Aside from dropping the "the" in the title of The Adding Machine -- Elmer Rice's 1923 assimilation of German expressionism -- and aside from substituting one new sequence, composer-co-librettist Joshua Schmidt and co-librettist Jason Loewith have been commendably true to the source material for their new chamber musical, Adding Machine. The faithfulness will fill some Minetta Lane patrons with awe, especially as presented in a David Cromer production so meticulously designed to echo the period that it often resembles a film F. W. Nosferatu Murnau might have shot or a 1920's industrial setting that Lewis Hine could have photographed.



Other patrons might be less inclined to succumb t[...]