Musicals are not all big razzamatazz enterprises playing on the Great White Way. The remarkableAdding Machineis a somber, modernist chamber work that opened in Chicago in 2007 before a successful Off-Broadway run, the following year. Based on Elmer Rice's 1923 expressionist play, the musical centers around antihero Mr. Zero (Joel Hatch), a number-crunching drone stuck between a surreal soulless office job and a drab home life. It's simply amazing that this downer premise could turn into such a compelling show. Successfully melding vocals that range from theatrical to semi-operatic with synthesizer-heavy arrangements, composer Joshua Schmidt has come up with a series of weird little art songs. This is not "fun," escapist music; it demands the listener's full attention, and does not shy away from harshness and dissonance, making the oases of beauty all the more compelling, and the rewards all the more satisfying. Is this what a David Lynch-­penned musical would sound like? --Elisabeth Vincentelli