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.
"Starts off very chaotic and tricky to follow but once the storyline progresses it is a good show with fantastic music/songs."
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Mike C from Rossendale on Nov 12, 2024
It’s a long playing record!
"Loved the music. Some funny characters and moments throughout. Unnecessarily long though. Many pauses in dialogue which while I understand may have been for dramatic effect, just contributed to the length of this play. The story could have been told in about 1/3 less time. "
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Gord S from Brechin on Oct 26, 2024
Great music and story
"The music was great. The voices amazing. The acting excellent.
The character development seemed to happen in the last 2 acts when I was hoping for more music. So it seemed drawn out at the end. Overall a wonderful play…just was hoping for more music. "
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Broadway.com Customer on Oct 23, 2024
Interesting Production
"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
Expected something different
"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 Superb, the Good, and the (you fill in the blank)
"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
Probably better if the sound was better
"Overall it was entertaining and obviously very talented actors...BUT many people including me, couldn't hear half of the dialogue as when the actors spoke, they spoke very fast hear them. IF they had microphones on them, you wouldn't know it. It was clear that it was an issue as any laughs or reaction to spoken words only came from a section in the orchestra. I was in the second row mezzanine which is usually great sound and visuals. On another note, it's a 3 hour show with a 15 minute intermission with one male and one female bathroom downstairs...need I say more."
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Broadway.com Customer on Jan 9, 2025
Nostalgia for sure
"Cast and set were marvelous
The show was interesting for sure
For me it was a bit long and tripped and perseverated on what have become stereotypes of an era
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tina b from Seattle on Jan 4, 2025
Good music, hard to watch
"We came in with high expectations and left at intermission very disappointed. We enjoyed the music, but felt the story and dialogue was flat and not engaging. We had little interest watching people snort cocaine in 1976. "
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Broadway.com Customer on Dec 29, 2024
A bit slow
"The story was interesting but protracted, and the characters generally unlikable. Voices and music were the highlights of the show. Mezzanine seats/legroom were SO cramped—sad to say, but we left early. "
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Broadway.com Customer on Dec 5, 2024
The first Act was unecessarily long.
"I enjoyed most of it.
Make sure you get up during the intermission after Act 2 because the show is 3 hours + long."
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Nancy B from BROOKLYN on Dec 4, 2024
Not for me
"The acting was good, but the play was very slow moving. I was expecting a musical with more singing. It was serious and tense the whole time. My husband liked it more than I did."
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Broadway.com Customer on Nov 14, 2024
Unexpected
"I loved the dialogue, the words, the emotion. When there was music, it was very good. There just was not enough of it. The play is too long by at least 45 minutes. The long pauses between words became irritating. That may have been the point, but it seemed unnecessary. "
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Broadway.com Customer on Nov 14, 2024
Fantastic idea, mediocre execution (sadly)
"The original idea is a fantastic one. Very interesting premise. The simple issue is, the play is just way too long. I appreciate the fact that the underlying message is how long it takes to make a great album, but there are more effective ways to get that message across than dragging out this play more than 3 hours. The actors were very good, the music was excellent, the process of them building the songs was very good, the interpersonal stuff got a little boring and repetitive, and overall it was great, it just needed to be edited down to around two hours."
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Mark H from Calgary on Nov 2, 2024
Average performance.
"The musical numbers were really good. There were too many times where there were uncomfortable silent moments throughout the show. Sometimes 15-20 seconds where no one spoke and no one moved. "
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Broadway.com Customer on Oct 25, 2024
STEREOPHONIC
"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
Possibly great, if only we could hear
"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."
