Theater Assessment: ‘Stereophonic’ is a superb ‘Behind the Music’ play on Broadway
It is July 1976 in a Northern California recording studio and the rock ‘n’ roll band reducing their newest album is exhausted and cautious. The espresso machine is damaged. By no means thoughts, there’s all the time cocaine — and heaps of it.
“That’s not the identical factor,” one of many musicians says.
“It’s the very same factor,” she is advised.
So begins “Stereophonic,” one of the thrilling items of theater in years, a play with higher songs than most musicals on Broadway and an ensemble that rocks, actually. You will not want any of their coke to final the three-hour-plus run time.
Playwright David Adjmi tells the story of a Fleetwood Mac-like band with 5 members — some married, some relationship — engaged on music with two sound engineers over a life-changing yr, with private rifts opening and shutting after which reopening. The riffs additionally change, as songs endure dozens of takes and adjustments in tempo.
The play, which opened Friday on the Golden Theatre, is a hypernaturalistic meditation on the joys, and in addition the hazard, of collaborating on artwork — the compromises, the egos and the fun. It is an ode not simply to the music enterprise however maybe to the theater world, too.
“Stereophonic” is a really human play, that includes deep moments about love and the pursuit of artwork interspliced with digressions about dry cleaners and Marlon Brando. We be taught to care about every of the 5 characters and even anticipate their reactions. Will they survive this album intact?
David Zinn’s marvelous set, with the engineers manipulating dials and faders within the office-hangout spot, in entrance of a glassed-off recording house, permits for a number of conversations without delay, together with one intense argument utterly offstage that the engineers overhear.
The impact is sort of to show the actors into devices themselves, alternating silence for one or two moments in a single scene and in one other with their volumes raised excessive. There may be cross-talk, mufflers and even the clunk of machines whirring when a recording is began. It is probably the most attention-grabbing soundscape since “The People.” Kudos to director Daniel Aukin and the nimble solid for making all of it so seamless.
Will Butler, previously of Arcade Fireplace, gives the unique, layered blues- and folk-based songs — good for progressive rockers within the late ‘70s. The songs are immediately funky, head-bobbing bangers and viewers members will care about them, too. (What occurs to them on the play’s finish is a twist.)
An existential angst hangs over this recording studio in Sausalito, California. Lengthy hours within the studio imply the inhabitants lose observe of time. They work into the wee hours, forgetting what day they’re in. “What month is that this?” one asks.
Exterior the studio, we be taught this unnamed band is getting well-known, however inside there is no such thing as a escape from microaggressions, breakups and perfectionist calls for, all amplified by substance abuse.
The 2 girls within the band — keyboardists and singers performed by Sarah Pidgeon and Juliana Canfield — be taught to stay up for themselves over the course of the play, whereas the lads — the bassist performed by Will Brill and a drummer by Chris Stack — insurgent in opposition to the dictatorial singer-guitarist, performed by Tom Pecinka. Eli Gelb and Andrew R. Butler play the hapless engineers with growing self-confidence.
Adjmi writes the terrible, push-pull fights of {couples} brilliantly: “Simply because I don’t unravel the thread doesn’t imply I don’t know the place it’s,” one girls says to her companion. He additionally captures with accuracy and wit a scene by which three guys have a random, pot-fueled dialogue about houseboats.
Pidgeon’s character, Diana, a budding and gifted singer-songwriter, reveals a profound insecurity, one not helped by her coolly demanding band chief and lover. “I can’t be a rock star and be this silly,” she says. Unhelpful is her companion: “You possibly can’t ask me that can assist you and never enable you. I can’t do each.”
Probably the greatest moments is when this dysfunctional couple are requested to harmonize collectively within the studio, sharing the identical mic however separated by Canfield’s character. The 2 on-again-off-again lovers are at one another’s throats — “My pores and skin is crawling. I can’t stand being close to you,” Diana hisses at him — till the sign to file begins. Then all three voices fantastically merge into one for the recording. Go determine.
Towards the tip, one of many engineers asks Diana why she’d ever think about staying on this noxious band, calling it form of a nightmare. “This was one of the best factor that ever occurred to me,” Diana replies.
These within the viewers know the sensation.
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Comply with Mark Kennedy on-line.
