An intense dive into a band's gruelling creative process and fraught relationships. Like any great record, Stereophonic feels like one that will grow and grow with repeated playback.Summary
Rating
Excellent
Set in 1970s LA, David Adjmi’s record-breaking Tony nominee Stereophonic follows an unnamed, fictional, British-American rock band and their studio engineers recording a new album. It’s a fly-on-the-wall glimpse into what begins as a musical project but quickly unfurls into an intense study of egos, fraught relationships, and the toll of perfectionism.
Beyond the story, Adjmi’s structure mirrors the creative process that it depicts – deliberate, repetitive, and slow-burning, but all perfectly controlled by director Daniel Aukin. At over three hours runtime, it’s a long night, and while the seats at the Duke of York‘s will remind you of that, the length isn’t indulgence; it’s essential. You feel the characters’ fatigue, their looping arguments, their silent and not so silent tensions. Time becomes an emotional device.
Bringing the all-important music and 70s sound falls to Will Butler (formerly ofArcade Fire), whose original songs and orchestrations are fantastic. Crucially, the cast all play their own instruments, lending a rare and striking authenticity to the music, which sounds great.
Jack Riddiford takes on the challenging role of Peter, a tyrannical, controlling presence – particularly in his awful treatment of Diana – capturing his volatility and smouldering resentment. Fleeting references to childhood trauma and a rivalry with a brother hint at deeper layers, but we don’t see enough nuance from Riddiford in his performance and it veers too close to one-note. Zachary Hart’s Reg fares better in this regard. Reg grapples with demons of his own – booze and drugs, and yet Hart allows moments of vulnerability to seep through the bravado, giving a more complex portrait of a man in quiet collapse.
Lucy Karczewski plays Diana, Peter’s partner (both romantically and musically), who bears the brunt of his controlling behaviour: the toll it takes on her is quietly devastating and superbly delivered by Karczewski. Holly (Nia Towle) is in many ways the band’s emotional compass. Less volatile than the others, Holly presents a quiet resilience that anchors the chaotic personalities around her. At times she feels like an observer looking in and her silence speaks volumes in comparison to the male egos and outbursts. Similarly, Chris Stack’s Simon, drummer and band manager, seems quieter and more restrained, often wryly watching. This makes his own blow ups more impactful but also brings more laughs.
At times, Eli Gelb’s Grover feels like the heart of the story. He’s the young soundman who tricked his way into engineering the album, caught between the different needs of band members and the demands of the recording process, and Gelb brings a jittery charm, working both as mediator and an outside viewpoint. Deadpan changes to exasperation as he mutes the sound and can speak freely. Gelb brilliantly catches Grover’s growing exhaustion and quiet despair as the sessions spiral relentlessly.
David Zinn’s set both looks and sounds great, with a mixing desk up front and a sound booth recreated in the back. It’s far from design for design’s sake, as the set pulls the audience into real-time recording, with rewinding a tape reel or mic-checking vocals part of the drama.
I was reminded of The Lehman Trilogy, another three hour plus epic, ostensibly about a bank, while Stereophonic is ostensibly about the making of an album. In both cases, there’s much more beneath the surface. While Lehman uses the story of a bank to meditate on capitalism, immigration, and legacy, Stereophonic brilliantly uses the recording of an album to look at the romantic myth of the tortured artist, gender dynamics, controlling behaviour and the bruising intimacy of collaboration, showing the sometimes ugliness of creation. Both suggest that what seems specific is, in fact, universal.
Written by David Adjmi
Original Songs by Will Butler
Directed by Daniel Aukin
Scenic Design by David Zinn
Sound Design by Ryan Rumery
Orchestrations by Will Butler, Justin Craig
Stereophonic plays at Duke of York’s Theatre until Saturday 11 October.
