PicksInSix Review: Stereophonic - Broadway in Chicago
Rumour Has It: The Radio Edit
PicksInSix® Review | Guest Contributor | Sarah Frances Fiorello
In 2024, “Stereophonic” made history garnering a whopping 13 Tony Award nominations, the most ever received by a play. It went on to win five Tony Awards, as well as a smattering of Drama League Awards, Outer Critics Circle Awards. The prior year, it brought home an impressive seven Drama Desk Awards from its off-Broadway production at Playwrights Horizons. A shortened version of the play, dubbed as “The Radio Edit” by writer David Adjmi, is embarking on its First National Tour, opening Wednesday and playing at Broadway In Chicago’s CIBC Theatre through February 8.
The play begins nearly mid-sentence, dropping us in without a running start to the durational drama of seven characters (eight if you count the recreational drugs)—five bandmates and two sound engineers—who bear a striking and legally controversial resemblance to “Fleetwood Mac,” the subject of a now-settled lawsuit over the story loosely tracing the recording of “Rumours,” the legendary and notorious album. “Stereophonic” spans one year in four acts, over roughly 2 hours and 50 minutes of stage time, cut from its Broadway run time of 3 hours and 10 minutes. We watch this group of deeply talented and deeply troubled musicians struggle with their rising fame, inner demons, and what it means to gain the world while simultaneously losing the most important things in it: all while making a live, one-of-a-kind album right before our eyes.
There’s much to appreciate about this production, not the least of which is a truly talented group of multi-hyphenate artists who, for nearly three hours, deliver faithfully to their characters, the story, and, well, a delightfully nostalgic ‘70s vibe. Christopher Mowod as the lovable drunk-sober-drunk again Reg is charming and heartbreaking, all wrapped up in one. Jack Barrett as Grover shows us what it’s like to love something so much, you’d go to hell and back for it, and how to perfectly time the swivel of a chair to get a laugh from an 1,800-seat theatre. Denver Milord as Peter gives us a front row seat on his genius-narcissist rollercoaster, while Claire Dejean as Diana, his lover and bandmate, suffers underfoot. And did I mention? They do all this while recording a live, one-of-a-kind album, right before our very eyes.
This play takes its time. It settles into long pauses and relishes in the pedestrian and mundane dialogue you very well might hear sitting around with a group of friends or artists who don’t realize they are on stage and responsible for entertaining you. It moves at a pace that mimics the painstaking and methodical slowness of making something excellent. It details the granularity of perfection and the all-too-common breakdown that accompanies it. I minded none of these things. In a time when entertainment moves at frames per second as if cooked in a microwave oven, I was grateful to slow all the way down to sit with these characters on a cold January evening in Chicago.
That said, I was left wanting more. Having not seen the Broadway production, the version that made a big splash and churned out tons of happy patrons, I can’t say for sure what is lacking here or what changed. Perhaps it has lost layers of character development when trimming down to “The Radio Edit” version—those small twists and turns that are revelatory, allowing us to see ourselves in the characters and have compassion for them. The plot—while intentionally left at a low hum—felt muddied. Some points were under-developed, like the relationship between Holly and Reg, and others overly-stressed, like Peter’s run amok, self-destructive journey. Maybe something intimate is foregone in moving to a theatre house nearly double the size of the Golden Theatre, where it received such a warm Broadway reception. Maybe something is lost in moving the show, period. Some spaces are sacred and carry a bit of magic. Just like the recording studios legendary musicians have been flocking to for decades.
Still: go see “Stereophonic.” I will always advocate that a night at the theatre is a night well spent and that theatre doesn’t need to be great or perfect to be moving or important. Anything that reveals our shared humanity, especially right now, is worthy of our time. Go enjoy some classic rock music, composed by Arcade Fire’s Will Butler, performed in a setting that—in the context of the music industry—that is all but ancient history.
GUEST CONTRIBUTOR | SARAH FRANCES FIORELLO is a graduate of Shenandoah Conservatory with a BFA in Music Theatre and a Chicago-based poet, writer, and performer. Instagram: @writtenbysarahfrances
PHOTO|Julieta Cervantes
Broadway in Chicago
presents
First National Tour
Stereophonic
CIBC Theatre
17 East Adams Street
through February 8, 2026
WEBSITE
For more reviews, visit: Theatre In Chicago
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