Eli Gelb (‘Stereophonic’) on playing Grover, a ‘sensitive soul’ who ‘makes room for everyone’s reality’ [Exclusive Video Interview]
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“He is in a lot of ways an Everyman, but he’s an unlikely one, and that’s how I see myself, too,” shares Eli Gelb about his character Grover in the new Broadway play “Stereophonic” by David Adjmi. The drama unfolds in a recording studio in the 1970s and the actor plays the sound engineer who has to help a band on the cusp of superstardom record their next album. The actor thinks that each of the seven characters in the play are “complex,” and of his in particular, he explains, “For as loveable as Grover is, he also isn’t perfect. It’s the 1970s, he’s a straight man, he’s pretty misogynistic when you meet him, and I think that’s important to acknowledge,” though he does prove to have “a good heart.” Watch our exclusive video interview above.
“Stereophonic” is a unique theatrical piece because the five actors who play the band actually perform music live as a real band, though many did not really know their instruments prior to starting rehearsals Off-Broadway last year. The other two performers – Gelb and Andrew R. Butler, who plays fellow sound engineer Charlie – had to “find the time outside the structure of rehearsal to figure out how we were going to convince people that we knew what the heck we were doing at these controls,” shares the actor, referring to the large sound board in front of which they spend so much time. They had the help of Will Butler, the writer of the original songs in the show, Justin Craig, the musical director, Ryan Rumery, the sound designer, amongst others, though the performer says he also had to do “a lot of Wikipedia, a lot of Googling.”
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One of the standout moments in the show is the extended sequence at the end of Act Two, right before intermission, when the band tries recording their new song “Masquerade.” There are many starts and stops as Grover, who has embraced his role as engineer on the album after being berated for slacking off, keeps interrupting takes due to issues with the tempo. Though Gelb does a little technical work in the scene – “I turn up the fader when we plug in the click track into the patch bay,” he says – his biggest contribution here is “dramatic.” He explains, “Getting the tension there and the sense of what Grover is up against, what he needs to surmount in order to serve the song, that needs to be felt… You also have to feel strength in him and you have to feel that strength isn’t reckless.”
That pivotal scene is something of an anomaly for the character, who is very frequently on stage but not always in the spotlight of the drama. As Gelb describes, “So much about playing this role has been about finding a balance… How much do you want the audience to pay attention to you?” For him, “Grover serves as a punctuation for the rest of the scenes playing out.” It is a dynamic that really encapsulates how the character feels throughout much of the show because “he is confident, but he’s also in over his head.”
WATCH our exclusive video interview with Sarah Pidgeon, ‘Stereophonic’
One of Gelb’s most touching scenes is a two-hander opposite Will Brill as Reg, the band’s bass player who has been struggling with addition to alcohol and drugs. When Reg tells Grover that life is meant to be enjoyed, Grover disagrees, a response the actor chalks up to “probably depression.” The performer thinks his character carries a heavy burden of knowing that life “is beautiful but also it’s so tragic,” explaining, “I think Grover in the play, he’s a sensitive soul and he makes room for everyone’s reality… that becomes part of what is so torturous for him, holding space for everyone’s valid feelings.”
Grover’s most tumultuous relationship in “Stereophonic” is with the band’s de facto leader Peter (Tom Pecinka), who becomes increasingly difficult to work with the more the band has success. “When the play starts, he’s enamored with Peter. Peter’s a rock star, and he’s a good one, a really good one,” shares Gelb, who explains that as the play develops, “He starts to see the cracks in him and the cracks become toxic for everyone.” In the very last scene of the show, Grover and Peter’s ex-girlfriend Diana (Sarah Pidgeon) talk about Peter, and Grover learns that he was the only band member who pushed to hire the novice engineer. Of this scene with Pidgeon, the recent Drama League nominee says, “It’s been the most beautiful experience I’ve ever had acting wise.” Through working on it, they “organically” discovered that the two characters are “siblings of abuse.” It is just one example of why he characterizes the play as “mind-blowing.”
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