Converted into a musical in 2007 by Josh Schmidt and Jason Loewith, it won four Obie awards for direction, design and performance, four Lortel awards and two Outer Critics Circle Awards.

Though it did not enjoy a long off-Broadway run, it continues to be produced in regional theaters. The Skylight Opera Theatre has chosen it to close its season.

Playwright Schmidt spent his high school and college years here, as well as his early performance years in various local theaters. In his own words, "My career radiates outwardly in concentric circles from my formative experiences in Milwaukee."

Schmidt claims to have had the Skylight in mind when he wrote the musical version of Rice's play. The lovely Cabot Theatre is a perfect intimate venue for a play of this style and intensity.

The first thing that sparks our interest is Nathan Stuber's set design. The opening scene with Mr. and Mrs. Zero in a vertical bed was his first ingenious surprise. The conversions from office to jail to the Elysian Fields were swift and smooth. The score was often dissonant and jarring, but sometimes lyrical as well, an unusual mix of styles.

The plot is quite straightforward. Mr. Zero, after spending 25 years on the job adding up figures in a retail department store, is suddenly replaced by an adding machine in the service of efficiency and profit. In a fit of rage, he kills his smug boss and is sentenced to execution. Before he dies, he has an interesting exchange with a fellow cellmate who murdered his mother. They both speculate about what's to come after death. He is also visited by his shrewish wife.

The scene then switches to The Elysian Fields, where both Mr. Zero and his jail buddy, Shrdlu, discover that no one cares what they've done in their previous lives. Zero's former secretary Daisy, who has been secretly in love with Zero, soon joins them after having committed suicide. What happens next will await those who choose to visit this production.

Ray Jivoff as Mr. Zero portrays the cloddish, rigid, obtuse character perfectly. Though he rejects the new machine that replaced him, he is very mechanistic himself. Daisy tries to redeem him, but it's to little avail.

Zero is just that when it comes to positive emotions. Niffer Clarke's dulcet tones and gentle innocence serve as a beautiful contrast to Zero's blindness. Mrs. Zero, his termagant wife, is well rendered by Liz Pazik. Her strident voice is fittingly annoying. Rich Pendzich is a credibly scary Shrdlu, a man who wants to be punished, not forgiven. His sense of justice is upset when he is rewarded.

Other members of the cast include Parker Cristan, Christina Krasovich, Jonathan Steward, Toni Fletcher and Steve Koehler, all of whom lend their rich voices to the ensemble numbers.