"Stereophonic": a play with singing that is not a musical

This last Saturday I watched a new kind of theater play: "Stereophonic", a play with actors singing but that is not a musical. It's an interesting idea! The play is about a rock band in the 1970's that's recording a new album and its members are trying to deal with their newfound success. As part of that, there is the stress between being artists and releasing commercial records. The play is set in a recording studio, and as part of the story the actors actually sing and play some of the songs from the fictitious band. So, even though the cast does sing, it is not considered a musical because the songs are not telling a story: they are just the songs that the band is supposedly recording.

That makes for a very interesting spectacle. For example, since it's a recording session, one of the songs is started multiple times: the band is trying to find the right tempo for the music, and that shows how the diverging views of the band members can clash in moments like that. It takes a pretty special cast for this play, because not only they have to sing, but as an example the actor playing the drums is actually playing the drums, it is not recorded, so you need to have actors that can act, sing and play a rock band instrument.

It is a fresh concept, and one that I liked very much. The music was really good, the actors turned out to be quite proficient with their instruments and it was a very engaging story. It's no wonder that this play won multiple Tony awards when it was on Broadway, and I feel very lucky that I managed to get tickets for Jenn and I as it came to Seattle on its first tour stop. If you have the chance to watch it too in your town, I cannot recommend it enough.





Location: Seattle, WA, USA

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