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The cast
of Stereophonic (Photo: Julieta Cervantes)
Stereophonic
By Deirdre Donovan
David Adjmi's
Stereophonic, meticulously directed by Daniel Aukin, comes to Broadway
with a ton of buzz. Following its sold-out run at Playwrights Horizons last
season, it has winged five blocks over to the Golden Theatre, bringing all of
its theatrical magic with it.
The
premise: The year is 1976, and a British-American band on the cusp of
superstardom is recording their next album in Sausalito, California. We never
learn the band's name nor listens to the single that catapulted them to fame.
But over the course of three hours, the audience will eavesdrop on its five
members and two fledgling engineers confined together in a studio for 12
months, learning their fears, weaknesses, addictions, and dreams.
David
Zinn's set conjures up a windowless studio with a control room downstage and a
sound room upstage, enclosed in glass. It evokes the famous Record Plant in
Sausalito where the likes of Stevie Wonder, Sammy Hagar, and Fleetwood Mac
blocked time and lay down tracks in the 70s.
We
meet the quintet in the opening scene: There's the alcoholic bassist Reg (Will
Brill) who launched the band with the drummer and manager de facto Simon (Chris
Stack), who has a wife and children back in the UK. Reg is married to
keyboardist and vocalist Holly (Juliana Canfield), the most down-to-earth
person in the group. She also is a rock to fellow vocalist Diana (Sarah Pidgeon),
who, in spite of her song becoming the band's breakout hit, is insecure in her
art. Diana's boyfriend, the guitarist-producer Peter (Tom Pecinka), is a highly
gifted but overbearing musician who, more often than not, creates tension in
the studio every time he enters the space.
The
assistant engineer Charlie (Andrew R. Butler) has the distinction of being a
cousin to Tom Johnston of the Doobie Brothers. This impresses rookie engineer
Grover (Eli Gelb), who is an "outsider" and knows nobody in the business to
give him a hand up. Things grow more complicated when Grover naïvely confides
in Charlie that he embellished his resumé to get his current job (he implied that
he was the tech engineer for The Eagles). Incensed,
Charlie immediately lashes out at Grover for lying:
Charlie:
You lied?
Grover: A
white lie.
Charlie:
That's not a white lie that's-that's significant.
Grover: I worked
on the album. I assisted. So it's not a lie-or it's a lie by omission. They
didn't ask so I didn't say anything.
Charlie: I
don't know man that's pretty nefarious.
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Tom
Pecinka, Sarah Pidgeon (Photo: Julieta Cervantes)
Stereophonic
immerses the audience
in the authentic environment of a rock band, right down to the technical
minutiae of the recording process. But, even if you can't understand a stretch
of dialogue, no worries. The ongoing action and natural
flow of the next lines of conversation inevitably will keep everybody in
the loop of the story.
Adjmi's
script cleverly employs overlapping dialogue, pregnant pauses, cold silences,
giggles, and sotto voce remarks throughout. And it effectively captures the
actual patterns of communication and miscommunication among the group.
Stereophonic
is not structured
like a conventional play. It moseys along rather than following a clear-cut
trajectory. That said, its steely spine eventually can be detected as its eccentric
characters interact with one another and reveal their various issues. There's
the hard-drinking Reg who hopes his longsuffering wife Holly will stay with him.
There's the charismatic singer Diana who fears having a baby with her long-time
boyfriend Peter will upend her career. Then there's the brokenhearted Simon who,
after learning that his wife has decided to leave him, desperately tells Holly:
Simon:
"She was going to come out to L.A. with the kids but that's shot. I just think
they all hate me. I need to see my f***ing children. I can't be without them."
Although
theatergoers of a certain age may well find Stereophonic a nostalgic
journey back to the 70s, with its nods to musical super groups and artists like
Otis Redding and Todd Rundgren, you don't have to be a baby boomer to enjoy
this hypernaturalistic play. Indeed, it can appeal to anybody who has ever wondered about the excruciating struggle that goes on when
an artist attempts to be true to his, or her, art and the community as well. Or
as Peter pleads to his bandmates:
Peter:
"Don't you want to be brotherly between us? Don't you want to be more than
just a bunch of strangers playing music together? I want that. I want us to
have dinner together! And eat Simon's chicken!"
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Sarah
Pidgeon (Photo: Julieta Cervantes)
Enver
Chakartash's costumes are spot-on for the 70s, a mix of tight jeans, vests,
loose-fitting shirts for the men, halter tops for the women, sweater coats and
jackets, and fashion-forward boots. The multiple costume changes for each
performer effectively points up the passage of time and changing seasons.
The
ensemble acting is superb, with each performer convincingly inhabiting their
character. Considering that the cast not only had to memorize their lines but several
performers (with the exception of Chris Stack, Andrew R. Butler, and Eli Gelb) had
to learn to play their instruments as well.
Another
plus to the production is that the audience gets treated to some brilliant
original songs like "Masquerade" and "East of Eden," written by the Grammy
award-winning and Oscar-nominated Will Butler (a member of the band Arcade Fire
until 2022). What's more, the audience not only get to listen to the polished
songs but witness the blood, sweat, and tears that bring them to birth.
Ultimately,
Stereophonic is a docudrama about artists struggling to live together as
they create their art. The group gradually learns what Aristotle long ago pointed
out as a profound truth: "The whole is greater than the sum of its
parts."
Stereophonic
At the Golden
Theatre, 252 W. 45 St., Manhattan.
Running time:
3 hours with intermission.
stereophonicplay.com