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The Guardian
a day ago
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
They wanna be with you everywhere: why Fleetwood Mac are still totally ubiquitous
A time traveller from 50 years ago might be surprised if they were to visit the UK now – not so much by the echoes of the politics, with an embattled Labour government and a resurgent far right, but by the prevalence of Fleetwood Mac. The Broadway hit Stereophonic, written by David Adjmi, opened in the West End this week after becoming the most nominated play in Tony award history (it ended up winning five out of 13, including best play). It invites theatregoers to journey back to 1976 and 'plug into the electric atmosphere as one up-and-coming rock band record the album that could propel them to superstardom. Amid a powder keg of drugs, booze and jealousy, songs come together and relationships fall apart.' If that sounds remarkably similar to the story of how Fleetwood Mac recorded Rumours, then that's exactly what the album's producer Ken Caillat thought: he sued the producers for the play's similarity to his memoir, settling out of court earlier this year, though Adjmi has always denied his play is purely about Fleetwood Mac, regardless of the many parallels. But Stereophonic is just the tip of the Mac iceberg that has come into view in recent years. Novel readers and TV viewers have enjoyed Daisy Jones and the Six, which also used the Fleetwood Mac template as the basis for its story. Their smooth, adult-oriented rock sound also permeated music throughout the last decade, present in records by artists such as Sharon Van Etten, Julien Baker, the Weather Station and more. If you want a dancier version of the band, you can go to the club night Fleetmac Wood, playing beefed-up remixes. And Mac themselves are as popular as ever: in last week's album chart, the compilation 50 Years – Don't Stop sat at No 6 (after 340 weeks on the chart), while Rumours is at No 22 (after 1098 weeks on the chart). Nearly half a century on from Rumours' release, Fleetwood Mac are still very big business. Partly that's down to the continued resonance of the story of the album: two couples tearing themselves apart and committing their feelings to tape. (It is perhaps not a coincidence that Abba, another 70s band whose troubled relationships were set to lush pop, are also undimmingly popular.) But it's also down to the music: Rumours still sounds like a treat when you play it. 'I think Dreams in particular feels very modern sonically,' says Tamara Lindeman, the Canadian musician who records as the Weather Station. 'The naked kick/snare/bass line; the way that there almost no instruments inhabiting the mid-range, just a voice; the really tight short reverb; the super short and compressed drums.' 'That's really modern, and sonically resembles a lot of R&B and hip-hop in a way – it's similar in how that modern music inhabits those frequency ranges. Also I would say Stevie Nicks' internal sense of rhythm feels so modern – the way she hangs around the beat, often a little behind and kinda swung. It's not like how other singers of the time sang.' Dreams had a flush of viral fame after being mimed to by cranberry-juice swigging skateboarder Dogg Face on TikTok in 2020, and those who attended Fleetwood Mac shows during this century have noticed a change in the band's audience. Twenty years ago, their live crowd had been predominantly ageing couples, but by the time they played what turned out to be their final London shows at Wembley Stadium in 2019, the presence of a great many young women was startling. For Lindeman, that development came as no surprise. 'Stevie Nicks and Christine McVie both wrote incredible hits. In a lot of ways it was a band led by women – two really powerful voices and writers. For me in particular the songs by Nicks and McVie are the ones that resonate and last – those are the ones you think of when you think of Fleetwood Mac, more than Lindsey Buckingham's hits. Of course young women are showing up.' Nicks, whose failing relationship with singer/guitarist Buckingham was one of the themes of Rumours, has become a particular hero in recent years. 'She does that thing of writing personally and vulnerably about her experiences, but with this strength that comes through anyway – it's totally vulnerable but she stays tough, like a superhero of the heart,' Lindeman says. There are more prosaic reasons for Fleetwood Mac's continued presence in the culture though, not least the appetite for work they displayed during the first 20 years of this century. While most veteran superstar bands begin to ration their appearances as time passes, Fleetwood Mac stayed on the road for months on end, keeping their name alive. Not for them the handful of stadium shows in major markets: their touring schedules show their willingness to work. Nor did they complicate their message by releasing new music: the focus was always firmly on the past. It has paid off. Now, two and a half years on from the death of Christine McVie and the final passing of the group (for now: drummer and founder Mick Fleetwood would be open to a new iteration), Fleetwood Mac are the hippest old people in music.
Time Out
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Time Out
The 10 best new London theatre openings in June 2025
If you want to look for unifying trend in June 2025 London theatre, then it's very much about classic shows being brought back: last year's Fiddler on the Roof, 2019's A Midsummer Night's Dream, 2011's London Road and most remarkably still, a sort of (it's complicated) reprise for the original 2000 production of Sarah Kane's posthumous masterpiece 4.48 Psychosis. On the other hand, there's more to the month than old stuff and for many the real treat will be a first chance to see a couple of big shiny American shows: David Adjmi's wildly acclaimed Fleetwood Mac (sort of) drama Stereophonic, and the latest massive Disney musical Hercules, which makes its English language premiere at Theatre Royal Drury Lane this month. The best London theatre openings in June 2025 1. Stereophonic US playwright David Adjmi's drama – with songs by erstwhile Arcade Fire man Will Butler – comes to the West End as the most Tony-nominated play of all time. It's still pretty bold of producer Sonia Friedman to plonk a three-hour play with no famous people in it directly into the West End, although the subject matter should serve as enticement: Stereophonic is a fictionalised account of the legendarily fraught recording sessions for Fleetwood Mac's landmark album Rumours. Duke of York's Theatre, now until Sep 20. Buy tickets here. 2. 4.48 Psychosis To state this straight away, 4.48 Psychosis is totally sold out already: the only day you're getting in is on a Monday when all 90 tickets to the Royal Court's tiny Upstairs space go on sale on the day itself. Sarah Kane's final play, 4.48 Psychosis is a sort of generically unclassifiable freeform poem – which some have referred to as a 'suicide note' – that was originally staged at the Royal Court a couple of years after her death. This unusual production reunites the entire original team behind James Macdonald's production, including a cast that includes current RSC boss Daniel Evans. It's not as simple as restaging the original show: the idea seems to be to come up with a new production that saves the original from the darkness. Royal Court Theatre, Jun 12-Jul 5. 3. London Road Although it actually dates back to the Nicholas Hytner era, Alecky Blythe and Adam Cork's London Road was clearly the best thing just departed NT boss Rufus Norris directed for the theatre. So it was great that he brought the visionary verbatim musical about an Ipswich community's reaction to the Suffolk Strangler killings back for his final season. But there won't be much coverage this time, due to the media blackout around Steven Wright's latest trial causing the NT to decide to pull press night. Which seems a bit excessive (Wright isn't even a character in it) but hey ho – it's one of the most remarkable shows of our time and you really should see it. National Theatre, Olivier, Jun 6-21. Buy tickets here. 4. A Midsummer Night's Dream In a very big month for returning shows, here comes a welcome second crack at Nicholas Hytner's sublime 2019 production of A Midsummer Night's Dream. There is some fun genderfluid stuff at work here, with many of the lines for fairy king and queen Oberon and Titania swapped over. But really it's about bagging the standing tickets and getting swept up in a joyous production that ends up as full-on dance party. JJ Feild and Susannah Fielding lead the cast. Bridge Theatre, May 31-Aug 23. Buy tickets here. 5. Hercules If the recent live action screen version of Snow White and the Seven Dwarves taught us anything, it's that even the biggest of Disney's old hits aren't necessarily suited to a 2025 makeover. Conversely, a big glossy musical version of 1997's Hercules makes perfect sense: the film wasn't a big hit for Disney but was well-regarded, is relatively contemporary, and a musical is a fine opportunity to bring it to a wider audience. In addition the Greek mythology setting is a great opportunity to go nuts with the special effects and means everyone kind of knows the story already. Theatre Royal Drury Lane, booking Jun 6-Jan 10 2026. Buy tickets here. 6. Fiddler on the Roof Jordan Fein's production of Bock & Stein's immortal musical set in the last days of the shtetl was a massive hit at the Regent's Park Open Air Theatre last summer and subsequently won three awards at this year's Oliviers. Now it's back for an indoor stint at the Barbican and what a treat it'll be to have this excellent production back again. It perfectly mixes joy in the classic songs with a deft awareness of the unsettling undercurrents to the story. Barbican Centre, now until Jul 19. Buy tickets here. 7. A Moon for the Misbegotten The Almeida's in-house hard-hitter Rebecca Frecknall turns her sights on Eugene O'Neill for the first time, directing Michael Shannon and Ruth Wilson in O'Neill's sort of sequel to the monumental Long Day's Journey Into Night. US star Shannon is a particularly intriguing piece of casting because he played the role of the alcoholic James Tyrone Jr in a 2016 Broadway production of Long Day's Journey, making him possibly the first actor in history to have played James in both shows. Almeida Theatre, Jun 18-Aug 16. 8. Intimate Apparel Lynette Linton has directed phenomenal productions of Lynn Nottage plays for each of the previous two Donmar artistic directors, and now she makes her Timothy Sheader-era debut with a third. Where Sweat and Clyde's were UK premieres, this will be the first revival of the excellent Intimate Apparel, which will this time feature US star Samira Wiley as Easther, a Black seamstress in early twentieth century New York. She dreams of finding a man and saving up enough money to open her own Black beauty parlour – but that might be easier said than done. Donmar Warehouse, Jun 20-Aug 9. 9. Showmanism Hampstead Theatre has been on a mercurial course since its last artistic director Roxana Silbert quit in 2022 (after the theatre lost its Arts Council funding). Undoubtedly the highlight of the new era to date was lip sync performance artist Dickie Beau's deeply moving Re-Member Me, a light hearted tribute to Shakespeare's Hamlet that became ever more powerful as it unexpectedly changed shape. So what a treat to have him back with Showmanism, his attempt to trace a complete history of the stage, from Greek tragedy to nightclub queens. As with its predecessor, expect it to start funny and get intense. Hampstead Theatre, Jun 18-Jul 12. Buy tickets here. 10. North By Northwest North Londoners can enjoy a quick London stop for the latest from British theatre's whimsical genius Emma Rice, as her adaptation of Hitchcock's North By Northwest calls in at Ally Pally for a couple of weeks. Yes, it seems fairly nuts to adapt his kinetic spy thriller about a man who finds himself thrust into a vast, country-spanning conspiracy after a mix up at a restaurant. But you could say that about almost everything Rice has ever adapted. Alexandra Palace Theatre, Jun 11-22.
Times
17-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Times
Don't call us Fleetwood Mac! The real story of the hit musical Stereophonic
It was the surprise New York hit that nobody was talking about one day, and everybody was talking about the next. Call it the Hamilton effect. Can Stereophonic pull off the same trick now that it is moving to London after selling every ticket of its nine-month Broadway run? A run that was nominated for 13 Tony awards — more than any other play in Broadway history — and won five? 'The play is a staggering achievement and already feels like a must-see American classic,' The New York Times said. David Adjmi's three-hour drama is not a musical, but it is full of music. It is a fly-on-the-wall depiction of an Anglo-American rock band as they record a world-conquering album in a California studio in
Telegraph
02-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Telegraph
How Fleetwood Mac inspired the West End's hot new play – and a very ugly lawsuit
This month, one of Broadway 's most successful recent plays transfers to the West End. Stereophonic is set in a recording studio and tells the story of a five-piece British-American rock band recording an album in trying circumstances in California, 1976. Having debuted off-Broadway in 2023 before transferring to New York's stately John Golden Theatre in 2024, Stereophonic, written by American playwright David Adjmi and with music by former Arcade Fire member Will Butler, became the toast of the town. It's the most Tony-nominated play of all time, receiving 13 nominations last year – beating the record previously held by Jeremy O Harris's Slave Play, with 12 – and winning five awards, including Best Play. Stereophonic was also named the season's best play by the New York Drama Critics' Circle, among myriad other accolades. But despite its run at the Duke of York's serving as its London debut, Stereophonic may strike a familiar chord with British theatre-goers. After all, the story bears strong similarities to the recording of Fleetwood Mac 's 40-million-selling album Rumours, which was also recorded in trying circumstances by the five-piece British-American rock band in California in 1976, and released in February the following year. From its location and era to its band members' genders, conflicts and drug habits, the play's story arc may seem to some like, well, second-hand news. Like Fleetwood Mac, the band in Stereophonic comprises a male British drummer and bass player, a female British vocalist-pianist, a male American guitarist-vocalist and a female American vocalist. All of whom could be interpreted as Mick Fleetwood, John McVie, Christine McVie, Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks respectively. In the play, the two couples are mid-break-up, just as the McVies and Buckingham and Nicks were during Rumours' high-tension creation. Cocaine was everywhere (it also features in the play). 'Drama. Dra-ma,' was how the late McVie described the recording process to Rolling Stone shortly before the release of what is often hailed as one of the greatest albums ever made. Even Stereophonic's music, played live by the actors during the three-hour show, sounds – to my ears – like Fleetwood Mac, from the Chain-like throb of Masquerade to the Dreams-esque Bright (Fast). 'Stereophonic is a triumph that sneakily takes the Fleetwood Mac story to Broadway,' ran a headline in Rolling Stone last spring. The same piece said that Stereophonic 'might as well be titled Who's Afraid of Fleetwood Mac?, given all the covert and not-so-covert references to the band'. Fleetwood Mac stage shows do exist – a show featuring the band's music, Go Your Own Way, opened in the West End in 2023 and is now touring, as are the perennially popular covers band Rumours of Fleetwood Mac – but these are more tribute nights than serious dramas. Stereophonic's playwright Adjmi declined to be interviewed for this article, but he has called the musical a 'fantasia' whose inspiration came from many places. 'I keep getting the question 'Is this Fleetwood Mac? Is it this and that?' Why do people want to know that?' Adjmi told Variety in April 2024. 'There is no real story. The whole thing is invented.' Still, Stereophonic was deemed to have overstepped the mark by Rumours producer Ken Caillat when he saw the play last year. Caillat, now 78, sat behind the mixing desk for Rumours's arduous year-long recording process as a 29-year-old. In 2012 he co-wrote a book called Making Rumours: The Inside Story of the Classic Fleetwood Mac Album. Caillat watched Stereophonic 'in a daze' and saw 'uncanny' similarities between Making Rumours and the play, according to a New Yorker article published last September. 'I feel kind of a numnuts… I feel ripped off,' he said. Adjmi was quoted in the same article as saying that any similarities to the 'excellent' Making Rumours book were 'unintentional'. But, last October, Caillat and his Making Rumours co-writer Steven Stiefel launched legal action against Adjmi and numerous other parties involved in the play. In a 29-page complaint filed at the Southern District of New York Court – seen by the Telegraph – Caillat and Stiefel alleged that Stereophonic 'copies the heart and soul of Making Rumours'. Their complaints centred around the fact that Stereophonic is essentially told from the perspective of a producer, 'Grover', just as the story in Making Rumours is. And from there, the pair argued, the alleged similarities piled up. These alleged similarities, Caillat and Stiefel contended, ranged from the stage set – with the audience positioned behind the studio's mixing desk – to the fact that Grover is promoted from sound engineer to co-producer during the recording of the play's album, just as Caillat was during Rumours, for which he won a Grammy. Narrative details and conversations from Making Rumours were also uncannily close, Caillat and Stiefel argued. For example, an outburst from Christine McVie, who died in 2022, towards Caillat is closely replicated in Stereophonic, as is a nasty physical altercation between Buckingham and the producer after Caillat recorded over a take on Buckingham's instruction. Caillat's use of the phrase 'wheels up' is used by Grover, while a scene about 'Houseboat wars' – battles between local houseboat dwellers and residents – appears in both Making Rumours and Stereophonic. Caillat and Stiefel sought damages, an injunction and legal fees from the makers of Stereophonic, which they estimated to have grossed $20 million. The case was settled out of court in January. Speaking together for the first time since they wrote the book, Caillat and Stiefel tell me what Rumours – and Making Rumours – meant to them. 'Recording Rumours was the highlight of my young adult life,' says Caillat. 'I loved working with Fleetwood Mac, making them sound even better than they do in real life, putting my magic into the sound. You never know when you're going to be part of history, so always strive to do your best.' The Californian says that for years, friends would ask him to retell stories about recording Rumours. Then, in the Noughties, someone suggested he write a book. 'I sat down, gathered all my historical track sheets about everything we did each day during the production of the album. These notes were rich with information about what instrument we used and what song we worked on each day. Armed with this information, I wrote the story of my year of making this album. While I was writing, I was thoroughly convinced that I was that 29-year-old boy again,' he says. Caillat then passed his 80-page document – single-spaced, no paragraphs – to Los Angeles-based writer Stiefel, who turned detailed notes into a book with a narrative arc. 'We set out to tell an Almost Famous-esque story, where the band is sort of the backdrop to the primary story of a young studio engineer trying to succeed,' says Stiefel. 'Getting to work on this book was, for me, akin to Ken's opportunity to work with Fleetwood Mac back in the day. The journey of Making Rumours (the book) and Rumours (the album) are similar in that they were all-consuming creative processes.' Caillat and Stiefel won't comment on their settlement with Stereophonic's creators, beyond saying things were 'resolved on mutually agreeable terms'. Adjmi has always maintained that Stereophonic's inspiration comes from multiple sources, including Led Zeppelin, Metallica, Butler's own Arcade Fire and female-centred bands like The Mamas & the Papas and Heart. He told Variety that the initial idea actually came when he was listening to Zeppelin's Babe I'm Gonna Leave You on a flight a decade previously. He imagined Robert Plant singing, with all the inherent desire and anguish in his voice. He then thought about the dramatic possibilities presented by a cloistered environment such as a studio. The glass wall that separates artist and producer, for example, allows conversations to be half-private, half-shared. Just like Rumours, Stereophonic had its own rocky ride to runaway success. And this is where things get even more meta. An initial 2020 production was derailed by Covid, while sound designer Ryan Rumery (who later won a Tony for the play) said Stereophonic was the 'most arduous' project he had ever worked on because all the sound is relayed live to the audience via a real studio console. Adjmi has spoken about a 'combustible, interesting' on-stage energy stemming from the tension between his exacting dialogue and director Daniel Aukin's more flexible approach. One group of people who haven't seen the play are, apparently, Fleetwood Mac themselves. Nicks hadn't heard of Stereophonic when asked about it in an interview last year, while Deadline reported that the three other living members – John McVie, Buckingham and Fleetwood – haven't seen it either. Still, Adjmi has said that he's interested in adapting it for the silver screen, while Caillat and Stiefel tell me that their book, Making Rumours, has 'garnered interest from Hollywood' – with a draft of a feature script already completed. On top of this, Fleetwood Mac are working on a 'definitive' authorised documentary with Apple TV+ (directed by Hollywood heavyweight Frank Marshall), although given that Stereophonic is nothing to do with the band, one imagines there won't be much overlap. So prepare for a full-on Mac attack, or at least a Mac-adjacent one. But whether it's a case of 'Don't Stop' or 'Oh Well' rather depends on your perspective.
New York Times
20-03-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
‘Buena Vista Social Club' Brings the Thrill of Music Making to Broadway
The spirit of the musical 'Buena Vista Social Club' is evident in its opening scene. Audience members have barely settled into their seats before a group of onstage musicians strikes up the number 'El Carretero,' with the rest of the cast gathered around and watching. Some are leaning in from their chairs, others get up and dance on the side. The music is center stage, and we immediately understand its power as a communal experience that binds people. Therein lies the production's greatest achievement. For a place where music so often plays a crucial role, Broadway hardly ever highlights the thrill of music making itself. Oh, there have been shows that have effectively pulled the curtain on the process — David Adjmi's play 'Stereophonic' takes place inside recording studios, and the most effective scenes in 'Beautiful: The Carole King Musical' are set in one as well. But the interconnections between musicians, songs and a society have rarely been evoked as vividly, and as lovingly, as they are in 'Buena Vista Social Club,' which opened on Wednesday at the Gerald Schoenfeld Theater. (This improved version follows the show's Off Broadway run at Atlantic Theater Company, which premiered in December 2023.) As its title indicates, this production, directed by Saheem Ali, is inspired by the 1997 hit album 'Buena Vista Social Club,' on which veterans of the Havana scene performed beloved sons, danzones and boleros from the traditional Cuban repertoire. Many of those songs and others are in the musical (a booklet in the Playbill introduces each one, with illustrations by the flutist Hery Paz), along with most of those musicians and singers. Or at least versions of them are. Tellingly, the book by Marco Ramirez ('The Royale') identifies the characters by their first names only, as if to underline that this is more of an evocative flight of fancy than a biomusical — Ramirez makes the most of musical theater's notoriously loose relationship with facts. The action travels back and forth between 1956, in the tense time leading up to the toppling of the autocratic Batista regime, and 1996, when the young producer Juan de Marcos (Justin Cunningham) assembles a backing band for the older singers he's brought into the studio. (The British executive producer Nick Gold and the American guitarist and producer Ry Cooder played important parts in the 'Buena Vista Social Club' album and the Wim Wenders documentary that followed, but the musical doesn't mention them. Instead it focuses on de Marcos's role in putting together the band and singers.) The show toggles between 1996 and 1956, where the young performers Compay (Da'von T. Moody), Omara (Isa Antonetti) and Ibrahim (Wesley Wray) bond over their love of traditional Cuban music. Credit... Sara Krulwich/The New York Times Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times. Thank you for your patience while we verify access. Already a subscriber? Log in. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
