Stereophonic mines the agony and the ecstasy of creation as it zooms in on a music studio in 1976, where an up-and-coming rock band finds itself on the cusp of superstardom. Written by David Adjmi, directed by Daniel Aukin, and featuring original music by Arcade Fire’s Will Butler, this electrifying new play takes audiences inside the powder keg process of a band on the brink of blowing up.
"The acting is reasonably strong and the music is good. But overall, I felt the show is lackluster in choreography, costumes, lighting, etc. It isn't bad, just not great. I felt there was way too much dialogue and too little music and it dragged. It's 15-20 minutes too long. It is an interesting concept, but ultimately not that interesting to watch and too many scenes were repetitive."
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ESTHER A from Arlington on Oct 7, 2024
"The performance grew on me. By the end of Act IV, I was more into the story. Musicality of performers was obvious. At times, the production was a bit slow though. The whole row beside us didn’t return after intermission, which got me thinking that not everyone got what they were expecting. The Tonys built up my expectations …. "
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Broadway.com Customer on Sep 21, 2024
"The talent of the actors was incredible. Acting, singing and playing instruments was impressive beyond measure. Experiencing the journey in producing an award winning album was informative and gut wrenching at the same time. However, the dialogue drag many times. It’s too long and tedious. 1 1/2 hrs for Act 1 &2 and another 1 after intermission. Too many long pauses. Needs to be shortened if going on the road. "
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John R from Detroit on Sep 14, 2024
"Great music, too much dialogue. Scenes with dialogue were very long. Some of the scenes could have been cut. Great costumes and I loved the set. Prices for tickets were affordable. I bought the album immediately after seeing the show. I just think that some of the dialogue and jokes that are followed by long pauses could be cut from the script to make the show shorter "
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Broadway.com Customer on Oct 21, 2024
"The performances looked good, the music was great, but both I and my wife could only hear about 2/3 of the dialog.
The seats we had were not bad (orchestra, about 3/4 back and by the aisle) were reasonable (and expensive) so shouldn't have had a problem. But the actors weren't mic'd, and a significant amount of the dialog was spoken behind a glass wall (a recording booth). Additionally, one of the two actresses spoke rather softly and quickly, and the other had a fairly strong British accent that made her harder to understand.
And to make it even worse, one of the key parts of the show occurred off-stage, making the dialog there almost completely unintelligible. I'm not sure what the producers were thinking in that case.
Oh, and one other annoyance. Two of the characters (the bassist and drummer) had similar enough appearances that it made it difficult to distinguish between them (though one was an understudy, so perhaps that was part of the problem).
The dialog I heard was interesting, and the physical acting was excellent. The themes of art and its creation, the perils of keeping an artistic group of any kind together and in sync, and the personal conflicts dealt with were interesting. The music was superb, interesting and true to the late 70's style that the piece was set in. Oh, and all of the actors (in the musical group) sang like angels, especially their harmonies were spot on.
I wanted to like this show. I somewhat enjoyed it in spite of the serious problem, but can't realistically give it a thumbs up."
