STEREOPHONIC Original Broadway Cast Recording Thread- Page 4

[ColorTheHours048]

Posted: 5/11/24 at 10:43am

macnyc said: "When I was watching the show, I was disappointed that the musical numbers were few and far between. I think the play would have benefited from some subtle cuts off its three-hours-plus running time and had a few more of Butler's tunes inserted.

For those of you who have listened to the album, is there a reason the songs were not included? Maybe they didn't fit into the narrative?"

What you’re essentially asking is why this wasn’t a more traditional musical. And the answer to why it’s not is that David Adjmi wrote a play, not a musical. It’s fine if you didn’t like it as much as if it were more aligned with traditional musical sensibilities (songs driving the narrative vs. supplementing it), but I generally find questions of “Why didn’t they do X instead of Y?” pretty useless, since the only real answer is “Because they didn’t.”

That being said, Will Butler wrote songs for specific moments where Adjmi wanted music to play. And instead of writing 10-second snippets or 1-minute starts of songs for the times where we don’t hear the whole thing, he found a way to write whole songs that could be repurposed however they fit dramatically. It’s similar to how Sondheim wrote “A Weekend in the Country” for A Little Night Music: stage the scene, plot it out, and write the song to meet the play where it’s at.

At the end of the day, it’s a play about a band recording an album and all that entails for their interpersonal dynamic. The music we hear is deployed for specific dramatic effect, and all the other songs on the album that we don’t hear were possibly a part of it in some way at some point, but they were cut (or cut down/repurposed for incidental music used in act transitions) for time for the same reason dialogue is cut: to focus the narrative.

Updated On: 5/11/24 at 10:43 AM

[bear88]

Posted: 5/11/24 at 9:11pm

macnyc said: "When I was watching the show, I was disappointed that the musical numbers were few and far between. I think the play would have benefited from some subtle cuts off its three-hours-plus running time and had a few more of Butler's tunes inserted.

For those of you who have listened to the album, is there a reason the songs were not included? Maybe they didn't fit into the narrative?

Another question: For the Best Score Tony, does the committee just judge the music that is in the play, or would they take the whole album into consideration?


Wouldn’t those count, for Tony Awards purposes, as cut songs? It would be different for music awards like the Grammys.

 

Click Here To Toggle Spoiler Content

Is Bright the only full song that is in the play?

 

 

[ColorTheHours048]

Posted: 5/11/24 at 10:22pm

bear88 said:

 

Click Here To Toggle Spoiler Content

Is Bright the only full song that is in the play?

 

 

Click Here To Toggle Spoiler Content

At least as far as the band is concerned, the only full song we hear is “Masquerade” before intermission. “Bright” is technically still truncated from its final form, since they mention it’s about 6 minutes long; the longest on their album. We hear what I assume is the entirety of the song between “Bright (Fast)” and “Bright (Take 22)” since there are differences in the lyrics, though neither version is the full version the band would have released in their actual album. But we do hear the entirety of those three songs from the real-life album in the show.

Updated On: 5/11/24 at 10:22 PM

[bear88]

Posted: 5/11/24 at 10:40pm

ColorTheHours048 said: "bear88 said:

 

Click Here To Toggle Spoiler Content

Is Bright the only full song that is in the play?

 

Click Here To Toggle Spoiler Content

At least as far as the band is concerned, the onlyfullsong we hear is “Masquerade” before intermission. “Bright” is technically still truncated from its final form, since they mention it’s about 6 minutes long; the longest on their album. We hear what I assume is the entirety of the song between “Bright (Fast)” and “Bright (Take 22)” since there are differences in the lyrics, though neither version is thefullversion the band would have released in their actual album. But we do hear the entirety of those three songs from the real-life album in the show.

Thanks.

 

[kdogg36]

Posted: 5/12/24 at 9:45am

macnyc said: "Another question: For the Best Score Tony, does the committee just judge the music that is in the play, or would they take the whole album into consideration?"

Since they're judging the best score written for the theater rather than an album, I'm quite sure they're only supposed to consider what's on stage. I'm almost as sure that the Stereophonic people are distributing copies of the full cast recording to Tony voters for their consideration.

[Dreamboy3]

Posted: 5/12/24 at 10:02am

Does anyone else have trouble understanding the lyrics?  Both in the play and on the album. 

[Play Esq.]

Posted: 5/12/24 at 10:22am

Somehow this album slaps even harder on a Sunday. 

[Miss10036]

Posted: 5/12/24 at 12:05pm

It does!  I've been looping the album all "sunday moooornin'" and have been for the past few days.  While Drive and Bright (Take 22) are probably my favorite tracks, this morning I keep looping the part of Masquerade before "I'll see you when I get there" to chase the high of hearing that part live.

[raddersons]

Posted: 5/13/24 at 12:26am

I love all these songs but… Masquerade is really just everything. 

[QueenAlice]

Posted: 5/13/24 at 9:03am

 

Click Here To Toggle Spoiler Content

I seem to remember we also hear quite a bit of "Drive" in the play.

 

[QueenAlice]

Posted: 5/13/24 at 9:06am

Has Will Butler talked at all about his process creating the songs for the show? I'd love to read any interview that people are aware of. I would 'guess' that he wrote the songs in their entirety first and they selected the desired building block pieces of each  to show the evolution of the songs as is relative to the script, but of course I could be completely wrong. 

[Hey, Zelda!]

Posted: 5/13/24 at 9:13am

QueenAlice said: "Has Will Butler talked at all about his process creating the songs for the show? I'd love to read any interview that people are aware of. I would 'guess' that he wrote the songs in their entirety first and they selected the desired building block pieces of eachto show the evolution of the songs as is relative to the script, but of course I could be completely wrong."

From Vulture: How to Write a Fake Rock Song

 

[TylerJia]

Posted: 5/28/24 at 11:13am

I can't stop listening to this f*cking album

[jkcohen626]

Posted: 5/29/24 at 11:37am

QueenAlice said: "Has Will Butler talked at all about his process creating the songs for the show? I'd love to read any interview that people are aware of. I would 'guess' that he wrote the songs in their entirety first and they selected the desired building block pieces of eachto show the evolution of the songs as is relative to the script, but of course I could be completely wrong."

Will and David did an episode of Decoder Ring about it. It's more broadly about writing fake music for film/TV/Stage, but uses Stereophonic as the central case study and discusses why Will and David were so successful where others failed. Definitely worth a listen.

https://open.spotify.com/episode/6tsuikOECXO1ImCNWSf6Dt?si=1b4c114d55d9451e 

[hearthemsing22]

Posted: 5/29/24 at 12:26pm

I want to experience this live again so I have a ticket for the week after the Tonys. 

[EDSOSLO858]

Posted: 6/10/24 at 11:42am

Cast album signing set for June 25 at 3 PM, at Rough Trade NYC. Full cast, Will Butler, and co-orchestrator Justin Craig will all be there. 

https://dice.fm/partner/dice/event/ww3ewp-stereophonic-original-cast-recording-signing-25th-jun-rough-trade-nyc-new-york-tickets?dice_id=3269483&dice_channel=web&dice_tags=organic&dice_campaign=DICE&dice_feature=mio_marketing&_branch_referrer=H4sIAAAAAAAAAwXB226CMAAA0C9SLgMHS5albIrdaMGAAn1pSim0IEMskOjXe46c55v%2BMIyr%2Bu%2B3teJi2wyGYjvLE43l%2Brb31VT8qurPBJBCmlWLJcnNb5TtAWAk166D3ODe6vFvfpq6LIWVrTQMaeCfKr98A2Wbrg%2B4gkt4yH9BT37gcYk0ZWKgIPXF5ubcR4jrQ%2FB8DyNyiRndLOfivCKZ7BI90qWLbaiRyXBfNFh10yNzhqOObU%2BOadGeuglh7npZFGXTfoWE8%2BkFTApRatMAAAA%3D&fbclid=PAZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAaZWs54M5BrgsoKtz0sYYe1Tv_GG_B9Qb9Y3AYgSvyIvAVGFWJAkZDIHuLs_aem_AS9e-p4roINdFBz7GLZVOa_-uUXUvMhP6Pso_ujO2IsM0aNkXfNijqyT4mHsO28hoSXgQjqMNc58TLLTqEvIZccq&_branch_match_id=1328738292523345332

[MezzA101]

Posted: 6/12/24 at 7:03pm

QueenAlice said: "Has Will Butler talked at all about his process creating the songs for the show? I'd love to read any interview that people are aware of. I would 'guess' that he wrote the songs in their entirety first and they selected the desired building block pieces of eachto show the evolution of the songs as is relative to the script, but of course I could be completely wrong."

Will Butler and Justin Craig Break Down the Stereophonic Broadway Cast Album | Playbill

https://playbill.com/article/will-butler-and-justin-craig-break-down-the-cast-recording-of-broadways-stereophonic

[hearthemsing22]

Posted: 6/13/24 at 8:37am

Maybe I need to see more plays, but did anyone else feel drowsy during this? I felt like i had to keep sitting up to make sure I didn't doze off.  I feel horrible 

[raddersons]

Posted: 6/14/24 at 1:22pm

I noticed a few places (Best Buy, Barnes & Noble) were taking preorders for Vinyl editions of this recording, so I bit the bullet to order one despite there being no news about it or it not being on the official merch store. Unsurprisingly it was supposed to arrive today but has been “delayed”. I was expecting this and will probably end up getting a refund if it doesn’t change in the next week or so. 

Just wanted to share so if if people also see this, then can know what to expect (nothing)

[kennin]

Posted: 6/15/24 at 6:01am

raddersons said: "I noticed a few places (Best Buy, Barnes & Noble) were taking preorders for Vinyl editions of this recording, so I bit the bullet to order one despite there being no news about it or it not being on the official merch store. Unsurprisingly it was supposed to arrive today but has been “delayed”. I was expecting this and will probably end up getting a refund if it doesn’t change in the next week or so.

Just wanted to share so if if people also see this, then can know what to expect (nothing)"

I preordered the vinyl from B&N.   It showed up today as a CD.   The rep on the phone said there is no vinyl Listed in their system.