'Adding Machine' Wins Big at Lortel Awards

Theater

By Staff Reporter of the Sun
May 7, 2008

"Adding Machine," a dark and quirky import from Chicago's thriving theater scene, was the big winner Monday night at Off-Broadway's Lucille Lortel Awards at the Union Square Theatre, bagging four trophies, including Outstanding Musical. New Yorker magazine writer George Packer's Iraq war drama, "Betrayed," produced by the Culture Project, won Outstanding Play.

"Adding Machine," composer-librettist Joshua Schmidt and librettist Jason Loewith's adaptation of Elmer Rice's 1923 play, also took the prizes for director (David Cromer), lead actor (Joel Hatch), and lighting design (Keith Parham).

Iris Bahr's "Dai (Enough)" won Outstanding Solo Show, and Adrienne Kennedy's "Ohio State Murders," produced by Theatre for a New Audience, won Outstanding Revival.

Elizabeth Franz was named Outstanding Lead Actress for "The Piano Teacher," while Francis Jue, in "Yellow Face," and Mare Winningham, in "10 Million Miles," took the featured actor and actress prizes, respectively.

Peter Pucci won the choreography award for "Queens Boulevard (The Musical)"; Jim Findlay and Jeff Sugg grabbed the honors for scenic design with "The Slug Bearers of Kayrol Island"; Michael Bottari, Ronald Case, and Jessica Jahn took the costume design category for "Die Mommie Die!," and Jorge Cousineau won sound design for "Opus."

Lortel Awards voters, who include journalists, educators, and Off-Broadway theater professionals, also presented three special awards. Theodore Mann, artistic director of Circle in the Square Theatre School, won the Edith Oliver Award for Sustained Excellence; Primary Stages was honored for Outstanding Body of Work, and New York Theatre Workshop's "Horizon" was named Unique Theatrical Experience.