Acclaimed Musical Adding Machine Makes Southeastern Premiere in Florida Dec. 26
By Kenneth Jones
26 Dec 2008
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Adding Machine's Oscar Cheda and Maribeth Graham
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| photo by George Schiavone | The award-winning musical Adding Machine makes its Southeastern U.S. premiere Dec. 26 at GableStage at the Biltmore in Coral Gables, FL.
Opening is Dec. 27. Performances continue to Jan. 25, 2009. The expressionistic musical with music by Joshua Schmidt and book by Schmidt and Jason Loewith was one of the best-reviewed productions of the 2007-08 season in New York City. The Off-Broadway cast was captured on a recording on the PS Classics label.
The dark and darkly comic show is based on The Adding Machine, the 1923 expressionist play by Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Elmer Rice. It concerns a man who, after 25 years of service to his company, is replaced by a mechanical adding machine.
GableStage producing artistic director Joseph Adler directs a cast that includes Irene Adjan, Jim Ballard, Oscar Cheda, Ken Clement, Erik Fabregat, Maribeth Graham, Lisa Manuli, Stacy Schwartz and Barry Tarallo.
The creative team includes musical director Eric Alsford, choreographer Ron Headrick, set designer Lyle Baskin, lighting designer Jeff Quinn, costume designer Ellis Tillman and stage manager Kristen Pieski.
The director, designers and cast members have collectively been nominated for 55 Carbonells — and have won 25.
According to GableStage, "This stylish and stylized production, which had its world premiere in Chicago at the Next Theatre Company in 2007, has an eclectic score that gives passionate and memorable voice to this darkly comic and heartbreakingly beautiful play."
For its New York run Adding Machine was awarded two Outer Critics Circle Awards (Outstanding New Off-Broadway Musical, Outstanding New Score), four Lucille Lortel Awards (Outstanding Musical, Outstanding Director, Outstanding Lead Actor, Outstanding Lighting Design) and four Obie Awards as well as nominations from the Drama Desk and Drama League awards.
GableStage is located in the eastern section of the Biltmore Hotel, 1200 Anastasia Avenue, Coral Gables, FL.
For more information visit www.gablestage.org.
For more information about South Florida Theatre, visit www.southfloridatheatre.com.
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Direct from a hit 2007 world-premiere production by Chicago's Next Theatre Company (winning the Joseph Jefferson Award for Best New Musical), Adding Machine began previews in Manhattan Feb. 8, 2008, and ran to July 20. The 90-minute intermissionless musical officially opened Feb. 25.
"We close the Adding Machine in New York City comfortable and excited in what looks to be a busy, exciting, and varied afterlife for the show," composer and sound designer Josh Schmidt told Playbill.com July 16.
The composer is currently working on a new musical version of Bernard Shaw's play Candida, to premiere in the Chicago area in 2009. The new show is called A Minister's Wife, with book by Austin Pendleton, lyrics by Jan Tranen, music by Schmidt, conceived and directed by Michael Halberstam.
The production is set to premiere in May 2009 at Writers' Theatre in Glencoe, IL. "We just had our first workshop and everyone is very excited about what's happening," Schmidt said.
For more information visit www.addingmachineamusical.com.
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The cast of GableStage's Adding Machine
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| photo by George Schiavone |
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