Benoit and Schmoll in “Adding Machine: A Musical”

There’s a cliché out there that an opening number can make or break a show. Unfortunately, the first song in Adding Machine: A Musical, now being staged by Studio Theatre, contributes to the “break” side of the equation.

Though the first scene’s staging, with its central couple Mr. and Mrs. Zero strapped to an upright mattress, as if we’re peering down into their bedroom, is pleasantly whimsical, it’s less pleasant to hear Joanne Schmoll warble through the prelude, a meandering, dissonant, rhythmically-challenged gossip tirade (“Mrs. 12! Mrs. 12 was saying to me!”) The non-melodic characteristics of the piece are frequently present throughout Joshua Schmidt’s score, and while the composer’s percussive layering and tangential melodies can be provocative to the ear (the “In Numbers” office piece is a prime example), the music often feels like an academic exercise rather than an unconventional score in service to a fascinating work.

The libretto suffers from some similar problems. Despite a clear desire to embody some sort of avante garde spirit, the Brecht-influenced piece isn’t nearly as revolutionary as it seems to fancy itself. Its general plot is the story of Mr. Zero’s dissatisfaction with an employer who fails to value his 25 years of service, and when this becomes abundantly clear, he snaps. Things proceed from there to everywhere from jail (where some of the show’s best exchanges take place, thanks to a bizarre supporting turn from Stephen Gregory Smith as a killer with a zealot streak) to Heaven to a weird sort of industrialized purgatory.