11/19/2025
Broadway Las Vegas
“I've always been drawn to making music with a beginning, a middle and an end, which not all music has,” Will Butler, composer for Stereophonic, told Smith Center Members inside Myron’s on October 23.
“There are gorgeous things that just endure and exist, but I’ve always gravitated toward rising action, climax and falling action. So when I’m writing, it’s like, how does it grow? Where does it go from here? And what's interesting about it? Because it has to be a little mysterious.”
As a longtime member of revered indie rock band Arcade Fire, Butler helped write songs that helped that group sell out arenas and even earn a Grammy award for Album of the Year in 2011.
A few hours before one of Stereophonic’s eight recent performances in Reynolds Hall, Members who donate $1,000 or more annually to the nonprofit performing arts center had the unique opportunity to hear Butler – along with Director Daniel Aukin, Music Director Justin Craig and Lead Producers Sue Wagner and John Johnson – share insight into a Broadway play that earned the most nominations in Tony Awards® history (13), won five Tonys and is now touring for the first time ever.
Discussing casting for Stereophonic, which revolves around a five-piece rock band in the mid-1970s working on its potential breakthrough record with the help of two studio engineers, Aukin explained, “You have to find people who are triple threats to a really high degree. Maybe someone’s amazing at the acting, maybe they have a great voice, but can we train that person in this instrument to get them where they need to be? It can be really difficult. But we've had some amazing actors who can handle it.”
Added Butler, “We didn't know how to make a fake band, so it was, OK, fine, let's make a real band.”
Members also got to hear Butler perform some of the show’s mesmerizing music on piano and guitar, with accompaniment from Craig, as Butler sang the lyrics he handed off to Stereophonic’s cast before the show debuted in 2023.
“These two created what we call band camp,” Wagner said. “Will Butler has spent his life in a band, but these actors didn't know what it was to be a band. So they created the world for them to live in authentically.”
Following the discussion and musical performance, the five members of Stereophonic’s creative team mingled with attendees as light bites and craft cocktails were passed through Myron’s, capping off another exclusive Members experience.
To learn about becoming a Member at The Smith Center, visit TheSmithCenter.com/support.