Monday and Tuesday nights, I saw the two new shows that I flew to New York to see: Stereophonic and Sufjan Stevens’ Illinoise.
And Wednesday night I added Appropriate, a straight play with Sarah Paulson and Elle Fanning starring. So, along with my March viewing of the crown jewel of them all, the Tony-winning revival of Stephen Sondheim’s Merrily We Roll Along, I’ve now seen four of this year’s Tony winners, which between them took half – 13 of 26 – of the total Tony awards.
I’d still like to see the musicals Suffs and The Outsiders, which scored another six Tonys, though the latter has gotten a big Tony bounce, and will likely remain a bit too pricey for me. (Merrily, which I saw in March for “only” $152, is now seeing its cheapest seats selling for $450. “Good” seats are approaching $1000 each.)
Of the first two shows I saw this week, both are music-adjacent, or focused, but neither is a proper book musical. Even so, each is a big hit of the current season, and both were scheduled to close before I return to New York, so I had to see them now.
One, Steven’s Illinoise, was nominated for Best Musical. The other, Stereophonic, was nominated as a straight play, which it is, but also for Best Original Score Written for the Theater, which muddied the waters a little. In total, Stereophonic was nominated for a record 14 Tony Awards, more than Hamilton, Book of Mormon or Hadestown, which really raised expectations. The buzz around this one was intense, which is why I booked back in April.
Both shows did win Tony’s last week: Illinoise didn’t win for Best Musical, but for Best Choreography, which makes more sense, as I will explain momentarily. Stereophonic won five Tonys, for Best Play, Best Featured Actor, Best Scenic Design of a Play, Best Direction, and Best Sound Design of a Play (not Musical).
As I like not to do any research in advance, just show up and see what I see, both of the shows I saw were surprises, and not at all what I was expecting. That was partly fun, but also a bit of a disappointment. But my bad on both: You can’t blame a thing for not being something other than what it is meant to be.
Both were different enough from what I was expecting to keep my interest. But I’m feeling extremely short on book musicals, one of my main reasons to come to NYC now. Nevertheless…
Illinoise is based on the 2005 Sufjan Stevens album Come On Feel the Illinoise: It’s an audacious notion, to take this epic, sophisticated musical journey with the ridiculous title into the theater. I could see how some of his music feels big enough for theater. But I didn’t see this coming.
Illinoise isn’t a book musical. It is, more accurately, a ballet. The focus of the show is entirely on the dancers: There is no dialog at all, and everything is danced out rather than sung. This isn’t to say there aren’t singers: There were three, each also playing an instrument with the band. Each one is a remarkably good singer, with the standout being Elijah Lyons, whose voice was very much not in the musical theater tradition.
This is where both shows are interesting. Each is outside the tradition, and wins because of it. Neither adheres to a book, or character development, or anything we commonly associate with the Broadway musical
In Illinoise, there are characters, but they are danced characters, and without some prior research, it was challenging to follow the story, which consists (it seems) of a series of vignettes as told around a campfire in the Illinois woods.
The music, light and nimble at points, and dark and heavy at others (one song is about the mass murderer John Wayne Gacy), carries importance equal to the dancers. The story (or stories) are secondary. But the music! Stevens is an utterly unique composer, a cult figure of sorts, at least until this. The instrumentation of the orchestra is broad, with banjo, oboe, tympani and electric guitars all blending to create gorgeous soundscapes for the dancers to inhabit.
And the choreography those dancers danced absolutely deserved that Tony. I am not a dance maven, but the deeply expressive moves of the dancers in Illinoise got me a bit closer.
Stereophonic was hyped more than was Illinoise – 14 Tony noms! – and it was also slated to close this summer, so I got that ticket first. It was an interesting show, the subject matter was right up my alley; but I don’t get all those nominations at all.
Stereophonic is not a musical; it is a play with music, its subject is music, and it is most specifically about musicians….specific musicians we all know. Set in a recording studio in 1976 (ostensibly the Record Plant in Sausalito, since that California city is the stated locale), it is the tale of a band recording a follow-up album to a huge hit.
It is a roman á clef based on Fleetwood Mac’s recording of Rumours, the album that made them superstars. The characters have been given other names, but they are very much modeled on those very rock stars, from a drunken bassist obviously based on John McVee, and an insecure diva and her Svengali/lover/collaborator based on Stevie Nicks and Lindsay Buckingham.
Thus, it is not, to my mind, a tremendously creative undertaking. As someone who was working at Tower Records and writing about music at the time, less than 100 miles up the highway from the play’s setting, my knowledge really worked against my enjoyment. I know this history well, and the characters so closely mirrored their famous inspirations that it felt more like a documentary than a creative work.
And this is where Broadway is still, in general, so far behind mainstream culture: A play based on an extremely mainstream band from the classic rock era – nearly 50 years ago – is considered somehow…edgy? Creative? 14 Tony nominations worth? True, there may never have been a plastic bag of cocaine passed around on a Broadway stage before, but…
Don’t get me wrong: The acting is good, and the blend of the three singers’ voices, when they do sing, is stellar. Good singing is, after all, a fundamental on Broadway. But the story was…somewhat less than epic. Perhaps I’ve seen too many episodes of Behind the Music, VH1’s bargain-basement music documentaries, but my prior experience made this show underwhelming. And since when is a Best Scenic Design Tony given for someone merely recreating a room, even if it is realistically detailed? Is this the pinnacle of stage design? Not for me…
So even though I’ve yet to see a proper book musical – my purpose in coming here! – I took the advice of the young actors working at TKTS, and decided to go with a non-musical show as a palate cleanser. I chose Appropriate because everyone loved it, Sarah Paulson won the Best Actress Tony, and I wasn’t feeling the musical choices on offer.
It was a good show. Paulson showed why she won the Tony with a fresh and dynamic performance, and the set design and sound design were in someways superior to that of the winning Stereophonic. Ella Beaty was excellent, as was Corey Stoll (familiar from scads of TV and film credits) and Michael Esper (ditto).
But mostly, it was a solid family comedy-drama with a great cast and an engaging, if not particularly unique, storyline regarding family secrets and hidden resentments. I am not a straight theater guy, I’m a song-and-dance man, so with even the best plays, I usually feel that I didn’t get as much for my $100…and this was no exception. But I recognize the quality.
There’s still time for a musical, though I’ve got a lot of social plans lined up. Maybe Saturday night, when I’m free. Suffs, most likely, though I’m somewhat intrigued by the recasting of Cats, a hideous show I swore I’d never see again. Cabaret and Six I’m saving for much cheaper West End runs.
In any case, I’m glad I’ve gotten to see what I did, and even these shows have served my primary goal: to inspire me to get back to work on my own show, soon, which was really my main reason for coming back to New York.
So, I’m calling it worthwhile, and posting this.
Onward.
The plays all sound interesting but I gotta say I would love to see Appropriate. Anything regarding dysfunctional families draws me right in.
My sisters used to purchase Broadway tickets for two shows for my birthday, if I was headed to Greece. That’s been year ago and I can’t imagine affording tickets now! What great fun it was for me!