Adding Machine A Musical at Odyssey Theatre Ensemble

Adding Machine A Musical

Odyssey Theatre Ensemble
2055 S. Sepulveda Blvd Los Angeles

In this edgy and challenging musical, employing a range of styles from minimalism to 1930's pop, Joshua Schmidt and his libretto partner Jason Loewith have managed to revitalize Elmer Rice's story of Mr. Zero, who after 25 years of service to his company is replaced by a mechanical adding machine into a complex and beautiful musical that offers an exploration of expressionist drama as well as a reevaluation of the American dream.

Thru - Mar 19, 2011

Thursdays: 8:00pm

Fridays: 8:00pm

Saturdays: 8:00pm

Price: $30

Show Type: Musical

Box Office: 310-477-2055

www.odysseytheatre.com

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Adding Machine A Musical Reviews

Average Rating based on 7 reviews

Highly Recommended
Recommended
Somewhat Recommended
Not Recommended

Los Angeles Times - Somewhat Recommended

"...In "Adding Machine: A Musical," which won the 2008 Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Musical, composer Joshua Schmidt and his co-librettist, Jason Loewith, offer up a radiant re-imagining of Rice's masterwork. Unfortunately, despite flashes of genuine creativity, Ron Sossi's staging falls short of the piece's possibilities. "

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- F. Kathleen Foley

LA Weekly - Recommended

"...On opening night, the actors' operatic strengths still needed strengthening, though the vigor with which Morts howled out his euphoria over his last supper of "Ham and Eggs" was a divine grunt that must have been heard in Heaven."

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- Steven Leigh Morris

Backstage - Somewhat Recommended

"...The theater can be a respite or an adventure, a challenge or a chore. Musical theater intensifies the stakes-the appreciation of rhyme, meter, and melody being subjective matters. As such, Jason Loewith and Joshua Schmidt's Obie-winning chamber adaptation of Elmer Rice's 1923 expressionist allegory offers equal fascination and frustration in its valiant West Coast premiere."

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- David C. Nichols

Talkin Broadway - Somewhat Recommended

"...There are many little nit-picks one could mention-a character in the program is named Daisy Buchanan, but in the show, she's Daisy Devore; a period of time in the show is once mentioned as 20 years, and once as 25; and there were various prop malfunctions. Each is minor in its own way, but taken together they are symptomatic of an overall problem: this show simply isn't ready yet."

- Sharon Perlmutter

Edge - Somewhat Recommended

"...Unfortunately, the West Coast premiere at the Odyssey Theatre fails to cohere in design and direction, although the ensemble's musical performances are undeniably impressive."

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- Sarah Taylor Ellis

Stage and Cinema - Somewhat Recommended

"...All that survives is Rice's play, a still timely tragedy about a man who, after twenty-five years of service, expects a promotion, but who is instead fired and replaced by a machine and who kills his employer and finds moral redemption only after his death by execution. They should have done the play. The musical version is still awaiting production in Los Angeles."

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- Harvey Perr

Stage Scene LA - Recommended

"...Adding Machine: A Musical will not be everyone's cup of tea. If Rodgers & Hammerstein's The Sound Of Music is as dark a show as you'd care to see, if you'd pick Jerry Herman over Stephen Sondheim any day, if out-of-the-ordinary is something you'd rather opt to skip … then by all means, search out a more traditional show. If, however, you are open to taking chances where musical theater is concerned, Adding Machine: A Musical is simply not to be missed."

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- Steven Stanley

Adding Machine A Musical at Odyssey Theatre Ensemble