Tuesdays at 7pm
Wednesdays at 1pm and 7pm
Thursdays at 7pm
Fridays at 7pm
Saturdays at 1pm and 7pm
Sundays at 2pm
*performance schedule varies
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.
It’s also a stunning feat of scoring by Adjmi — whose hypernaturalistic script captures the ebb and flow of overlapping speech both inside and outside the studio’s sound room — and by director Daniel Aukin and composer Will Butler. Aukin and the show’s stellar cast play Adjmi’s rigorously constructed, deceptively casual prose with as much exactness and audacity as the actors, all playing their instruments live, pour into Butler’s songs: Smart, well-crafted tunes that blend the folk and blues and prog vibes of the ’70s with the soaring indie yearning of Butler’s former band, Arcade Fire. (There’s a cast album on the way.) The show is part concert and part breakup drama, part sound-design marvel (Ryan Rumery is the hero responsible) and part beautifully observed period piece (everyone’s legs look dynamite in Enver Chakartash’s bells and flares, and that lovingly intricate set is by David Zinn). But it’s the thing Adjmi conjures up at the end of Act One that makes Stereophonic such a meaningful and exceptional piece of work: In its bones, it’s a love song, bittersweet and wounded and ferociously loyal, to the act of making art — specifically, art that requires that most exhausting, infuriating, transcendent element: collaboration.
Funny, raw and poignant in equal measure, this expertly sculpted play has the feel of both a behind-the-music docudrama and a lost Robert Altman film, with its astute microcosmic focus, its frequent wash of overlapping dialogue and its sly nudges toward satire. In fact, while the music — fabulous original songs written by Will Butler, formerly of Arcade Fire — is pop-rock rather than country, Stereophonic could almost be an expanded vignette lifted right out of Nashville.
Digital Rush
Price: $30
Where: https://rush.telecharge.com/
When: 11am on the day of performance.
Limit: Two per customer
Information: Subject to availability.
General Rush:
Price: $35
Where: Golden Theatre (252 W 45th St) box office
When: When the box office opens on the day of the performance.
Limit: Two per customer.
Information: Subject to daily availability.
Digital Lottery:
Price: $40
Where: rush.telecharge.com
When: Entries for the Stereophonic digital lottery will open at 12:00AM ET two days before each performance and will end at 3:00PM the same day. Winners are drawn the day before the performance at 10:00am and 3:00pm and will be notified via email.
Limit: Two per customer
Information: Subject to availability.
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