The Adding Machine

This article is about the stageplay. There is also a collection of essays by William S. Burroughs called The Adding Machine: Collected Essays.

The Adding Machine is a 1923 play by Elmer Rice, and is generally considered to be the first American Expressionist play. The story focuses on Mr. Zero, an accountant at a large, faceless company. After 25 years at his job, he discovers that he will be replaced by an adding machine. In anger and pain, he snaps and kills his boss.

The play was an influence on the Tennessee Williams play Stairs to the Roof. Years later, it was adapted into a 1969 film of the same name, written and directed by Jerome Epstein and starring Milo O'Shea, Phyllis Diller, Billie Whitelaw and Sydney Chaplin.

Musical adaptation

In 2007, the play was adapted into a musical entitled Adding Machine with a score by Joshua Schmidt and book by Jason Loewith and Schmidt. The musical debuted in Illinois at the Next Theatre Company in 2007. It then opened Off-Broadway at the Minetta Lane Theatre on February 25, 2008, after previews that started February 8.

References

External links

• Adding Machine Marks 76th Birthday, a 1999 article from Playbill
• 2003 production from an online guide to Chicago, Illinois