The day before the world shut down for the COVID-19 pandemic, Eli Gelb auditioned for a production of “Stereophonic.” Now, four years later, he’s making his Broadway debut in the show at the Golden Theater.
“Stereophonic” follows a fictional Fleetwood Mac-esque band and two sound engineers over the course of a year as they struggle to make an album, manage toxic relationships, navigate the drug-filled ’70s rock world and ultimately, grow up. Gelb plays the lovable stoner sound engineer Grover, who perhaps grows the most over the year. Gelb says he fell in love with the 220-something page script right away.
“I had a couple of days to read it and prepare,” he recalls of his 2020 audition. “I sort of had to skim it and I was like, ‘I think I love this thing.’”
While life was put on pause, Gelb couldn’t help but return to the script, mulling over the story and the many parallels it posed during the pandemic.
“I couldn’t stop thinking about the play,” he says. “All the themes of isolation and togetherness and needing each other, tearing each other apart, those dichotomies were resonating really hard.”
It’s these themes that he thinks are leaving audiences awestruck after the three-hour show each night. Throughout the pandemic, Gelb stayed in close touch with the director, ultimately leading to him snagging the role on Broadway.
While Gelb’s character lied about his previous experience in engineering for the Eagles to get the job, viewers will quickly forgive him, as he acts as the audience surrogate. Throughout the play, he listens in on private conversations and gossips (a bit of gossip is professional, according to Grover) to fill viewers in on what’s going on outside of the studio.
Gelb’s castmates have the challenge of playing instruments and singing live each night — the show features original music by Arcade Fire’s Will Butler — but he is tasked with an…