Stereophonic has arrived in London following a huge amount of critical acclaim in New York, including the title of being the most Tony award nominated play of all times and winning the Tony itself for best new play along with a Drama Desk award and many other awards. I was therefore thrilled to hear it was making its way to the West End, eager to discover if it lived up to the hype especially as it promised to combine things I love- theatre and making music.

The show itself tells of a fictional 70’s American/English band in the midst of recording a studio album, assisted by 2 engineers. It follows them throughout the process and throughout this time we witness relationships breakdown, drug habits shown, jealousy and friendships laid bare.

The book by David Adjmi is written as if the audience are a fly on the wall throughout the whole process. Unfortunately it failed to move me and after hearing such hype about it I have to admit that I Ieft the theatre feeling like I had missed something. The show itself was long (3 hours 15 minutes) and meandering and whilst I appreciate that this in itself reflected the process that the band on stage were going through to get the album recorded, sometimes exposing the audience to how the characters are feeling themselves doesn’t always make for a good drama. There seemed to be little narrative or character development driving the show there felt like plenty of moments that would have been cut, for example discussions around their favourite movie or houseboats and this wouldn’t have harmed the piece in any way and gone some way to relieve the boredom that I occasionally felt. Whilst this show length did allow the audience to fully understand each band member and the engineers along with the multiple different relationships between them it didn’t follow that I connected, empathised or indeed felt much for any of them except frustration.

Despite the book being dreary and overly long a redeeming feature was the music. Whilst Stereophonic is a play it is very much a play with music and the band perform extracts of the songs that they are recording throughout the play. The music is original music by Will Butler and whilst it didn’t always sit neatly with the 70’s era the show was set in it was utterly enjoyable and performed brilliantly live by the cast. Commendation should also go to the sound designer Ryan Rumery who had the additional task of ensuring that the band sounded like they should do in a studio and he achieved this perfectly, in part by having the sound engineers on stage mix the band live.

Whilst the book didn’t land for me the cast didn’t set a foot wrong and were brilliant. Not only were the cast across the board exceptional actors but many of them were tasked with playing their instruments live. Eli Gelb as Grover and Andrew R. Butler as Charlie the engineers were able to bring a touch of comedy to the play and pitched it just right at each moment. Lucy Karczewski played the lead vocalist and songwriter Diana and she had a stunning and unique voice which was easy to believe that she was the front woman of this group. There was a moment in the show where Diana is struggling to get a take of the song until she finally nails an emotionally driven perfect take and the talent that she exhibited, not only to get the perfect take but in all the wrong ones first was a special moment. Playing her partner and the self appointed leader of the group Peter was Jack Riddiford who perfectly captured both an immense talent but someone who tore others in the band down to make up for his own insecurities. Riddiford captured this feeling brilliantly and ensured that as an audience you both admired his talent whilst disliking the man.

Zachary Hart was the bassist of the piece along with his partner Holly, played by Nia Towle who was the bands pianist and they utterly convinced as a couple in turmoil. Finally Chris Stack as Simon, the drummer was the mostly affable band member who was left to try to hold them all together. They all really gave the impression that they were a band together, from the music they played together to their chemistry on stage.

The set designed by David Zinn, was also inspired and essentially reproduced a recording studio on the stage with a sound proof booth at the back at the desk sitting facing the audience. The working sound proof booth meant that there were clever moments where the audience could be shut out from what was happening in the booth but equally there were moments such as Diana and Peter’s relationship breakdown that we were able to listen into. The fact that for the actors the only way on and off the stage was through the doors into the studio was also a stroke of genus as it really helped ramp up how claustrophobic the process would have been for them.

Stereophonic to me is the prefect example that not every show is for everyone. With the hype that this show has had I should be raving about it but in all honesty I would rather see a concert by the fictional bad performing their album than sit through the entire play again. Can I understand why I am in the minority, of course, but this didn’t make me any more enthralled by the book, despite the talented cast and stunning set design.

Stereophonic is currently on at Duke of York Theatre and boking until October 11th. You can find out more and book tickets here.

If you like this review of Stereophonic you might also like my review of Midsummer Nights Dream at Bridge Theatre, Radiant Boy at Southwark Playhouse and Stranger Things The First Shadow.