Sarah Pidgeon (‘Stereophonic’) on Diana’s ‘very, very vulnerable’ scene that makes her ‘blood boil’ [Exclusive Video Interview]
“I definitely delved into some music, less to create a character, a blueprint… but more to understand who their competition might have been,” says Sarah Pidgeon on some of the preparation she did to step into “Stereophonic,” a new Broadway play about a fictional band in the 1970s recording a new album while their popularity rises. Some have compared the story to that of Fleetwood Mac – the actress says, yes, she “listened to the big one” – but she stresses that “Diana was who she was on the page, not this Frankenstein of different iconic female singers in the 70s.” She says playwright David Adjmi’s script “gave me a lot more freedom to decide who this person was.” Watch our exclusive video interview above.
Pidgeon originated the role of Diana at the Off-Broadway production at Playwrights Horizons last year. The Broadway newcomer says that in the time between that production and the transfer to the Golden Theatre the seven cast members “have all gotten much closer,” whereas in the past they were just “playing at this idea of knowing each other.” Together, the ensemble is “continuing to crack this chestnut open,” and the performer says she’s “so grateful to have a company that cares so much about the play that we’re doing that night,” describing the show itself as “very human, it’s quite evocative, it’s very moving.”
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At the beginning of the play, one of Diana’s songs has started to climb the music charts, and the writer and singer has just brought a new composition, “Bright,” into the recording studio to share with the band and with her boyfriend and bandmate Peter (Tom Pecinka). Pidgeon describes the beautiful, soulful musical number – which she sings and plays on the piano in the recording booth – as examining “her relation to fame.” She continues, “There’s this subconscious desire and hunger to explore this version of herself, and this is the only way that she can do it, and she is so good at it that it begets success and critical acclaim,” but that attention feels “so alien to her.”
At the heart of “Stereophonic” is Diana’s tumultuous relationship with Peter, who becomes increasingly disrespectful to his girlfriend the more pressure he feels about producing a perfect album. The play tells the audience that the couple has been together nine years and fills in some information about their origins, but Pidgeon crafted a lot more detail for herself about how these two were drawn to each other in the first place. “They grew up together in a small town in Phoenix,” shares the performer, continuing, “He has been this all-knowing creative force in her life. I think he taught her how to drive, I think he taught her how to do all these things… A significant part of her adult development has been in tandem with Peter, and I think she was willing to do everything for this man.” She notes that their close relationship before the play starts is integral to making their breakup during the course of the play so “painful.”
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The scene that precedes their breakup is an incredibly difficult one. Diana is alone in the recording booth as Peter and their sound team Grover (Eli Gelb) and Charlie (Austin R. Butler) listen in as she attempts to hit a very high note that she cannot seem to reach. After being berated by Peter, Diana pulls him offstage and the audience overhears their breakup before Diana returns to the booth and gets the take right. Pidgeon says of the scene, “I’m always really anxious… I’m nervous about actually hitting the note when I have to hit it. It’s also after crying and fighting and whispering at each other.” As “an actor who sings” rather than a singer, it is a “very, very vulnerable” moment for the performer, magnified by the fact that the character is “looking down at these three men who she knows she can’t lose her cool in front of because then she’ll become completely undermined.” It is an incredibly well-acted, tense scene, and the actress says that during it, “I start feeling my blood boil a little bit. She hits every single roadblock.”
“Stereophonic” concludes with a lot of uncertainly about what the future has in store for the band, so much so that Pidgeon says that “everyone has their own idea. We talk about it sometimes backstage.” Of where Diana might go next, the actress says, “I think she does this solo album, I think it does well, but I think she knows that same sense of feeling, it’s like a dull pounding ache in her that she knows her album would have done better if she did it with Peter.” Since “these two feed off each other as much as they hurt each other and tear each other down,” the actress thinks “Diana and Peter come back around and make some more music.” In contrast to the onstage drama, she says that putting on “Stereophonic” has been “so drama free” and “it’s a gift and a joy to do it every night, sometimes twice.”
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