STEREOPHONIC’S SOUNDS By Peter Filichia
The rumor going around Broadway said that it was really about Rumours.
STEREOPHONIC, David Adjmi’s comedy-drama, the most recent winner of a Best Play Tony, does bring to mind Fleetwood Mac’s 1977 album Rumours. That’s the one that 1978 Grammy voters named Album of the Year, as it was on its way to selling 40 million copies.
Compared to that eight-figure sale, the number 13 seems puny and also had – for time seemingly immemorial meant – bad luck. Nevertheless, 13 was certainly fortunate for STEREOPHONIC, which received that number of Tony nominations.
No play had ever received as many, but were it not for Will Butler’s score, it would have “only” amassed 11. Having the advantage of a score and orchestrations, which virtually none of the previous non-musical nominees had, made the difference.
Butler was not only named for Best Orchestrations, an honor that he shared with Justin Craig, but also for Best Score. Musically speaking, he certainly included the bluesy, rhythmic, slide-guitar riffs that made up its “California Sound” (which you wouldn’t expect from a British band).
Then Butler wrote the song “Champagne” with Tom Pecinka, who wasn’t included in the nomination. Pecinka had plenty of consolation, though, for he plays guitarist/vocalist Peter in the show, and received a Tony nomination for that. He also snagged a Theatre World Award and another prize with the rest of the cast, as the Drama Desk decided that STEREOPHONIC had the 2023-24’s Best Ensemble, too.
STEREOPHONIC starts in June 1976, less than a year after A CHORUS LINE recorded its cast album. Mentioning that landmark musical in conjunction with a play about the making of a rock recording may seem odd, but the two do have one tiny similarity.
CHORUS LINE’S recording offered two different versions of “One” to show how the song morphed from auditions to finished project. STEREOPHONIC gives three different takes on “Bright” to show its growth from little more than an idea to a song destined for the charts.
The first iteration has Diana singing, “I was dreaming of a love song, but what good is love when the wind starts blowing? Nothing forgotten, nothing forgiven when the night comes to an end.”
The final “Bright” includes the lyric, “I long to click my heels and disappear.” Longtime Broadway observer Howard Gradet often says that “you can’t go 48 hours without hearing a reference to THE WIZARD OF OZ.” Butler did his part with this lyric.
So, if you’re still into CDs, program Tracks Two, Four, and 14, take the journey with “Bright,” and see what Diana dropped and added.
Along with “Bright” are many other songs that concern love, lust and letdowns. “Seven Roads” has Peter say, “Seven tears I counted in your eyes when I told you all my seven lies.” Pecinka sounds as if his own eyes are wet, too.
Peter also sings “Masquerade.” In it, he recalls thatin his youth, when he discussed his wanderlust with his father, “The old man told me that I shouldn’t go, there are things I couldn’t know. I said, ‘You may be wise, but you haven’t seen her eyes,’ so I shook his hand, and I hit the road.”
And how did that relationship work out? Butler’s arresting lyric tells us: “Promises I made were made of glass; I gathered all the shards to bring to you.”
“I’ll see you when I get there” has been an expression for a long, long time, but starting in 1977, many people who were about to tell a person that were suddenly singing it to the melody of a then-popular Low Rawls recording. The same line also shows up in “Masquerade,” and Butler’s melody may supplant the one from the Rawls classic that’s had nearly 50 years of dominance.
“Drive” has singer Holly mourn about bassist Reg, “People are saying you’ll only break my heart. And it breaks. They’re not mistaken. What if it’s already broken?”
Reg is played by Will Brill, winner of a Best Featured Actor in a Play Tony. Brill, like some others in STEREOPHONIC, didn’t know how to play bass when Adjmi told him a decade ago about the play he was writing and the role he’d be right for. That made Brill eager to learn.
“East of Eden,” a term that author John Steinbeck used to describe living with a damaged relationship with God, here takes on a new meaning. “Why are you still confused when kindness is calling after you?” asks Diana. Don’t be surprised if the song rather reminds you of Kate Monster’s “There’s a Fine, Fine Line.”
As for the aforementioned “Champagne,” it starts out so nicely: “The stars, how they rise like a glass of champagne held before your eyes.”
But those lyrics are immediately followed by “The stars, how they fall, like a glass of champagne thrown against the wall.”
Since the beginnings of rock (when it was officially known as rock ‘n’ roll), songs have sported many ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh and la-da-di-da riffs. Here part of the fun in “Champagne” and “BVs” is wondering if these are actual “lyrics” or makeshift “words” that are filling in the gaps until the lyricist lands on what he or she really wants to say. And Butler made room for another rock convention: “Domino” ends with a slow fade-out.
STEREOPHONIC’s cast album also contains some conversational banter, sometimes said before a song and sometimes after. It allows listeners to feel as if they’re eavesdropping on these recording sessions.
In fact, two entire tracks are given to music-less chatter. “Exorcist II” has Grover and Charlie, the studios two engineers, discuss the then-recent 1973 film as well as its soon-to-be-made sequel. No, this conversation isn’t irrelevant to the recording session or any of its artists, but such dialogical digressions happen during down time when someone is in the booth waiting to sing or when it’s empty.
“It’s Made of Teak” has a marvelous punch line that really resonates if you especially like the song “Domino” that comes before it. It does have an arresting lyric that states, “When the dominoes fall, when they hit the ground, there ain’t nothing at all that can bear the sound.” So, Butler isn’t referencing those cute little, small oblong black pieces, each of which sports one to six dots. This metaphor too involves love.
We can’t offer a Fun Fact, but we can offer a Fun Assumption that returns us to Fleetwood Mac: STEREOPHONIC’s cast album weighs in at 41:09. But if you just tally the length of the songs and eliminate every bit of dialogue, it just might get down to 38:55 – which is the precise length of Rumours.
And back to A CHORUS LINE for a moment. Adjmi has admitted that, for a while, he thought of mirroring that musical’s structure. He’d have his singers in the recording booth where each would reveal what he or she was feeling before, during and after the take.
Although that approach might have resulted in a fine play, Adjmi must be very happy that he chose a very different dramatic path. For some time now, the people on his left and those on his right – all simultaneously praising him – have made for a very satisfying stereophonic sound.
Peter Filichia can be heard most weeks of the year on www.broadwayradio.com. His new day-by-day wall calendar – A SHOW TUNE FOR TODAY – 366 Songs to Brighten Your Year – will be released on October 15th, but is now available for pre-order on Amazon.
