“ S T E R E O P H O N I C ”
THE SEASON’S MOST ACCLAIMED NEW PLAY BY DAVID ADJMI
TO OPEN ON BROADWAY DIRECTED BY DANIEL AUKIN
WITH ORIGINAL SONGS BY ARCADE FIRE’S WILL BUTLER
PERFORMANCES BEGIN WEDNESDAY, APRIL 3, 2024 OPENING NIGHT SET FOR FRIDAY, APRIL 19, 2024 AT THE GOLDEN THEATRE
New York, NY (Wednesday, January 17) – Producers Sue Wagner, John Johnson, Seaview, Sonia Friedman Productions, Linden Productions, and Ashley Melone & Nick Mills are proud to announce that the season’s most critically acclaimed new play, Stereophonic by David Adjmi, will open on Broadway, direct from its smash hit world premiere engagement at Playwrights Horizons. Directed by Daniel Aukin, Stereophonic, which features original songs by Academy Award® nominee and Grammy Award® winner Will Butler, formerly of Arcade Fire, dominated the “Best Theater of 2023” lists, with top rankings in The New York Times, New York Magazine, The Washington Post, Time Out New York, Town & Country, TheaterMania, Theaterly, and The Spectator. The production is set to begin performances at Broadway’s Golden Theatre (252 W. 45th Street) on Wednesday, April 3, with an official opening night on Friday, April 19 for 14 weeks only.
The cast, reprising their highly lauded performances, will include Will Brill as Reg, Andrew R. Butler as Charlie, Juliana Canfield as Holly, Eli Gelb as Grover, Tom Pecinka as Peter, Sarah Pidgeon as Diana, and Chris Stack as Simon.
In his Critic’s Pick review, Jesse Green of The New York Times exclaimed, “The play, Adjmi’s best so far, is as rich and lustrous as they come. You could even call it platinum,” while praising Aukin’s “relentlessly compelling production.” Jackson McHenry of New York Magazine enthused, “If you’ve recently tried to sate yourself with imitation-crab rock-history dramatizations, you’ll find that Stereophonic is, refreshingly, the real thing.” And David Cote of The Observer, lauded Stereophonic “an instant classic”.
Stereophonic mines the agony and the ecstasy of creation as it zooms in on a music studio in 1976. Here, an up-and-coming rock band recording a new album finds itself suddenly on the cusp of superstardom. The ensuing pressures could spark their breakup — or their breakthrough. In Stereophonic, Adjmi invites the audience to immerse themselves—with fly-on-the-wall intimacy—in the powder keg process of a band on the brink of blowing up.
The Stereophonic creative team includes David Zinn (scenic designer), Enver Chakartash (costume designer), Jiyoun Chang (lighting designer), Ryan Rumery (sound designer), and Justin Craig (music director). Casting is by Alaine Alldaffer and Taylor Williams.
BIOGRAPHIES
David Adjmi (Playwright) has been called "virtuosic" by The New York Times and named one of the Top Ten in Culture by The New Yorker. His plays have been produced at theaters around the world such as Lincoln Center, RSC, Steppenwolf, and Soho Rep--where he was the Mellon Foundation playwright-in-residence for three years. His play 3C was selected as one of the top ten plays of the year by The New York Post, Time Out NY, and The Advocate. Elective Affinities premiered at the Royal Shakespeare Company and received a sold out U.S. premiere at Soho Rep starring Zoe Caldwell (Top 10 of the year in Time Out NY and The New Yorker). Other plays include Stunning, The Evildoers, and Marie Antoinette. Adjmi was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship, the Whiting Writers’ Award, the Kesselring Prize for Drama, and the Steinberg Playwright Award, among others. His new play The Stumble was recently excerpted in The Paris Review, and his two-part play The Blind King (co- written with Donald Seligman) is currently in development with The Public. With Lila Neugebauer, Adjmi is writing a musical based on Brian Wilson’s creation of the Smile album. He holds commissions from Playwrights Horizons, Yale Rep, Berkeley Rep, and the Royal Court (UK). His critically acclaimed memoir Lot Six was published by HarperCollins in 2020, and his collected plays are published by TCG.
Daniel Aukin (Director) is a New York based director. Broadway: Sam Shepard’s Fool for Love. Off-Broadway: Catch as Catch Can, Rancho Viejo, Placebo, This. World premieres: The Best We Could (MTC), Admissions (LCT & London’s West End), Skintight (Roundabout and Geffen Playhouse), Bad Jews (Roundabout), Fulfillment Center (MTC), What Rhymes with America (Atlantic), Suitcase and [SIC] (Soho Rep), The Fortress of Solitude (Dallas Theatre Center & The Public), Heartless (Signature), 4000 Miles (LCT), The Ugly One (Soho Rep, US premiere), Back Back Back (MTC, NY premiere), Everything Will Be Different, Cat’s-Paw, The Year Of The Baby, and Molly’s Dream. Also, revivals of A View from the Bridge and The Adding Machine. Playwright collaborators include Maria Irene Fornes, Dan LeFranc, Melissa James Gibson, Abe Koogler, Amy Herzog, Michael Friedman, Itamar Moses, Martyna Majok, Mark Schultz, Mac Wellman, Quincy Long, Sam Shepard, Mia Chung, Joshua Harmon and Emily Feldman. He was Artistic Director of Soho Rep 1998-2006, garnering three OBIE Awards.
Will Butler (Original Songs) is an Oscar-nominated and Grammy-winning musician. As a member of Arcade Fire, he released some of the defining rock and roll albums of the 2000s—including Funeral (2004) and The Suburbs (2010), which won the Grammy for Album of the Year. He has collaborated with a wide range of film and video makers, including Spike Jonze, Chris Milk, and Roman Coppola. Along with Owen Pallett, he was nominated for the Oscar for Best Score for Jonze's 2013 film Her. He currently records under his own name for Merge Records and has a forthcoming project with the band Sister Squares. Stereophonic is his first theater work since Godspell, in high school; he played the role of Jesus.
Will Brill (Reg) first workshopped Stereophonic in 2015. Brill was most recently on Broadway in Daniel Fish’s revival of Oklahoma!, and Off Broadway in A Case for the Existence of God, directed by David Cromer at Signature (Drama Desk nomination), and Off Off Broadway in Uncle Vanya in a loft in Flatiron. He was in “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel,” “The OA,” “Test Pattern,” and others on streaming platforms and networks. Upcoming: “Fellow Travelers” on Showtime.
Andrew R. Butler (Charlie) is an actor, writer, and composer. Off-Broadway: Rags Parkland Sings The Songs Of The Future (Ars Nova; Lortel Award for Outstanding Musical; Drama Desk and Lortel Awards nominee for Outstanding Actor in a Musical; cast album on Broadway Records); The Skin Of Our Teeth (TFANA), Futurity (Soho Rep/Ars Nova), Folk Wandering (Pipeline), Memory Retrograde (Under the Radar), Edelweiss (Dixon Place, Ars Nova). TV/Film: “Girls5Eva,” “Helluva Boss,” Friday Afternoon.
Juliana Canfield (Holly). Off-Broadway: Fefu and her Friends (TFANA); Sunday (Atlantic Theatre Company); The House That Will Not Stand (NYTW); He Brought Her Heart Back in a Box (TFANA); Zurich (Colt Coeur). Film/TV: “Succession” (HBO); “The Calling” (Peacock); “Y: The Last Man” (FX); “Amazing Stories” (Amblin/Apple); The Assistant; On the Rocks; The Neighbor’s Window (short, Academy Award winner). BA: Yale College. MFA: Yale School of Drama.
Eli Gelb (Grover). Stage: Skintight (directed by Daniel Aukin, Roundabout Theatre Company, Geffen Playhouse), The Twenty-Seventh Man (The Old Globe), The North Pool (Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park). Screen: The Squid and the Whale, Holy Rollers, “The Newsroom,” Not Fade Away, Indignation. Proud member of Ensemble Studio Theatre.
Tom Pecinka (Peter). Off-Broadway: He Brought Her Heart Back in a Box, Timon of Athens, Henry IV (TFANA); Troilus and Cressida, Richard II (The Public); The Soldier’s Tale (Carnegie Hall); Torch Song (Second Stage). Regional: Ghosts (Williamstown); Father Comes Home from the Wars... (Yale Rep, ACT); Arcadia (Yale Rep); Cloud 9, A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Hartford Stage) Television: “American Rust.” Film: The Kill Room, Oh, Canada. Education: BA: Fordham University; MFA: Yale School of Drama.
Sarah Pidgeon (Diana). A Carnegie Mellon graduate, Pidgeon recently starred in the Hulu limited series “Tiny Beautiful Things.” Her performance as Kathryn Hahn’s character’s younger self earned her rave reviews and a Hollywood Critics Association award nomination. She can also be seen in Amazon’s hit series “The Wilds,” which received an Outstanding Drama Series' nomination at the 2021 GLAAD Media Awards. Up next, Pidgeon is set to star in Alec Tibaldi’s independent feature Lazareth, opposite Ashley Judd.
Chris Stack (Simon). With David Adjmi: Marie Antoinette at Soho Rep. Off- Broadway: Kirk Lynn’s Your Mother’s Copy of the Kama Sutra, The Secret Life of Bees and Blue Ridge at Atlantic Theater Company, Ugly Lies the Bone (Roundabout), Afghanistan Zimbabwe America Kuwait (Rattlestick/Rising Phoenix Rep), Wayside Motor Inn (Signature), Killers & Other Family (Rattlestick). Film and TV credits include Midday Black Midnight Blue, Interview with the Vampire, and A Better Half.