3.5 out of 5 stars

Although it’s more than a century old, Elmer L. Rice’s “The Adding Machine” isn’t showing its age in this shockingly prescient and urgently necessary new production. With revisions by Thomas Bradshaw, “Machine” chronicles the monotonous existence of Mr. Zero (Daphne Rubin-Vega in male drag), a despondent shell of a man who implodes when technology makes his job -- and himself -- obsolete. Jennifer Tilly (Mrs. Zero) and Michael Cyril Creighton (the narrator and side characters) are brilliant, bringing a cutting, campy humor to the nihilist beauty of the play. But the gender-bent casting of Rubin-Vega proves distracting and unjustified. — Justin McCallum

Presented by the New Group at the Theater at St. Clement’s, through May 17, 2026; www.thenewgroup.org. (Review date: April 16, 2026)