“Stereophonic” now at Pantages

When a play rolls into town promoting itself as the most Tony Award-nominated play in history, and the winner of Best Play and other awards, it creates high expectations. Which is fine, especially when those claims are true, as they are here. But it does create a sense in the prospective audience member that the show is going to be extraordinarily great. As a veteran critic, I’m very aware to try and beware this sort of expectation – I’ve lost count of how many award-winning plays I’ve seen whose buzz vanished upon seeing the production. Regardless, I had high hopes for David Adjmi’s Stereophonic, and those hopes were largely met. The acting is excellent, the writing is sharp and funny, and the original music is impressive in its context – there is a lot of fantastic stuff here. But I also found it prolonged and self-indulgent and wondered why a play had been made that so resembled an episode of VH1’s “Behind the Music.”

In 1976, an unnamed band is in a studio in Sausalito, California to record an album. The group is a combination of Brits and Americans, with drummer/manager Simon (Cornelius McMoyler), bass player Reg (Christopher Mowod) and keyboardist/singer Holly (Emilie Kouatchou) making up the UK contingent. Guitarist Peter (Denver Milord) and singer Diana (Claire DeJean) are the American couple, though the process of making the album is straining their relationship. In fact, the year it takes making the album brings everyone to their breaking point, although engineers Grover (Jack Barrett) and his assistant, Charlie (Steven Lee Johnson), patiently try to hold it all together. But with artistic struggles, plenty of coke, booze and souring friendships in the mix, it seems likely that the band may fracture.

McMoyler is wryly amusing as Simon, but perhaps at his best in a dramatic scene in which he quietly informs a band member that “You’d do well as a solo artist.” Mowod is amusing and affecting as Reg, the “sad man in a blanket” in a drug-fueled freefall, and Kouatchou is terrific as Holly, a bright and witty woman trying to preserve herself from the toxicity of the situation. Barrett is sympathetic as Grover, an initially out-of-his depth engineer (he lied and said he’d worked for the Eagles to land the job), and Johnson is hilarious as the garrulous Charlie (who turns out to be a “Doobie cousin”). Milord is very impressive as the controlling and egotistical Peter, whose awful behavior doesn’t preclude actual artistic insight. DeJean is superb as Diana, who is trying to grow as an artist but has to do so despite conflict with her husband. Her performance is emotionally powerful, and her singing voice is lovely.

Director Daniel Aukin gets exemplary work from his cast, makes the music scenes successful (Will Butler does an uncanny job replicating ‘70s era Fleetwood Mac-type songs) and keeps the pacing up as much as he can, but Adjmi’s writing sometimes gets in the way. To be clear: line by line his dialogue is smart and funny and moving in turns. Reg’s excited monologue about houseboats and Sausalito history is delightful, and an offstage breakup heard via the engineer’s console speaker is brutal and heartbreaking. There is, however, so much dialogue (and apparently this is the shorter road version). Songs are often played in their entirety, sometimes a few times, which begins to feel less like artistic expression and more like self-indulgence. The story itself seems clearly influenced by Fleetwood Mac in the ’70s (the same band combination of Brits and Yanks, the obvious Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks parallels), but that’s fine. What is less fine is that by the end of the show I didn’t quite know why the playwright thought this slice of studio life was worthy of a play. There isn’t really a dramatic arc (they don’t like each other in the beginning, and they dislike each other much more by the end), and there’s no message. But it’s very well done for all that.

I can’t quite fully recommend Stereophonic, but there’s so much talent on display in this production that the curious should check it out anyway.

Stereophonic is presented at the Hollywood Pantages Theatre and plays through January 2, 2026. Tickets are available here.