Stereophonic
A fun night at the National Theatre.
In April 2024, Stereophonic became the most Tony-nominated play in history receiving 13 Award nominations. It then became the most Tony Award-winning show of the 2024 season, winning 5 Tony Awards including Best Play. It was written by David Adjmi, and the original songs are by Will Butler. It is superbly directed by Daniel Aukin.
Stereophonic mines the agony and the ecstasy of creation as it zooms in on a music studio in 1976. Here, an up-and-coming rock band recording a new album finds itself suddenly on the cusp of superstardom. The ensuing pressures could spark their breakup—or their breakthrough.
It is the story of an unnamed British- American rock band who gather in Sausalito, CA. to record their second album. They are assisted by sound engineers Grover and Charlie. Their drummer Simon, whose wife and children still live in England, is trying to keep the peace as the marriage between bassist Reg, and keyboardist/vocalist Holly, is crumbling, largely due to Reg's drug and alcohol addiction. As the play begins the band is rehearsing new songs. Grover confesses to Charlie that he lied about working with The Eagles. Eventually he finds out the band knew this all along. They are all living together and the drugs, sex, and alcohol, create many of the problems.
The acting is uniformly good but if I had to pick out some to mention it is: Peter (Denver Milord), the band’s guitarist and singer, who is really good in the role, as he tries to manage them all, but has all his own issues. Then there is Diana (Claire Dejean), the singer with the band. She has a really good voice. She is having trouble dealing with the new fame she and the band are having. Then there is Reg (played on opening night by an understudy (Jake Regensburg) who was really great in the role. All the music is good. When the band does a full number, they are all great. Actually, I would have liked to hear more of them, and more music.
The creative team is great and includes; Scenic Design (David Zinn), Costume Designer (Enver Chakartash), and Sound Design (Ryan Rumery).
I enjoyed the play but truly believe they could have shortened it by 30 minutes and it would have been just as good. We would have understood all the feelings that were impacting the members of the band. In today’s world, longer is not always better.
But despite that, I recommend seeing Stereophonic. It is a fun night at the theater. Tickets are available online for Stereophonic. There is a special offer, and you can save on tickets with code GUITAR* for the Tuesday/Wednesday/Thursday/ Sunday evening performances. The code should be entered before selecting your seats by clicking the “unlock” button on the Ticketmaster page. *Select seats. Restrictions apply. Not valid in premium seating.
