Los Angeles Times
- Recommended
"...The visual crispness of this L.A. premiere goes a long way toward dispelling doubts that the Pantages is the wrong venue for this ensemble drama. If there’s a problem, it isn’t the cavernousness of the theater. The production, gleaming with period details on a set by David Zinn that gives us clear views into both the sound and control rooms, comfortably inhabits the performance space, at least from the perspective of a decent orchestra seat."
Stage Scene LA
- Highly Recommended
"...If you’ve ever wondered what it would have been like to be a fly on the wall when Fleetwood Mac spent seven tumultuous months recording Rumours, the next best thing to your wish has come true in David Adjmi’s multiple-Tony winning play à clef Stereophonic."
LA Theatrix
- Somewhat Recommended
"...Though there’s a great deal to appreciate in the mechanics of every process, not everyone would want to project themselves into a working environment and not enjoy a finished product. That the finished product in this case is the inner mechanics of the production is an irony not entirely lost on this reviewer."
ArtsBeatLA
- Somewhat Recommended
"...I can’t quite fully recommend Stereophonic, but there’s so much talent on display in this production that the curious should check it out anyway."
TheaterMania
- Highly Recommended
"...Stereophonic, the national tour of which is now at the Hollywood Pantages Theatre, is a raw look at the mechanics of nurturing talent without allowing human nature to screw things up. Writer David Adjmi brilliantly dramatizes the grind of assembling an album. We see the evolution of a song, the dynamics of layering the vocals to the music, and the painstaking drudgery of each member fighting for their vision."
Stage Raw
- Somewhat Recommended
"...Emotions run high and drugs are rampant. But the show’s overriding question, namely, “What price fame?” is so familiar as to be generic, while the characters’ passionately scattered interactions put one in mind of a late-night party where everyone — except oneself —is stoned. That was the challenge to connecting with Stereophonic, which despite flashes of brilliance and innovation, overstays its welcome and devolves into trope."
Ticket Holders LA
- Highly Recommended
"...Stereophonic is a brave and decidedly rule-breaking work that, thanks to the stark vision of director Daniel Aukin, often reminded me of being smackdab in the middle of a living Ingrid Bergman movie. His purposefully non-kinetic staging and performance style, that between the floor-shaking music and the heated arguments and the delving into the bandmembers’ messy relationships, featured long periods of dead silence and actors left onstage like unmoved pawns on a chessboard staring blankly out into the fourth wall or at one another."
Indulge Magazine
- Highly Recommended
"...Stereophonic is a play that doesn’t so much unfold as it records itself—layer by layer, ego by ego, harmony by fragile harmony. From its opening moments, it makes clear that this is not a conventional narrative but an immersion into the beautiful, bruising process of making art while everything else threatens to fall apart."
Broadway World
- Recommended
"...Taking place in a recording studio in four acts, Stereophonic is essentially four days in the life of a band. And though it is about the making of music, it is not a musical. Adjmi’s script is smart, each character believable and complex. The roles feel lived in, a world weariness in them, adding a melancholy, downbeat vein. Each one pops, and each gets a spotlight, aside from Charlie, but that serves the character, giving Johnson a quiet chance to steal scenes, which he consistently does. The actors are phenomenal musicians, playing the instruments themselves, and are extraordinary vocalists, with DeJean being particularly jaw dropping."
