‘Stereophonic’ finds gold in a drawn-out studio grind

This review by longtime Charlotte arts critic Lawrence Toppman was published by The Charlotte Ledger on April 16, 2026. You can find out more about The Charlotte Ledger’s commitment to smart local news and information and sign up for our newsletter for free here. Ledger subscribers can add the Toppman on the Arts newsletter on their “My Account” page.

by Lawrence Toppman

Have you ever read that a recording artist took an entire year to finish one album of a dozen songs and wondered, “How the heck could it take so long?” The answer is in “Stereophonic,” the sprawling three-hour drama that won the Best Play Tony in 2024 and will be in Knight Theater for two weeks.

You could think of it as a musical: It has nearly a dozen songs, yielded an original cast album and requires five musicians in an unnamed band to sing and play as well as most 1970s rockers.

To me, it felt like Eugene O’Neill set in a recording studio. It’s emotionally and physically claustrophobic, penetrating in its dissection of a small group of people, repetitive and overlong yet gaining some of its power by repetition and length, as the musicians pick their instruments and pick away at each other: “Mourning Becomes the Plectra.”

Author David Adjmi said in a program note that the Broadway version has been judiciously trimmed to run three hours on tour with an intermission, though a friend who saw both versions couldn’t tell what was missing. Director Daniel Aukin did seem to hear the clock ticking early on: Actors rushed through dialogue in overlapping conversations near the start, though they soon found more natural rhythms for speeches and pauses.

Because the play takes place from June 1976 to June 1977 in Sausalito, Cal., and Los Angeles — the exact dates and places for the creation of “Rumours” — it’s impossible not to see a connection with Fleetwood Mac. The first-rate songs by Will Butler, formerly of Arcade Fire, could have appeared proudly on “Rumours” or “Tusk.” (To further confuse the play/musical debate, Butler got a Tony nomination for best original score.)

And though the sexual dynamics between individual band members don’t echo those in Fleetwood Mac, the central relationship certainly does: A bearded guitarist-producer constantly on the verge of breakup with a waif-like blonde singer might be Lindsay Buckingham and Stevie Nicks, who parted during “Rumours.”

The show offers two potential pleasures. First, we can get schadenfreude from watching a band that’s coming off a No. 1 album (as the real quintet was after the self-titled “Fleetwood Mac”) disintegrate as egos, creative needs, drug abuse, romantic activity, self-delusion and perfectionism put its members through a collective hell.

Second, we see how inspiration, persistence, accident and experimentation create memorable music under pressure-cooker conditions. When guitarist Peter (Denver Milord) insists on three dozen takes of a song, he may come off as a musical sadist or a brilliant producer who unearths gold on the final take — or both. When drummer Simon (Cornelius McMoyler) plays the same riffs again and again to achieve microscopic differences in tempo, the results just might justify the teeth-grinding effort.

The on-again, off-again romance between keyboardist Holly (Emilie Kouatchou) and bassist Ray (Christopher Mowod) gets short shrift, and I couldn’t decide if Ray — a ceaselessly cheerful reformed alcoholic by the end of the play — was appealing or annoying. Recording engineer Grover (Jack Barrett), who swallows abuse and neglect in hopes of attaching himself to a Grammy-winning album, remains an undeveloped character. The play’s extended running time is due mainly to howled bouts of mutual neediness between Peter and Diane.

Yet any reservations about its length vanish when cast members sing and play. They really sound like rockers, not Broadway singers adapting themselves to a different vocal style, and they play Butler’s ear-catching licks enthusiastically. Not one of them was alive when Fleetwood Mac created its magnum opus, but all five render ‘70s rock ‘n’ roll as if to the manner born.

Lawrence Toppman covered the arts for 40 years at The Charlotte Observer before retiring in 2020. Now, he’s back in the critic’s chair for the Charlotte Ledger — look for his reviews several times each month in the Charlotte Ledger.