What is STEREOPHONIC?

Earlier this year I was fortunate enough to catch the touring production of Stereophonic at the Pantages Theater in Los Angeles. Lucky me. They’ll be in Dallas at the Winspear Opera House May 8 – 10. Lucky us. The play is the most Tony Award nominated play in history for a reason and this production more than does that lineage justice.

What is Stereophonic? It’s not a musical. It’s a play. Sure. But that description feels insufficient. It’s more than that. And it’s not just a play with music. It’s a play FILLED with music (really good music) written by Will Butler of Arcade Fire fame (I immediately added his solo project to my playlist) and performed live by a supremely talented cast that functions as convincingly as a band as it does an acting ensemble.

The setting is a perfectly detailed recording studio in the late 1970s. A rock band (a mix of Brits and Americans) enters the studio to record their second album. They’ve got three weeks to record. Midway through the process, their first album unexpectedly climbs to number one. Success arrives not as a victory lap, but as a major complication. The stakes change overnight. The world is watching. The follow-up album must now justify the sudden acclaim none of them were expecting.

Complicating matters further, the band contains two romantic relationships, each with its own set of fault lines. At the control panel is a producer with an acute case of imposter syndrome. What unfolds is a patient chronicle of a recording process that stretches from weeks into years, following the making of an album, and the erosion of the people making it.

One thread I found fascinating is the play’s exploration of making art. Not just trying to make a buck but striving for something that will stand the test of time, and what that costs the artists. In time. In health. In relationships. It’s about the act of creation and how elusive it can be. Moments of true inspiration can’t be forced and when you’re in the valley between them, it feels like the next will never come.

These moments are the play’s best. When the band suddenly falls into sync, when the noise turns into music, and you see why they started making music together in the first place. There’s a sense here that you’re something more than just an observer as these people create something wonderful, even as they lose something else. It’s thrilling.

This touring production is truly first-rate, the kind that is hard to distinguish from an original Broadway run. Claire Dejean gives a star-making performance as Diana, the band’s lead singer. She begins vulnerable and frustrated but beautifully portrays someone slowly learning her worth as a woman and an artist.

Denver Milord’s Peter, her husband and the band’s creative engine, is OBSESSED with perfection. HIS image of perfection. He comes across as equal parts inspirational leader and self-destructive dictator. But Milord manages to make us understand where Peter’s coming from.

Jack Barrett gets our sympathy as Grover, the overmatched producer, while Christopher Mowod as Reg, his assistant, deftly steals scenes with dry, perfectly timed observations that cut right through the tension. For a play filled to the brim with tension, it’s packed with moments that a simple, true statement (or understatement) elicits a full audience laugh. That’s quite a trick.

Full disclosure: I was barely a toddler in the late ’70s, so I don’t have any personal affinity for the era or its music. I went into the theater unsure what I’d connect with. But the story and its themes still landed deeply with me. These performers, paired with Will Butler’s music and David Adjmi’s writing, left no doubt this was one of the best nights I’ve had in a theater in years.