|
The Adding Machine: A Chamber Musical
Composed by Joshua Schmidt
Libretto by Jason Loewith & Joshua Schmidt
Based on the play by Elmer Rice
Directed by David Cromer
Musical Director Jeremy Ramey
At Next Theatre
At the Noyes Cultural Center
927 Noyes Street
Evanston, IL
Call 847-475-1875, tickets $20 - $40
Thursdays at 7:30 pm
Fridays at 8 pm
Saturdays at 2 & 8 pm
Sundays at 2 pm
Running time is 100 minutes with no intermission
Through March 4, 2007
Provocative chamber musical strains the ear
Next Theatre is known for doing daring, controversial and provocative plays. Some are marvelous, some miss the mark, but all are ambitious and carefully crafted. With The Adding Machine, I’m baffled. I’m not sure I understand what was attempted by this weird show? I guess I didn’t get this show because I hated every minute of it. My fellow critics told me it was terrific. I must have missed something because, while I appreciate the clever visuals in director David Cromer’s staging, I have trouble with the vocals. I think musicals should be performed by folks who can sing. Joel Hatch is a marvelous actor but he can’t sing a lick. Maybe that was the purpose to have a main character sing terribly? I guess I just don’t get it. None of the voices were adequate. Cyrilla Baer sounded like a nagging wife which probably was the intent.
I realize that The Adding Machine is “unconstrained by the traditional Broadway-book format and grows from Elmer Rice’s expressionist form” (from the press notes), however, I believe that a musical needs to have songs well sung. You can have distorted forms as is the mode of expressionism and still have performers who can carry a tune. Also, Schmidt’s score sounded more like a film underscoring than music to carry lyrics. The dark tones, the unlikable Mr. Zero—who kills his boss when he is replaced by an adding machine and the strangely forgettable songs all add up to a tediously upsetting show.
The show contains clever staging, stellar set design by Matthew J. York with terrific lighting by Keith Parham and Joel Hatch is effective until he sings. I’m not sure I get why this dark story was made into a musical, especially one with many weird musical styles that contained repetitive rhythms and surrealistic Sprechstimme (“a vocal style in which the melody is spoken at approximate pitches rather than sung on exact pitches”) among other unique styles.
When Mr. Zero states: “I killed my boss, but I’m a regular guy,” I thought why should I care about him? I sure may have missed the message of what this show was about, however, I sure know poor singing when I hear it. I guess many folks around town love this show and most of the Chicago critics raved this show. I do think it was brave, innovative and well-staged. I just don’t like dark pieces that lack inspiring music. Maybe, you’ll like it and maybe you should see it? If you do, please let me know what I didn’t’ get.
Somewhat Recommended for the brave
Tom Williams
Tom99@chicagocritic.com for comments
Talk Theatre in Chicago podcast
Date Reviewed: February 9, 2007
Jeff Recommended
|
