{"id":196412,"date":"2026-04-14T04:38:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-14T04:38:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/196412\/"},"modified":"2026-04-14T04:38:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-14T04:38:08","slug":"interview-jennifer-tilly-sums-up-her-rich-experience-in-the-adding-machine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/196412\/","title":{"rendered":"Interview: Jennifer Tilly Sums Up Her Rich Experience in The Adding Machine"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Jennifer Tilly stars in Elmer Price\u2019s The Adding Machine, directed by Scott Elliott for the New Group at Theatre at St. Clement\u2019s.
(\u00a9 Monique Carboni)<\/p>\n

With a career that spans cult horror, sharp comedy, and Oscar-nominated films, Jennifer Tilly has long been known for her distinctive voice, magnetic screen presence, and fearless approach to performance.<\/p>\n

But onstage in The Adding Machine<\/a>, Tilly is trading glamour for grit, immersing herself in one of the most intellectually and emotionally demanding roles of her career. Ten years after starring in Grasses of a Thousand Colors, she returns to the New York stage at the New Group\u2019s new home, Theatre at St. Clements, to reunite with director Scott Elliott (The Women) in a play she calls \u201ccreatively invigorating.\u201d<\/p>\n

In The Adding Machine she embraces the challenge of portraying Mrs. Zero, a woman yearning for even the smallest fragment of happiness. Tilly spoke with TheaterMania about Elmer Price\u2019s 1923 satire and why it\u2019s striking a chord more than a century after its debut. While theater profoundly \u201cfeeds her soul,\u201d Tilly reveals that her playful side finds comfort in Betty & Veronica comics and that she continues to dream of one day stepping into a Broadway musical.<\/p>\n

\"141Jennifer Tilly attends the first rehearsal for the New Group revival of Elmer Price\u2019s The Adding Machine
(\u00a9 Natalie Powers)<\/p>\n

This conversation has been condensed and edited for clarity.<\/p>\n

We have missed having you on the New York stage. What was it about The Adding Machine that compelled you to return?<\/p>\n

The play is one of the most challenging, artistic plays I\u2019ve ever done. With a lot of film and television, you barely scratch the surface. With theater, I love doing a deep dive into the character and the themes. The characters in The Adding Machine are living lives of quiet desperation. They have big dreams, but their dreams are not really that big. Mr. Zero has been at his office for 25 years adding numbers. His big dreams are that one day he will get promoted. I play his wife, Mrs. Zero, who also has a very bleak existence being married to this shadow of a man. Her big dream is to go downtown on a date to see a movie when it first comes out instead of waiting until it gets to the cheap theater near them. There\u2019s a lot about really deep loneliness and how people don\u2019t know how to connect or move forward.<\/p>\n

What has been the most exciting or challenging part of working on this version so far?<\/p>\n

Scott said to me, \u201c[Mr. Zero] is so misogynistic. I think it would help soften the character and you would see his humanity if he is played by a woman.\u201d I love how Scott thinks outside the box. He cast Daphne Rubin Vega as my husband. I am really feeling the loneliness of Mrs. Zero inside her marriage. Another exciting part is working with Sarita Choudhury and Michael Cyril Creighton. Michael plays a number of other characters in the show. It\u2019s a tour de force of acting.<\/p>\n

\"28Daphne Rubin-Vega and Jennifer Tilly appear in the New Group\u2019s off-Broadway revival of Elmer Price\u2019s The Adding Machine.
(\u00a9 Monique Carboni)<\/p>\n

How is it especially poignant that The Adding Machine will be the first play to run in the New Group\u2019s new home?<\/p>\n

It\u2019s such a beautiful space in a church. This church still operates, and with its stained-glass windows it has the most amazing energy. I think it\u2019s very apropos that the play is in a church because of its theme. It\u2019s about very small people creeping along thinking God has forgotten them. It\u2019s the perfect, intimate environment.<\/p>\n

The Adding Machine explores themes of technology, work, and identity. Why do you think this story resonates with audiences today?<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve noticed in the last five or 10 years that everywhere I go, the people have seemed to disappear. You go to the airport and there\u2019s nobody to check you in; you have to go to the kiosk. Even the stores at the airport where you buy your candy and bottle of water\u2014now you have to check yourself out. I think, \u201cWhere did all of these people go?\u201d In the play, Mr. Zero gets replaced by an adding machine. There\u2019s also commentary about agoraphobia, fear of immigrants, and really unhappy racist characters. Even though it was written almost 100 years ago, it is relevant in today\u2019s climate.<\/p>\n

You open the show with a behemoth of a monologue. How did you tackle that? <\/p>\n

It takes more than an hour for me to walk to work every day. I work on my lines, as I walk, and it feels like I\u2019m back in acting school. The monologue is 10 double-spaced pages. I enjoy it. It\u2019s not good motivation if you\u2019re approaching it like, \u201cOh my god, now I\u2019m going to be talking for the next 15 minutes. I hope the audience doesn\u2019t leave!\u201d\u00a0 It\u2019s Mrs. Zero working through her feelings. She\u2019s fascinating, but that opening monologue is a challenger for sure. The more I dig, the more I find.<\/p>\n

\"\"Jennifer Tilly and Daphne Rubin-Vega appear in the New Group\u2019s off-Broadway revival of Elmer Price\u2019s The Adding Machine.
(\u00a9 Monique Carboni)<\/p>\n

Many people know you from film and television, especially with your most recent stint on The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills. What will they discover about you as a performer when they see you on stage?<\/p>\n

I call this play a \u201cpanacea of Real Housewives of Beverly Hills.\u201d The show is so much fun, but it\u2019s frivolity or cotton candy. I think people will be surprised when they see me doing these monologues and I\u2019m not a glamorous lady with a feather hat and lots of cleavage. They\u2019ll definitely see a different dimension of me.<\/p>\n

Do you see a musical in your future?<\/p>\n

I have been asked if I want to play Roxie. Chicago is one of my favorite musicals. I can\u2019t dance! They have even asked me to go on Dancing With the Stars, but I have two left feet. I actually think I\u2019m a very good singer. I do have a big dream of doing a musical on Broadway one day.<\/p>\n

How do you wind down after performing in The Adding Machine?<\/p>\n

I like to read Betty and Veronica comic books because they remind me of when I was growing up, and I really wanted to be Betty or Veronica. I would try to fashion my outfits like them. I felt like they had the perfect lives. Maybe that could be my musical! I will put that out in the universe. I could be Veronica, or by the time it gets to the stage, I could [realistically] play Miss Grundy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jennifer Tilly stars in Elmer Price\u2019s The Adding Machine, directed by Scott Elliott for the New Group at…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":196413,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[98,100,99,9,24,63],"class_list":{"0":"post-196412","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-brooklyn","8":"tag-brooklyn","9":"tag-brooklyn-headlines","10":"tag-brooklyn-news","11":"tag-new-york","12":"tag-new-york-city","13":"tag-nyc"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/196412","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=196412"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/196412\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/196413"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=196412"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=196412"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=196412"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}