Word: zero
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Dates: during 2010-2019
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...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 is a visually bizarre, musically unpleasant, and theatrically uninspiring slog through various 20th century intellectual trends, a trek made only slightly palatable by an innovative set and a glimmer of nuanced physical acting...
...25th anniversary at his job, Mr. Zero (Brendan McNab) arrives at work expecting a promotion as a reward for all his years of dutiful service. Instead, his boss (who struggles to even remember Mr. Zero’s name) casually announces that he is fired, as a new adding machine will replace him. Furious, Mr. Zero kills his boss and is subsequently imprisoned and sentenced to death—a punishment that sends him to the Elysian Fields, an eerie afterlife where he reflects on his past existence...
From the show’s first moments, Mrs. Zero (Amelia Broome) brays at her husband, and it becomes immediately apparent that Mr. and Mrs. Zero are very unhappily married. “I was a fool when I picked you / You ain’t much to be proud of,” she wails ferociously in the opening scene...
...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...
Frustratingly, however, this existential angst is as banal and simplistic as the characters’ blatantly symbolic names, and the play’s drama too 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...