Alfred Hitchcock, in a 1960 interview, famously said that ‘Drama is life with the dull bits cut out’.
Sadly for all concerned it appears to be an interview that David Adjmi, playwright of Stereophonic, the three hour, four act, word-salad which has just opened at The Duke of York’s Theatre, has either never heard, or else thinks so little of his audience that he intentionally ignores.
Stereophonic has all the dull bits added back in… but would barely have been ‘drama’ in the first place.
So let me be clear. Although there are some good points about this evening in the theatre – which I’ll get to – the script isn’t one of them.
It’s a directionless, recording-studio-set ramble where a group of disagreeable but essentially ordinary musicians with few individual problems to overcome that don’t flow from their own failings, make a series of recordings, getting gradually more successful as the play progresses. The only worries they have are to do with how to spend all the money the record company is shovelling in their direction.
That’s it. No great insight into the human condition. No untold truths about what it’s like to create – for want of a better word – art. No, just the soap-opera of mediocre people doing mediocre things; being nasty to each other; taking too many drugs; falling out of love; falling into lust; vying for top spot in ‘the band’. All rather tedious.
It’s so much more hard to believe then that not only did this play receive more Tony nominations than any other in Broadway history – 13 – but went on to actually WIN 5, including Best New Play. All I can think is that 2024 must have been a very quiet year on Broadway.
That’s not to say that there aren’t some positives.
David Zinn’s Tony-winning set is gloriously detailed, as are Enver Chakartash’s costumes. The original songs the band are ‘creating’ – and it must be said, the cast are excellent musicians – are written by Will Butler, though are over-amplified, so little chance of there being a best sound design gong on this side of the pond.
The play itself is in four acts, and runs from 1976 to 1977.
Act one has one of the English characters saying something was 50 metres away. I can’t imagine it would ever have happened. Only five years after decimalisation, and having been brought up on Imperial measurements, he’d have used yards. Oh, and there’s a funny line in act two involving a gynaecologist.
There are a few laugh-points in acts three and four. At least I did occasionally laugh, but then I’d had a gin and tonic during the interval, and was far more comfortable as I was able to spread out with my plus one due to the walk-outs, and concomitant empty seats.
In a script with very little to recommend it there is one slight glimmer of a character to invest emotional capital in, and that’s the sound engineer, Grover, played with endearing charm by Eli Gelb. The character has the only real want. He’s doing the sound-engineer job because he needs the money, and takes a lot of ordure from some of the band members in trying to keep it. We see him grow, and even have an inkling that he may be the only one to come out of the events portrayed with any credit to speak of.
So, overall the musicianship of the cast is excellent. The set, costumes, hair, band arrangements, and even lighting are first rate. It’s just the actual play that bored the pants off me.
Director: Daniel Aukin
Writer: David Adjmi
Original Songs: Will Butler
Cast: Andrew R Butler, Eli Gelb, Zachary Hart, Lucy Karczewski, Jack Riddiford, Chris Stack, Nia Towle
Dates: Booking to 20th September 2025
Running time: 3 hours 10 minutes, 1 x 20 minute interval
Date Seen: 14th June 2025