Stereophonic: Music, Nostalgia & Notes

When you walk into Boston’s Emerson Colonial theatre you are drawn straight back to the 1970s. You tiptoe down the aisle into the recording studio of 1976 Record Plant, now 2200 Studios in Sausalito, checking over your shoulder because it almost feels like you shouldn’t be in here, but the ushers are just leading you to your seat. After you’ve settled into your seat, Grover, the sound engineer starts checking mics and settling in behind the soundboard. You feel a bit like a groupie who somehow snuck into the recording studio.

Then, the lights go up and the show begins taking you on a wild and chaotic ride. Stereophonic is at The Emerson Colonial through March 15th and tickets can be purchased here. There is cocaine, weed, lots of alcohol, and all kinds of human relationship dynamics, humour, and some pretty impressive singing that brings it all together.

The performance is a play not a musical, but the music has main character energy and in fact has some pretty epic diva moments. Speaking of divas, the play’s main plot is an ebb and flow of the chaos, imbalance, and egos of artists. The band is made up of Diana, Holly, Simon, Peter and Reg. Diana, played by Claire DeJean, the band’s singer is in a relationship with Peter, played by Denver Milord, the band’s leader and guitar player. Like many relationships with people who work and “play” together it is a fraught one. Add in artists’ sensibilities and fervor and it is electric in every type of way. The rest of the band members are played by Emilie Kouatchou, Cornelius McMoyler, Christopher Mowod. The talent of the actors to bring these very different and colourful characters to life is unequivocally excellent.

The sound engineers Grover, played by Jack Barrett, and Charlie, played by Steven Lee Johnson, provide some fabulous comic relief. It is so easy to forget someone wrote these characters because you get lost in the story, dynamics and personalities. It is so cleanly done you fall deep for the people.

I’m writing this from my apartment in Brooklyn, just as we’re starting tour rehearsals. It’s a bittersweet moment, because after 10 years of writing and building this thing in workshop after workshop – and two full years after that of rehearsing various iterations of it (including the the replacement cast for Broadway and West End productions) we are nearing the end of our journey with a project that has changed all our lives.

–David Adjmi, Play Bill author’s note

Reading the author’s note I had to do a double take to make sure it was not some sort of synopsis or excerpt from Stereophonic, because they reflect sentiments and experiences so close to the play itself. Perhaps that is another reason why Stereophonic hits so many chords with the audience. There is something voyeuristic about sitting in the audience peeking into the recording studio. Then, peeking further into the sound booth, and then peeking even further into the artists lives; it is a sort of matryoshka doll of voyeurism.

David Adjmi’s Tony award winning play, Stereophonic, will be at the Emerson Colonial for only through Sunday, March 15th. Tickets for one of the five remaining performances can be purchased here.