Posted: 4/18/24 at 5:54pm
Playwright David Adjmi has announced limted edition vinyls vibe on sale starting tonight at the Golden
https://twitter.com/dadjmi/status/1781070323091218685
Posted: 4/18/24 at 7:00pm
I saw the show last night...and I just kept thinking, why this show why now? I read the mostly glowing reviews from this board and the few people who didn't like it and I went in with an open mind. Mind you, I love long plays August: OC, The Flick, and a few others come to mind. The production elements are uniformly wonderful, all the actors are great, and all the elements are great. But I did not care for the play as whole. I understand that it is a play with music. But the inconsistency of the style of recordings from Act I to II, drove me a little insane. I also felt, none of the scenes had real buttons although they clearly were supposed to. I also kept thinking, why are we telling this story right now? It was increasingly hard to watch the men berate the women, even if it is correct for the 70s time period. By the second act, I was over it. I felt like the writing did not fully let me know these people (save for a few scenes in Act IV) and so by the time I should, I really don't care about them. The productions is great though, I would even see it again, I'm a fan of plays of people just living, but I am curious what is the pay off at the end?? I wonder by sitting in the rear mezz did that play into how I received the play? Does it feel different up close or closer??
Posted: 4/18/24 at 7:15pm
Voter said: "Thinking about taking my dad to see this. Do you think he will enjoy this? He is not a big theatre person but enjoys Les Miz and appreciates Hamilton. I took him to see The Book of Mormon as a Christmas present (2 years ago) and he loved it.
He loves and still listens to the late 70s and 80s music. He listens to Arcade Fire, Tragically Hip, Foo Fighters and other stuff like that.
Please lmk if he would enjoy sitting through this? Thank in advanced"
It's important to remember that this is a straight play and not a musical - the songs just are part of, and only sometimes punctuate, the scenes.
I'm sure you could sell him on the Arcade Fire angle, but also it sounds like Fleetwood Mac was of his era and the band in this play is VERY much coded like them.
Take a swing. Worst that can happen is that you leave at intermission - which means you'll still have seen 1:45 and leave on a high note. Lol.
Posted: 4/18/24 at 8:09pm
Wardelljclark2018 said:
"I wonder by sitting in the rear mezz did that play into how I received the play? Does it feel different up close or closer??"
This was the view from my seat at Playwrights, where I had an amazing experience with the show. It was like being a fly on the wall of the studio, and, since I can't imagine seeing it any other way, I probably won't revisit it on Broadway. I can definitely see how the effect could be lost in the rear mezzanine, particularly with the scenes in the sound booth.
Updated On: 4/18/24 at 08:09 PM
Posted: 4/18/24 at 10:44pm
I saw this tonight (Rear Mezz, Row B, Center). No real issues with sightlines, though the very top of the actors’ heads were just cut off in the back of the sound booth. Could be an issue farther back in the rear mezz, but it didn’t bother me.
I really really liked this show. I believed every character. I thought the script was complex and layered and fascinating. The music is phenomenal. The pacing dragged a smidgen after intermission, but not enough for me to actually care.
Ugh this was great.
Posted: 4/19/24 at 9:02am
The cast album is up for pre-order on Broadway Merchandise Shop. Says it ships around June 14th!
https://www.broadwaymerchandiseshop.com/products/stereophonic-original-broadway-cast-recording-cd
Posted: 4/19/24 at 9:24am
Available digitally May 10th, and physical release June 14th.
“Butler and Adjmi have been collaborating on the play since 2014, exchanging snippets of the play and pieces of songs as they built their work together. But because it isn't a musical, we don't get fully-fledged musical numbers or even all of the songs in their entirety. The album will give audiences a chance to hear some of the songs more fully.”
(Source: https://ew.com/stereophonic-to-release-an-album-featuring-original-cast-8635066)
We won, kids.
Updated On: 4/19/24 at 09:24 AM
Posted: 4/19/24 at 9:34am
give us the tracklist - is it 3 or 4 songs?
will dialogue from the play be included to make it a "full" album?
Updated On: 4/19/24 at 09:34 AM
Posted: 4/19/24 at 10:08am
Rave coming in THR with midnight embargo.
No new American play of recent years has blown me away quite like David Adjmi’s riveting STEREOPHONIC, opening tonight on Broadway. Review coming at midnight EST
Posted: 4/19/24 at 10:11am
kurtal said: "I saw this tonight (Rear Mezz, Row B, Center). No real issues with sightlines, though the very top of the actors’ heads were just cut off in the back of the sound booth. Could be an issue farther back in the rear mezz, but it didn’t bother me.
I really really liked this show. I believed every character. I thought the script was complex and layered and fascinating. The music is phenomenal. The pacing dragged a smidgen after intermission, but not enough for me to actually care.
Ugh this was great."
How much of their heads were cut off, when they were in the back of the sound booth? (LOL! - No, seriously! - I've heard that this is an issue for the upper level seats.)
Do you think a seat in Rear Mezz, Row 1 is good enough, or should I spent the extra $20-25 to get in the Front Mezz?
Posted: 4/19/24 at 10:17am
So we’re only getting full versions of “ some” of the songs?!? 😧😭
Posted: 4/19/24 at 10:27am
thirtythirtyninety said: "So we’re only getting full versions of “ some” of the songs?!? 😧😭"
Is there a songlist somewhere?
Posted: 4/19/24 at 11:12am
There’s no tracklist yet that I could find.
I don’t have any insight on what the album will actually be, but my reading of that article was that we’ll be getting fuller versions of the songs we only heard snippets of. We basically hear “Bright” and “Masquerade” in their entirety live, but songs like “Drive”, “Seven Lies”, “East of Eden” (not sure if that’s the official title of that one) we only hear tiny bits. We’ll probably hear the full versions of those, as well as other songs they reference (“Domino” and I think at least one other).
And I think the likelihood of having any of the actual play dialogue included is low. It’s not a musical and the dialogue doesn’t flow into the songs. They exist dramatically in relationship, but not in the traditional musical sense, so dialogue wouldn’t make sense. Although I would love a full audio recording a la Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf or August: Osage County one day.
Posted: 4/19/24 at 11:15am
“East of Eden” (as you called it) is the one song more than any other that I PRAY is on this album as a full version. That song - the first 15 or so mins of act two, is maybe my favorite part of the play.
Posted: 4/19/24 at 11:22am
A good comparison point may be the album for One Man, Two Guv'nors, which featured all the original rockabilly songs that were played live in between scenes, as well as some scoring and I think some diegetic music as well. It sounds like that had more individual songs, but they're all pretty short and full album clocks in at slightly over a half hour.
Updated On: 4/19/24 at 11:22 AM
Posted: 4/19/24 at 11:29am
Jordan Catalano said: "Is this eligible for Best Score?"
Plays have been in the past, and all the music was written for this, so I can't imagine this wouldn't be? One Man Two Guv'nors and Peter and the Starcatcher, two other plays with original songs, both got nominated for Best Score in 2012 and a number of play scores have gotten in in the last decade. It tends to only happen in weak years for musicals, so... (with the exception of Adam Guettel's score for To Kill a Mockingbird which got into an expanded Best Score category in 2019).
Updated On: 4/19/24 at 11:29 AM
Posted: 4/19/24 at 11:31am
Think so - it's original written for a play
Jordan Catalano said: "Is this eligible for Best Score?"
Posted: 4/19/24 at 11:32am
I figured it would be, but I just couldn’t find anything about official eligibility so was curious.
Posted: 4/19/24 at 11:32am
I could be imagining it but I thought I saw somewhere they said the cast album would also feature songs not in the show (so probably the ones mentioned by the band through the course of the show).
At this point, I feel like this show stands a VERY good chance at getting nominated for score, since IMO the only lock is Days of Wine and Roses.
Posted: 4/19/24 at 11:34am
I’d LOVE for them to get to perform “Masquerade” or something at the Tony Awards, as well.
Posted: 4/19/24 at 11:40am
Jordan Catalano said: "I figured it would be, but I just couldn’t find anything about official eligibility so was curious."
I don't believe they've released an updated eligibility determination in a while. We may not even get one before the nominations, since they're less than two weeks out.
Posted: 4/19/24 at 11:50am
I loved this play. I loved the cast, I loved the direction. I loved the characters. I loved it's heart. I loved the songs. That's all.
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