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	featured events send to a friend submit an event advertise home Next best thing to being there Musical styles blend to set tone for Adding Machine By John Black     John@bostoneventguide.com It’s almost impossible to categorize the music in Adding Machine: A Musical, the latest production from the SpeakEasy Stage Company. In just over 90-minutes, the talented cast sings everything from opera to gospel, with a few Tin Pan Alley tunes thrown in for good measure, to tell the story of a quiet accountant whose life is changed forever when he revolts against the idea of being replaced at work by a mechanical machine. But while the song styles may be different, co-creator Jason Loewith said all the music in the show shares one feature: passion. “Some of the music that (composer) Joshua Schmidt wrote is incredible complex. The opening aria by Mrs. Zero (Amelia Broome) is a very contemporary classical piece of music that challenges the audience on a number of levels. It’s not melodic, in a traditional sense, but it fits perfectly the story she is telling them about how she feels about her life,” he said. “The same can be said for Mr. Zero’s confession at his trial. He’s a monster for what he’s done, but the song, and the way (Brendan McNab) sings it, builds a real sympathy with the audience for what drove him to commit his crime. The music challenges you to listen, but it also opens your heart to these characters.” See more Theatre/Art events... While Adding Machine: A Musical has some difficult songs, Loewith is quick to point out that the score also features some truly beautiful music, such as the song Daisy (Liz Hayes) sings on the subway going home from work on the day Mr. Zero takes his fate into his own hands. “In a lot of ways Daisy is the heroine of the piece because by the end of the play she makes the ultimate decision in order to be happy,” he said, “so it’s nice to let her have that moment in the spotlight to sing a beautiful, melodic song. It sets us up to understand why she makes the decision to change her life the way she does later in the play.”