Your patience for this one was much appreciated; I needed time gathering my thoughts and to let this one sit with me for a bit.
First of all, I’d like to begin by saying I don’t personally get what the big deal is with “Stereophonic.” Yeah, it’s good in places, but I wouldn’t consider it the best thing that’s hit Broadway since god knows when, and the only reason it had so many Tony nominations is because of it’s musical elements, which actually are highlights of this production (bravo to Will Butler for recreating the sound of the 70’s for today’s audience). Hell, I don’t even think I’d consider it to be as explosive as it’s described to be, or at least it doesn’t get all that until the the second half of an already too lengthy production (3 hours did not feel necessary). While we watch a linear plot line surrounding the making of an upcoming 70’s band’s album over the course of a year, David Adjmi’s play is an all-around mixture of character backstory murkiness and one too many unnecessary sidebar conversations; shaving off these conversations might’ve made the runtime more tolerable. And yet, throughout all that, Adjmi’s crafting of characters somehow doesn’t fall flat because he’s found the right language, vocabulary, and verbal nuances needed to create such an array of troubled artists that pop onstage, and that partners quite well with some greatly executed scenes of heightened danger. But again, we really don’t see much of that until the show’s second half. The first half takes its sweet time in establishing everybody and everything that’s going on in their lives at the time the play takes place. The pressure cooker just won’t start until 3/4ths into act one. And seriously, a little more clarity on moments that happen both before the events of the play and in between scenes wouldn’t hurt; I was scratching my head a few times throughout the night. Daniel Aukin’s direction lends to bringing the text on its feet, but it’s nothing special when you’ve got many characters just sitting down or standing in a recording booth. The direction really only feels masterful when you’ve got two-characters scenes that take place in private and you can feel the objective and tactic work oozing out onto the audience. But that doesn’t make up for the rest of this lackluster direction. The main thing both Admji and Aukin appear to get right is the tediousness that comes with recording an album. You literally feel the tension and exhaustion in both the text and staging, and the blend between the two is something to applaud no doubt. But that’s really the only thing I can commend the two of them on as collaborators. Even production design elements are nothing to full blown rave about with the exception of Ryan Rumery’s ingenious sound design that truly makes you feel like you’re on the engineers’ side of the recording process. Yeah, the clothing says the 70’s, but it’s not like they’re THE costumes of the season. Same can be said with the set. The cast as an ensemble work very well together, especially for the five band members who play live onstage after, from what I was told, having to learn to play specifically for this show. There’s an incredible standout performance by Eli Gelb as a pot-induced recording engineer. Everyone else in the cast has there moments, as well as some great character body work if you examine it from an actor’s perspective, but they just don’t sweep you off your feet. Characters either come off as annoying (Sarah Pidgeon), as complete assholes (Tom Pecinka), as just a blur (Juliana Canfield), or just have thick British accents you can barely make out in terms of what’s being said (Will Brill), and somehow all of them were nominated. I wanted to be thrilled by this one, but I just left feeling exasperated and only a little bit satisfied. I can seriously only recommend “Stereophonic” unless you are a diehard fan of the music industry and/or 70’s music. Otherwise, you’d be better off seeing something more gripping like “Appropriate” or really any of the other plays that were nominated at this year’s ceremony. But somehow, we all knew this one would win and I personally just don’t know why after what I sat through.
