Word: lifes
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...numbers, the mysteries of life can be revealed,” claims the cast of “Adding Machine,” the Off-Broadway musical making its New England premiere at SpeakEasy Stage Company, where it will run through April 10. Unfortunately, the musical fails to deliver any illuminating observations on either numbers or life’s mysteries. An adaptation of Elmer Rice’s 1923 expressionist play of the same title, “Adding Machine” tells the story of Mr. Zero, a downtrodden worker whose life suddenly collapses. What follows...
...Zero is equally malcontent—with his life (“I ain’t impressed”), with women (“Women make me sick!”), and even with total strangers (“Jews get two holidays to my one!”). Morally, he remains equally troubled, as he expresses doubt and contempt for organized religion, yet finds no other consistent ethical basis upon which to judge himself and others...
...often feels shallow. For instance, immediately after Mr. Zero reveals his crime to his wife, a solo musical number follows in which he oh-so-metaphorically wails his woes from a metal chain-link metal half-fence, thrashing about like a caged animal. In this nihilistic moment, his life comes undone. By grasping at threads of multiple modern philosophies, any coherent structure to the play is lost...
...McNab at any moment. Always snappy and punctuated in her gestures, be it forcefully slapping down McNab’s newspaper or thrusting guests through the door as they arrive for a party, Broome moves with a brusque urgency that captures both the precision and frustration of her disappointing life...
...lacks the elegant exposition of mathematical concepts found in recent works like David Auburn’s “Proof” and the 2001 film “A Beautiful Mind,” as well as sophisticated, lucid inquiry into the actual mysteries of life. Instead, the play gestures to too many twentieth century intellectual trends—rejection of religious morality, nihilism, and existentialism—and winds up flailing wildly, spinning like an ideological...