Tom Pecinka is a 2024 Tony Award nominee for his efficiency in “Stereophonic,” now enjoying in New York. by the use of Related Press
Because the ruthlessly bold Peter in Broadway’s “Stereophonic,” Tom Pecinka will get to reside out a Seventies rock famous person myth — replete with the intercourse, medication and unfashionable style — onstage.
Regardless that the actor describes his Tony-nominated efficiency as a full-throttle, emotional purge, he’s thankful to go away that have in the back of after curtain name.
“There are issues I am getting to do as Peter that I don’t get to do in my lifestyles,” Pecinka, who’s making his Broadway debut, advised HuffPost. “Peter permits himself to explode, and I’d be mendacity if I stated attending to scream at any person wasn’t cathartic. However I love to stay him on the theater. I do a ritual each evening the place I take off the necklace I put on and say good-bye to him, as a result of he’s now not probably the most a laugh individual to reside with.”
Now enjoying at New York’s Golden Theatre, “Stereophonic” has been nominated for 13 Tony Awards — probably the most ever for a Broadway play. On Tuesday, the display’s run used to be prolonged via Jan. 5 after in the beginning being slated to near subsequent month.
Written via David Adjmi and directed via Daniel Aukin, the drama follows a Laurel Canyon-era rock band within the throes of recording an album. Peter is the band’s hot-headed guitarist and is concerned about a tempestuous, on-and-off dating with singer-songwriter Diana (Sarah Pidgeon).
Tom Pecinka, Will Brill and Sarah Pidgeon in “Stereophonic.” Julieta Cervantes
Peter and Diana’s bandmates are 3 Brits: bassist Reg (Will Brill) and keyboardist Holly (Juliana Canfield), who’re a married couple, and drummer Simon (Chris Stack). They’re joined of their Sausalito, California, studio via a couple of hapless engineers, Grover (Eli Gelb) and Charlie (Andrew R. Butler).
The band’s recording classes are, in fact, a fiery conflict of egos. Over the direction of 3 hours, the characters expose their inside turmoil in between laying down song, which contains acting authentic songs via musician Will Butler, previously of the band Arcade Hearth.
“Artists come to the display, and so they move: ‘Oh, I do know the ache and the enjoyment of that procedure,’” Pecinka stated. “However someone who’s completed a gaggle undertaking in fundamental faculty the place they had been paired with any person they hate, or possibly they needed to do all the paintings as a result of nobody else did … too can relate.”
Watch the video for “Masquerade” from Broadway’s “Stereophonic” forged recording underneath.
A lot of the thrill on “Stereophonic” has emphasised the fictitious band’s many parallels to Fleetwood Mac, whose masterpiece 1977 album “Rumours” used to be recorded as participants Christine McVie and John McVie had been on the point of divorce, whilst Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks had also referred to as it quits on their dating.
Pecinka spent months in guitar classes in preparation for his function, sending movies to the display’s ingenious staff to stay them abreast of his weekly development. Regardless that he appeared to Buckingham early on, his interpretation of Peter additionally winks at Mick Jagger, Robert Plant and James Taylor, amongst different ’70s song icons.
“I by no means felt find it irresistible used to be the Fleetwood Mac tale, as a result of those characters are so fleshed out, they felt like their very own folks,” he stated. Vocally, he added, “my touchstone used to be Seventies Billy Joel, as a result of that used to be the song I grew up with from that duration. So it used to be already type of in me.”
A Wantagh, New York, local, Pecinka auditioned for “Stereophonic” in 2020, mere days sooner than COVID-19 shuttered theaters national. The play gained its premiere off-Broadway staging in fall of 2023, and the actor stated the risk to paintings with a modern creator used to be definitely worth the wait.
“Till then, my occupation had most commonly been Shakespeare and Chekhov and Ibsen — lifeless folks,” he quipped.
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“I by no means felt find it irresistible used to be the Fleetwood Mac tale, as a result of those characters are so totally fleshed out, they felt like their very own folks,” stated Pecinka (on left, with Pidgeon). Julieta Cervantes
Regardless that “Stereophonic” is billed as a “play with song” quite than a musical, Pecinka and his forged associates had been in a position to record the display’s songs for posterity on a brand new forged album.
It’s an fulfillment the actor, who used to be advised via casting brokers that his rock tilt used to be ill-suited for standard musical theater, is particularly happy with: “It all the time brought about me disgrace and unhappiness that I wasn’t in a position to do the ones issues, however now I’m making a song in the way in which I wish to sing on Broadway.”
Maximum of Pecinka’s off-stage time nowadays is spent making ready for the June 16 Tony Awards, the place he’s nominated for Absolute best Efficiency via a Featured Actor in a Play along Brill and Gelb.
Having a look past “Stereophonic,” he’s desperate to parlay his newfound acclaim into tv and picture paintings in addition to theater. As for long term roles, he believes they will have not begun to be written.
“I was extra like Peter when I used to be more youthful ― an individual who’s chasing luck and dealing truly onerous,” he stated. ”[But] the object Peter has taught me is that my dream function would possibly not even exist but. I don’t really feel like I’ve been pigeonholed. If I will be able to deal with that, I’ll be a more than happy clam.”
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“I really like enjoying any person who could be very sophisticated, and there are issues I am getting to do as Peter that I don’t get to do in my lifestyles,” Pecinka stated. Valerie Terranova by the use of Getty Pictures
