STEREOPHONIC at the Golden Theater
It was the era of hard drugs passed around in small (or sometimes large) plastic bags, aspiring musicians filled their days with copious amounts of alcohol, and the smell of marijuana wafted through the air of recording studios all over Los Angeles as up and coming rock bands crafted their masterpieces. Welcome to the world of Stereophonic.
It is the mid-1970’s and a new rock band has settled into a single house in Los Angeles to save money while recording, what they hope will be their first break out album. The unnamed band gathers daily in the recording studio, hoping to crank out a hit in the matter of a month. When the studio decides to go all in on the band, they decide to take their time to ensure they produce the best possible product possible.
As they record and try to craft “their sound”, tensions begin to rise and the band begins to become unraveled in a series of confrontations and standoffs between the members and their sound engineers. Between the topics of battling sobriety, along with the effects it can have on innocent bystanders who get caught in the crosshairs and the egos that begin to get inflated over the year of recording what is sure to be a hit. The team must confront the reality that fame and fortune comes with a price and for these seven, that price may be too steep to pay.
Starting it’s life at Playwrights Horizons, Stereophonic quickly became the “it” show that was destined to take Broadway by storm one day. After a sold out run off Broadway, it was transferred to the Golden Theater where it garnered a record breaking 13 Tony Award nominations. The most for any play in Broadway history.
Not only was it being called a triumph but the actors, six of the seven making their Broadway debuts, were praised for their portrayals of the band members and sound engineers. When the nominations were announced, five of the seven actors were nominated, and thus catapulted the show’s popularity into the stratosphere.
Stereophonic is an extremely strong ensemble piece that requires it’s actors to be at the top of their game at every performance. The cast all play the instruments within the band and the sound engineers utilize a fully functioning sound board on stage.
Will Butler, most famous for his part in the groundbreaking band Arcade Fire, wrote all of the music for the play and brought in Justin Craig to help fill out the orchestrations and to help craft the music to fit into the context of a broadway play.
While there is a fair amount of music played in the show, the core is playwright David Adjmi’s brilliant script that not only transports the audience into a fully functioning recording studio but also ensures that the audience wants to stay there and spend three hours with seven extremely different characters who seem to have even thrown together by fate to create something that will last.
While the show’s plot has been compared to the real life drama that took place behind the scenes of the band Fleetwood Mac’s sessions, Adjmi has said that it is merely a coincidence.
Whether or not it had real life inspiration, this three hour story is filled with plenty of drama, comedy, and dynamite 1970’s inspired rock music to transport the audience to the recording studios of legend for one helluva good time.
If further proof is needed, of it’s worthiness to be added to the pantheon of brilliant new American plays, when the accolades were handed out on Tony night, Stereophonic took home five statues including: Best Play, Best Featured Actor in a Play (Will Brill), Best Direction of a Play, Best Scenic Design of a Play, and Best Sound Design of a Play.
