Everything – and by that I mean every single thing – about this play is miraculous. Creating a show that makes the audience feel as if they are a fly on the wall during the recording of one of the greatest rock albums ever made is itself no mean feat. But creating original music that deserves the such status, well that is something else.
The pivotal presence of music does not mean this is a musical. American David Adjmi’s play, which arrives in London bearing no less than five Tony awards, conveys the dynamics of a five piece aspirational rock group who become a huge hit during the claustrophobic month they are cutting their latest album in a Californian studio in 1976.
For many people the 70s was the decade that begat more classic albums than any other. So primarily this show could easily have been an exercise in nostalgia. David Zinn’s splendid set is a great two-tier edifice of 70’s design. Wood paneling and sofas surround a monster mixing desk. Upstage and behind a sheet of glass that almost spans the width of the stage is the soundproofed space where the musicians perform. In their 70s garb they could have been peeled off an album cover.
Yet underpinning all the style is a mesmerising dissection of the creative process. It doesn’t matter at all that the evening runs at over three hours during which not much plot happens. We know early on that bass player Reg (Zachary Hart) is completely wasted from the moment he pours his body into the studio. The coffee machine isn’t working so energy levels are sustained by drummer and manager Simon (Chris Stack) turning to “the bag” which turns out to be carrier-sized and half-full of cocaine.
The play opens with super-real overlapping dialogue. As band members chat, complain and laugh studio engineer Grover (Eli Gelb) and his assistant check mics and other equipment. Eventually the band have coalesced into something that we later realise is greater than the sum of their individual parts and Simon counts them in with clicks of his drumsticks.
Written by composer and former Arcade Fire band member Will Butler the band’s songs and gorgeous sound bring to mind Fleetwood Mac in their Rumours period. Perhaps the group’s famous loves and frictions were also and inspiration for Adjmi. The relationship between Reg and keyboard player Holly (Nia Towle) is off, then on. That between domineering yet visionary guitarist Peter (Jack Riddiford) and the hugely talented singer songwriter Diana (Lucy Karczewski) is clearly unhealthy.
Throughout, the cast of actor musicians perform all the music live, most thrillingly when at three in the morning Peter insists everyone has another go at the song we have just heard them faultlessly perform. Under his direction they change tempo and arrangement while fighting fatigue. The result conveys how an inspired musical mind can turn something good into something great.
Director Daniel Aukin has total command of the time-collapsing demands of Adjmi’s script which at its best has the observational nothing-to-see-here tension of a play by Annie Baker, who for my money (and quite a few others) is the most talented playwright working today. Perfection.
Stereophonic is on at the Duke of York’s Theatre
