Learn all about the music in 'Stereophonic'

The Tony-winning Broadway play about a fraught album recording session is coming to the West End, featuring original rock songs written by Will Butler.

It’s time to face the music! The extraordinary Stereophonic, which set a new record as the play with the most Tony Award nominations in history, is now hitting the West End, playing at the Duke of York’s Theatre from May.

David Adjmi’s immersive drama turns the audience into a fly on the wall at a recording studio where a fictional band is working on that all-important second album. But arguments soon erupt, everything from creative disagreements to romantic spats, plus addiction problems and the pressures of fame, making this a true make-or-break moment.

Ahead of your trip to Stereophonic, learn more about the music in the show, written by Will Butler of indie-rock band Arcade Fire, and the real inspiration behind this riveting rock ‘n’ roll story.

Book Stereophonic tickets on LondonTheatre.co.uk

What is Stereophonic about?

Stereophonic centres on an unnamed British-American band. Among its members are a married couple, bassist Reg and singer/keyboard player Holly, plus long-time partners singer Diana and guitarist/singer Peter, and their drummer and founder Simon.

All of the action takes place in a recording studio in Sausalito, California, from 1976-77, as the band attempts to create their second album, aided by sound engineers Grover and Charlie. They’re on the cusp of major stardom, however personal and professional conflicts keep getting in the way.

The marriage between Reg and Holly is in crisis, partly because of Reg’s worsening drug and alcohol addiction. Meanwhile Diana is emerging as a possible solo star thanks to her distinctive voice, even though she struggles with self-confidence, and she is also at odds with her hyper-critical boyfriend Peter.

What does Stereophonic tell us about music?

Throughout the story, the group clashes over the creative process. Peter, who is also producing the album, keeps making changes, Simon fixates on small details, Grover grows frustrated with having to deal with the artists’ egos, and Diana takes a stand on cutting back the verses in her favourite song. And yet – there is something magical happening here.

It’s a fascinating look at the messy, chaotic, quarrelsome, passionate, and sometimes transcendent process of creating music, how collaboration can be joyful and maddening, how real life bleeds into artistry and vice versa, and how the most gruelling experience can also be the most rewarding.

If you’ve ever wondered what it’s really like to be in the recording studio, or how great albums are birthed, Stereophonic is a remarkably honest glimpse behind the scenes.

So is Stereophonic a musical?

Actually, no: Stereophonic is a play with music. The numbers in the show are all songs that the band are creating, working on, and recording – what is known as diegetic music, since it’s part of the fictional world. That’s very different to a musical in which the character breaks into song to express their feelings, but said character isn’t actually singing in the plot. (There are a few musicals that do both: think backstage shows like 42nd Street and A Chorus Line.)

In Stereophonic, the talented cast all sing and perform their own instruments live. The music is a part of them playing these characters, whose core identity is being in a band – so it’s a drama in which the songs have a crucial part.

Who wrote the Stereophonic music?

The phenomenal pop-rock songs – which truly could be released as a hit album, separate to the equally brilliant play – are written by Will Butler. The American composer and singer is best known as a former member of Arcade Fire (along with his brother Win). The massively successful band won numerous awards, including the Grammy for Album of the Year in 2011.

Butler also won acclaim for creating the evocative soundtrack for Spike Jonze’s 2013 sci-fi romantic drama Her, starring Joaquin Phoenix and Scarlett Johansson. He collaborated on the music with other members of Arcade Fire and fellow composer Owen Pallett. The score was critically acclaimed and nominated for an Oscar.

Butler has also worked as a solo artist, and in 2014 he was approached by playwright David Adjmi about joining forces for Stereophonic. The pair developed the show over the next decade, with Butler writing an album’s worth of catchy, yearning and heartfelt songs that work both as part of the story and as a means of expressing character, emotion, ideas, and mood.

Butler has said he drew on his own experience of being in a band when developing Stereophonic with Adjmi, noting how accurate the play is in terms of the dynamics between everyone in a recording studio, the technical language, the tension between individual and collective inspiration, the power struggles, and the euphoria of an artistic breakthrough.

What songs are in Stereophonic?

The Stereophonic music features proper bangers like the groovy, funky-bass-line-driven, bayou stomp “Masquerade” – an earworm party track with a killer guitar riff but also a brooding undertow (the lyrics include “Got my ticket to the masquerade / My soul is sold and the money paid.”). Butler has talked about taking inspiration from the Beatles’ White Album, David Bowie, Stevie Wonder, and the Rolling Stones.

Stereophonic also features tracks like the great journeying song “Seven Roads”, the wrenching folk ballad “East of Eden”, the haunting and propulsive “Drive” led by Holly, the raw lament “In Your Arms”, and Diana’s bittersweet breakthrough “Bright”, a country-rock song which – in an echo of the show’s plot – explores a tentative rebirth after heartbreak.

It’s well worth a listen to the whole album ahead of your trip – or after! Either way, you’re bound to become a superfan of Stereophonic's fictional band, as well as a fan of this amazing show.

Book Stereophonic tickets on LondonTheatre.co.uk

Photo credit: Stereophonic on Broadway (Photos by Julieta Cervantes)