Through January 25
Stereophonic, the 2024 Best Play Tony Award winner, kicked off its Cleveland run at Playhouse Square January 6 with a determination-testing, attention-challenging performance that lasted over three hours. The tests, the challenges, were for the audience; the actors seemed perfectly at ease.
Written by David Adjmi, directed by Daniel Aukin, and featuring original music by Will Butler, Stereophonic does not claim to be a musical, but instead a play about creating a musical artifact, in this case, an album.
The set makes that clear. It’s a huge, stage-filling recreation of a 1970s California recording studio featuring a variety of now-antique devices that probably sent attending techno nerds into orbit.
The stage has two levels. On the first level we see Jack Barrett as Grover (sound engineer) and Steven Lee Johnson as Charlie (his assistant) managing various keyboards and recording paraphernalia.
On a second level above them we see microphones, instruments, and five musicians singing and playing. The actor-performers (yes, they really did all the instrumental and vocal work) include two couples. One pair is heavy into romantic love (at the beginning) and the other married, but with a serious problem (drugs).
Denver Milord as Peter (guitarist and vocalist) and Claire DeJean as Diana (vocalist) are at the beginning of their love affair. In contrast, the married couple, Christopher Mowod as Reg (bassist) and Emilie Kouatchou as Holly (vocalist and keyboardist) are having troubles. For one thing Reg is an addict. Cornelius McMoyler as Simon (the drummer) keeps busy with the beat as well as trying to hold the group together.
That’s the setup. We then get to watch as they spend a year (a year!) working on the album, singing, playing, and talking and talking and talking about what they are doing.
Their interpersonal interactions seemed realistic. But despite the actors’ skills, both vocal and instrumental, the switch between stage areas meant it was sometimes hard to be sure who said what, or for that matter, to see who was talking. However, the music is also a featured story element and what we heard sounded convincing, if loud (as usual).
I’ve been told the story is based on Fleetwood Mac (some say the Eagles) and their rise to fame. I confess I didn’t follow rock groups in the 1970s, but all bands seem to break up so that’s nothing new.
Art, like Rome, isn’t built in a day, we all know that, but watching artists work, argue, re-work, squabble, fall in and out of love in what felt like real time frequently tested the patience of even the most ardent theater lover (yes, me). Unlike successful works that combined music and observing creatives, such as Title of Show or Once, Stereophonic involved copious silences, pauses, and as a result dragged for those of us who are not professional musicians used to creating an album (or even attending rehearsals).
It seemed hard to care.
However, credit should go to the Stereophonic creative team for taking us “backstage” and letting us see just how much hard work goes into creating art. Members include David Zinn (scenic designer), Enver Chakartash (costume designer), Jiyoun Chang (lighting designer), Ryan Rumery (sound designer), Robert Pickens and Katie Gell (hair and wig designers), Justin Craig (music director), and Gigi Buffington (voice, text, and dialect coach).
Bottom Line: Writers often wryly remind themselves to edit harshly, or as Stephen King advises, be prepared to “kill your darlings.” Someone should have reminded the creators of Stereophonic about that truism.