Will Brill (‘Stereophonic’) on ‘underdog’ Reg: ‘It is so rewarding to get to play the breadth of a human experience’ [Exclusive Video Interview]
“This show means the world to me for all kinds of reasons,” reflects Will Brill about “Stereophonic,” the new play on Broadway that has earned the actor his first Tony Award nomination. He has been with the show since 2016, when it was “wildly different” and “a lot longer,” and he didn’t necessarily know at the time what sort of future it would have because “it was so crazy, it was so beautiful, but it was so unlike anything else” in the theatrical landscape. He says that having a front row seat to the development of the show and to be able to bring it to fruition to its record-breaking 13 Tony nominations is “so moving, it’s really exciting.” Watch our exclusive video interview above.
“Stereophonic” is set in the 1960s in a recording studio as a band attempts to write and lay down tracks for a new album while their popularity skyrockets. Brill plays the bassist, Reg, who at the start of the show is struggling the most with drugs and alcohol. “I knew what a bass was and that was basically it,” says the actor with a laugh, admitting that his lack of ability with the instrument almost prevented him from playing the part and resulted in a six-year gap with his involvement with the piece. The actor says that when he heard rumblings of a production in 2020, he “went out and bought a bass and convinced the creative team to set me up with the musical director Justin Craig so that I could learn what I needed for the auditions.”
WATCH our exclusive video interview with Sarah Pidgeon, ‘Stereophonic’
Brill shares that he identifies with his character because Reg is “such an underdog and he’s so self-destructive, which I, in another lifetime of Will Brill, was very much the same way.” Although those self-destructive behaviors are on full display in the first two acts of the show, the bassist ultimately has one of the most positive arcs in David Adjmi’s play, ending up in a much healthier physical and mental state than he started. “It is so rewarding to get to play the breadth of a human experience, and Reg really does go through the highs and lows,” says the Tony nominee. Another facet of the journey that resonates with him is that through Reg, the audience gets to “witness somebody bettering themselves, because it’s something that we are all actively trying to take part in for our own well-beings… Reg is the guy who is really bringing hope at the end of the play.”
The actor has one of the standout monologues in the show when Reg offers a passionate ten-minute explanation of what he loves about the community of people living in houseboats in Sausalito, California, which is where the band is recording their new album. Brill shares that he loves performing the scene because “among my favorite things to do in life is make people laugh.” The audience certainly partakes in the laughter of the characters onstage as Reg carries on about these houseboats, so much so that if the actor gives into the hilarity happening out in the house he would “run the risk of letting the audience experience take over the thing, so the tragedy of it is that I have to keep the monologue going and I don’t have a lot of time to sit with the audience and their experience.” He adds that what makes the scene particularly enjoyable is that “the language is so delicious, the haze of the drugs is so delicious.”
WATCH our exclusive video interview with Eli Gelb, ‘Stereophonic’
Though “Stereophonic” is a true ensemble piece, Brill has especially memorable scenes opposite fellow Tony nominees Juliana Canfield, who plays bandmate and Reg’s ex-wife Holly, and Eli Gelb as the band’s sound engineer Grover. The actor says of Canfield, “I feel so lucky to be able to do this with her,” and remembers thinking to himself when they first started collaborating, “You have to up your game, you have to be better at acting than you currently are because she’s so real and so available.” In the final act of the show, Reg and Grover share a one-on-one scene in which Reg articulates his belief that life should be all about enjoyment, which falls on deaf ears with Grover. “That is one of the scenes that, to me, feels so clearly like one person having an argument with himself,” notes the performer, continuing, “We’ve all gotten in that particular fight with ourselves, and it’s a really, really scary one.”
“Stereophonic” ends ambiguously as the audience does not quite know what is next for this band and its individual members after witnessing the tumultuous years that have unfolded on stage. “I wrestle with this a lot,” says Brill about what he thinks happens for Reg after the play concludes. He paints a rich picture, though, saying, “I think Reg’s peace that he has found is a tenuous one and I worry about him intermittently. Some days I feel like he’s really going to make it and other days I think he is around the corner from another crisis that’s maybe going to be the last one he has.” “The play is so rich that it will accommodate all of these bizarre theories,” adds the first-time Tony nominee.
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