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ADDING MACHINE [PS Classics PS-865]
Over 40 or 50 years of American musical theatre, certain rules about source material have developed. Not rules, exactly, but hints of things to avoid if you want your show to have half a chance. Stay away from using arty, old plays as subject matter, for starters. You know; those plays that carried a lot of social significance for our grandparents and great-grandparents, but are now so antiquated as to be almost laughable. Avoid selecting material with central characters who don't sing; drab, colorless characters can't dance, if you will. And stay away from non-intelligent characters; if they aren't smart or at least clever, it can be mighty difficult to match their dialogue with their lyrics. Whatever you do, don't build a show around unattractive characters. The audience has to like them, feel sympathy for them, pull for them. If you must choose something with an unattractive character at its core, at least write it in a manner that it can be played by an attractive actor. Fosca, anyone?

Joshua Schmidt, a 31-year-old sound designer from Milwaukee, has written what is by any description a remarkable musical. Elmer Rice's drama The Adding Machine — about a slug of a bookkeeper named Mr. Zero, who cracks up when he is fired after 25 years and replaced by an adding machine — was more admired than enjoyed when first produced by the Theatre Guild in 1923; it ran through its subscription season but zeroed out after nine weeks. The play had outsized influence, though, more or less serving as the starting point for the American expressionist wing of the drama. Composer-lyricist Schmidt and librettist Jason Loewith, artistic director of Chicago's Next Theatre Company, decided that The Adding Machine was ripe for musicalization, and by golly — they have come up with something that confounds the helpful guidelines above.

This is not a musical that will set you to tapping your toes and whistling a tune, happy or otherwise. It is bleak and dark and depressing and exhilarating. These are not songs from Mr. Schmidt, mostly (although he has snuck one or two in, despite himself). This is a play set to music, in a most remarkable manner. The abrasive opening number, "Something to Be Proud Of," is bleated by a shrewish matron in such a harsh manner that I almost wonder whether you're better off seeing the show before listening to the CD. Adding Machine, with the "the" removed, is currently playing at the Minetta Lane; love it or not, the trip is well worth the visit.

I can't guarantee that you'll love Adding Machine; me, I found the score, the cast, the physical production, and the direction by David Cromer equally gripping. Remarkable is a word that I've used above, but that seems to be the best description of this 90-minute piece from newcomers Schmidt and Loewith. Continued...