NOW PLAYING
ADDING MACHINE: A MUSICAL | SpeakEasy Stage Company presents the New England premiere of this Off Broadway hit (Lucille Lortel, Outer Critics Circle, Jefferson, and After Dark awards for best new musical) with music by Joshua Schmidt and lyrics by Schmidt and Jason Loewith. It’s based on Elmer Rice’s 1923 play The Adding Machine, in which 25-year vet Mr. Zero loses his job to the title calculator, murders his boss, and is rewarded with a trip to the Elysian Fields. Brendan McNabb stars as Mr. Zero; Leigh Barrett, Amelia Broome, John Bambery, Bob DeVivo, Liz Hayes, David Krinitt, Sean McGuirk, and Cheryl McMahon round out the cast. SpeakEasy general manager Paul Melone directs. | Boston Center for the Arts, Calderwood Pavilion, 527 Tremont St, Boston | 617.933.8600 | Through April 10 | Curtain 7:30 pm Tues-Thurs [Tues April 6 only] | 8 pm Fri | 4 + 8 pm Sat | 3 pm Sun | $30-$54; $5 discount students, seniors
APPLE | “Andy is in trouble. Downsized from his job, his marriage in crisis, he looks to a mysterious young woman for salvation. But when his wife becomes seriously ill, Andy must make a choice: care for an estranged wife, or run away with a woman he knows little about.” That’s the set-up for Canadian playwright Vern Thiessen’s play, which is getting its New England premiere from Phoenix Theatre Artists and Company One. The cast includes Dave Sanfacon, Barbara Douglass, and Eliza Lay; Phoenix artistic director Greg Maraio is at the helm. | Boston Playwrights’ Theatre, 949 Comm Ave, Boston | 866.811.4111 | Through April 3 | Curtain 8 pm Fri | 4 + 8 pm Sat | 2 pm Sun | $25; $20 students, seniors
BECKY SHAW | The Huntington Theatre Company brings us Gina Gionfriddo’s 2009 Pulitzer finalist, in which newlyweds Suzanna and Andrew fix up her BMF Max with his co-worker Becky in a blind date that lands the would-be lovebirds in a police station — whereupon Suzanna and Andrew start questioning their marriage as well as their matchmaking chops. HTC artistic director Peter DuBois has shepherded this 2009 Pulitzer finalist since its premiere. Bringing Becky Shaw home to the Huntington, he presents it on a grander scale backed by a movable feast of sets by Derek McLane. And the show is well cast, with Keira Naughton a vulnerable Suzanna lurking behind a veneer of spoiled-little-girl shrewishness and Eli James her rumpled, responsible, co-opted husband. Seth Fisher spit-shines Max’s blunt candor but also suggests the guy is not as Teflon as he affects to be. The apologetic yet persistent Becky is the most nebulous character, equal parts ingratiating loser and calculating player. It is to Wendy Hoopes’s credit that she connects the dots between a Sally Field eager to be liked and a Glenn Close about to boil the bunny. | Boston University Theatre, 264 Huntington Ave, Boston | 617.266.0800 or huntingtontheatre.org | Through April 4 | Curtain 7:30 Tues | 7:30 pm Wed | 7:30 pm Thurs | 8 pm Fri | 2 + 8 pm Sat | 2 + 7 pm [evening March 28] Sun | $20-$82 |
