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
"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
"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
"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
"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
"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
"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
"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
"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."
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Bruce S from Palo Alto on Oct 12, 2024
"I'll start with the good: the music was damn good, and I loved seeing the process of seeing the music develop and change as the dynamics of the group changed. Grover and friend were the best parts of this otherwise very long and strangely timed show, adding humor and physical comedy. The pauses weren't just long-they were uncomfortably long. We couldn't figure out if that was intentional. The play is way too long for the content and storyline. I kept hoping it would get better as the play unfolded, but alas-no. The premise was excellent, the characters were well developed, there was some punchy humor but lawd almighty someone needed to get in there and edit ruthlessly. Post-show, we immediately took to google to figure out where all of these Tony noms came from. Sorry dawg it's a no for me."
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Broadway.com Customer on Nov 18, 2024
"I couldn’t figure out if there was a plot. I didn’t have any interest in the characters. I wasn’t even sure when the play ended… there wasn’t any conclusion. "
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Broadway.com Customer on Nov 10, 2024
"I did not find this show very entertaining. Music was good but not memorable. Just average show. Disappointed."
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Broadway.com Customer on Oct 24, 2024
"This 3hr 10min play would greatly benefit from substantial editing, starting with the pregnant-pauses. The over-talking of multiple actors talking over each other makes it impossible to follow the through-line. There were some very nice overarching messaging of love, loyalty, and commitment, but the the same messaging could have be delivered in half the time in a much more interesting way. Most of the characters were unlikable, which made the 3hrs 10min all the more challenging to sit through. The only parts of Stereophonic I did enjoy were the vocal singing pieces, which were sadly soon interrupted by more over-talking and more pregnant pauses. "
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Jaime C from SAN FRANCISCO on Nov 11, 2024
"The play was way too long, just like how long it took them to make their 2nd album. I didn't need to spend over $125 to listen to people arguing for 3.50 hours. Hard to relate to any of the characters. Might have made a difference if I had grown up in that era. Didn't find any of them enjoyable with all the drugs, drinking, and arguing.
The set was very good. The sound board was original and used well in the play. Did like that the actors knew how to play their instruments, and of course were all awesome singers."
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Broadway.com Customer on Oct 4, 2024
"I thought the show was unnecessarily long and boring. The first act was slow and the dialogue was mostly boring. I didn’t care about any of the characters in the band. Things improved when the music began, about 30 minutes into the show. I really do not understand all the glowing reviews. I couldn’t wait for it to finally end."
