REVIEW: Stereophonic

The buzz about Stereophonic had been building for its Broadway opening at the Golden Theatre in April. It had earned raves for its production at Playwrights Horizon in the fall, but though the playwright Daniel Adjmi had won awards, including a Guggenheim Fellowship, it was his Broadway debut. It was to be the Broadway debut for all seven actors except one. None of them playing a chart-topping band were professional musicians. Yet it turned out to be the smash everyone anticipated, with 13 (count ‘em 13!) Tony nominations, the most ever for a play, and I’m here to say it’s all deserved!

Surely you know the play is about an Anglo-American group, much resembling Fleetwood Mac, about to break into superstardom and, within a year, starting to break apart. The brilliant set (by David Zinn) is a huge wood-paneled studio with state-of-the -art (for 1976) control room, next to a studio with microphones, amps, and drums for recording. (Kudos also for lighting, costumes, and sound design.)

It’s clear that the actors – Chris Stack in a Mick Fleetwood-like role as the drummer Simon; Juliana Canfield and Will Brill as Holly and Reg, the British married couple, a la Christine and John McVie; Tom Pechinka as Peter, representing Lindsay Buckingham, and Sarah Pidgeon as Diana (think Stevie Nicks) – have sufficient musical chops and solid acting (and, in the case of Stack, Canfield, and Brill, plausible English accents). Four of them have earned Tony nominations, with only  Stack being deprived (ironic, since his may be the most stable character). Eli Gelb also earned a Tony nod as the long-suffering head engineer Grover; his assistant, played by Andrew R. Butler, supplies some comic relief.

Director Daniel Aukin orchestrates the script precisely: the overlapping dialogue creates a naturalistic feel, even as the sounds of silence signify tension and the occasional tedium in the studio. Although Stereophonic is a play about music (with tunes by Will Butler, formerly of Arcade Fire), it’s not a musical. (In fact, there are only two songs used in full, and the first occurs 70 minutes into the three-hour play.)  It’s about making the sausage: creating a work of art piece by piece, take by alternate take, until that moment when you know you’ve nailed it. For the unnamed band of Stereophonic, there is the thrill of knowing you’ve made it to #1 on the charts with your debut record, then the pressure of following that up.

Along the way, there are choices to be made: stick with Simon’s drumming or use a click track when the tempo falters; substitute Reg’s bass playing for Peter’s suggestion; overcome a challenging vocal on Diana’s song. Increasingly, Peter’s alpha control freak tendencies exacerbate the tensions, especially his bullying of the insecure Diane. After Peter has insulted Reg, Simon explains: “You see, Peter, here’s the thing: not everything is going to be what you want. Music isn't supposed to be perfect. It's not about that. It's about relating to each other; and making something from your soul.  And you are going to fall short...”

The engineer Grover becomes the victim of one of Peter’s tantrums at the end of one especially sleep-deprived session. Grover’s motto, taken from his father, is “suffer and learn.” Learning one’s role is the key, both professionally and personally. It’s just more complicated, as Fleetwood Mac found, when they intersect. At one point, Reg waxes philosophically, “You can give up on a person, but you can’t ever, ever give up on love.”

Not to be overlooked, Diana and Holly have female solidarity in the face of male entitlement. In a scene where Peter, Diana, and Holly are overdubbing vocals while consumed with resentment, there is exquisite harmony in their performance, if not in their lives. Grover brings up a portion of the song as the play ends. It’s not a feel-good ending: you get the sense that their new-found success will force them to soldier on, until they can no longer.

Beyond the obvious Fleetwood Mac analogy, Stereophonic is an absorbing three hours, not just for music lovers, but theater lovers in general.

photo by Julieta Cervantes