest and richest of the Shirley, VT plays, and features a quartet of outstanding performers” Collapse

    • Event Name: Adding Machine: A Musical
      Article: Adding Machine: A Musical
      Talkin' Broadway - Mar 17, 2010
      By Nancy Grossman

      Before there was musical theatre on Broadway, there was opera, dating back about four centuries. When Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein II wrote Show Boat in 1927, the first so-called book musical, they created a format for telling dramatic stories t… Expand

      Before there was musical theatre on Broadway, there was opera, dating back about four centuries. When Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein II wrote Show Boat in 1927, the first so-called book musical, they created a format for telling dramatic stories through music that owed a debt to the earlier art form. George Gershwin's Porgy and Bess and Leonard Bernstein's Candide were both Broadway productions that were considered American operas. In more recent decades, a number of musicals (among them Tommy, Les Misérables, Rent and Spring Awakening) have borrowed such operatic conventions as sung-through composition, leitmotifs and recitative in place of dialogue, telling their stories in more contemporary musical styles. Now add to the canon Adding Machine: A Musical, currently having its New England premiere at SpeakEasy Stage Company in the Roberts Studio Theatre at the Boston Center for the Arts. Collapse

    • Event Name: Adding Machine: A Musical
      Article: 'Adding Machine' calculates the human costs in a world of machines
      Boston Globe - Mar 17, 2010
      By Louise Kennedy

      Elegantly stylized and wonderfully cast, SpeakEasy Stage Company’s production of "Adding Machine: A Musical" gives this off-Broadway hit a sterling Boston premiere. The design team, the director, and the singers all work together to make Jo… Expand

      Elegantly stylized and wonderfully cast, SpeakEasy Stage Company’s production of "Adding Machine: A Musical" gives this off-Broadway hit a sterling Boston premiere. The design team, the director, and the singers all work together to make Joshua Schmidt and Jason Loewith’s musical, adapted from Elmer Rice’s 1923 play, hum along like a well-oiled theatrical machine. Collapse

    • Event Name: Adding Machine: A Musical
      Article: Adding Machine :: A Musical
      EDGE Boston - Mar 16, 2010
      By Jennifer Bubriski

      The Lucille Lortel Award-winning show Adding Machine: A Musical is an edgy, challenging show, one that has clearly pushed both those on and off stage at the Speakeasy Stage Company to new levels of excellence and creativity. Expand

      The Lucille Lortel Award-winning show Adding Machine: A Musical is an edgy, challenging show, one that has clearly pushed both those on and off stage at the Speakeasy Stage Company to new levels of excellence and creativity. Collapse