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.

As was also the case in Taylor Jenkins Reid’s similarly themed novel Daisy Jones & The Six and its Amazon Prime TV adaptation, “any similarity to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events, is purely coincidental,” so don’t go assuming that guitarist-producer Peter (Denver Milord) and the blonde lead singer he’s romantically involved with (Claire DeJean’s Diana) are actually Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks, or that simply because three of the five band members are British, they are Mick Fleetwood and John and Chrstine McVie.

All that matters here is the three-hour-long doozy of a play Adjmi has written, one that owes as much to Robert Altman (overlapping dialog, prolonged silences, and a reliance on the audience to figure out who’s who and what’s what by putting clues together) as it does to pop music history.

 Keyboardist-vocalist Holly (Emilie Kouatchou), her bassist husband Reg (Christopher Mowod in the role that won Will Brill a Tony), and drummer Simon (Cornelius McMoyler) complete the unnamed band whose moderately successful debut album has recently reentered Billboard’s Top Forty, its renewed success prompting the group’s label to give Peter and company virtual carte blanche in creating a follow-up album, though whether triple the budget and no imposed time limit will prove a blessing or a curse is anyone’s guess.

One thing is for sure. Watching Stereophonic unfold on the Hollywood Pantages stage under Daniel Aukin’s Tony-winning direction means witnessing how quickly things can go haywire when five volatile talents find themselves locked up (figuratively) in a Sausalito recording studio for nearly a year.

As the band strives for perfection, Diana and Peter’s relationship becomes increasingly toxic, her insecurities proving no match for Peter’s my-way-or-the-highway attitude; the level-headed Holly’s marriage to the drugged-out Reggie begins to unravel to group dynamics-challenging effect; and even the usually laid-back Simon goes bonkers when an inaudible (to this reviewer at least) drum “rattle” sparks a major, time-consuming (wasting?) attempt to fix the problem.

Meanwhile down below at the mixing console, resume-fudging sound engineer Grover (Jack Barrett) and his “Mr. Cellophane” of an assistant Charlie (Steven Lee Johnson) attempt with varying degrees of success to stay out of the fray, but that doesn’t stop the former from making sure Peter and Diana remain miked when they exit the studio, the better to eavesdrop on them going at it tooth and nail.

 All of this adds up to seven richly complex characters who defy first-impression stereotyping as does Adjmi’s play itself, not really a musical, though in many cases we do get snippets of songs leading up to what is a pretty darned spectacular final version of “Bright.”

Indeed, so richly conceived are Adjmi’s characters that five of the original Broadway seven scored Tony nominations, and though I didn’t see those original performances, I’m guessing that the sensational touring cast rivals them in fiery yet subtle brilliance.

 Not only that, but the design contributions of the original Broadway team look just as awesome at the Pantages, in particular David Zinn’s dual-level recording studio set.

What doesn’t work nearly as well on tour as it probably did on Broadway is the size of the venue in which Stereophonic is being staged.

Broadway’s Golden Theatre’s 800 seats meant the farthest seat back in the orchestra section was in Row S, and I can’t help wondering how Stereophonic’s multiple extended scenes involving just two or three characters seated in one corner or the other of the stage will play for anyone with tickets in the back half of the Pantages orchestra section or worse still way up in the mezzanine. (I count myself lucky to have seen Stereophonic from Row J.)

Casting is by Alldaffer & Donadio Casting. Eli Bridges, Andrew Gombas, Quinn Allyn Martin, Jake Regensburg, and Lauren Wilmore are understudies. Geoff Maus is production stage manager.

Notwithstanding the downside of being staged in a theater as enormous as the Pantages, one thing is for sure. There’s never been a Best Play Tony winner quite like Stereophonic, and particularly for those who were around in the 1970s, it makes for one humdinger of a one-of-a-kind trip down musical memory lane.

Pantages Theatre, 6233 Hollywood Blvd, Los Angeles.
www.broadwayla.org

–Steven Stanley
December 10, 2025
Photos: Juliet Cervantes

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Tags: David Adjmi, Los Angeles Theater Review, Pantages Theatre