Enver Chakartash Called 'Every Vintage Dealer They Know' to Dress Stereophonic's Cast

Costume designer Enver Chakartash is a 2024 Tony Award nominee for Stereophonic's 70s-style looks. Despite the costumes being thrifted, dressing the show's cast was no easy feat. The work invites audiences to be a fly on the wall in a 1976 music studio as an up-and-coming rock band records a new album that could catapult them to superstar status.

"[The nomination] means so much," Chakartash says. "No one will know how hard it was to get those clothes into the room. It just took so much passion and perseverance from my team and myself. Days driving around upstate [New York] calling, every vintage dealer we knew going through their stocks, coming away with two pieces, and slowly building this collection of clothes and these closets for each character."

Sterophonic made its world premiere with a sold-out Off-Broadway run at Playwrights Horizons in 2023, where Chakartash also designed the costumes. The recently extended David Adjmi play opened on Broadway to rave reviews April 19, and is the most nominated play in Tony Awards history with 13 nods.

"When we got to Broadway...we got to tell an even deeper story about how these people accumulate wealth and how they rise to stardom," Chakartash adds. The play, which runs three hours, takes place over the course of a year. Adds Chakartash: "It's such an interesting show, because they're in the same place, you will always see them in the same environment, but their lives outside of that environment are changing. How do we tell that story through their clothing—that the outside world is changing for them, their experience of it is changing, and how do we bring that into the room?" And so the characters' clothing became more refined as the show progresses, as they develop from relatively unknown musicians to bonafide rock stars.

Chakartash's work will be showcased on Broadway again in the upcoming Romeo and Juliet revival starring Kit Connor and Rachel Zegler. Their past credits also include A Doll's House and Is This A Room.

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Winners will be named at the 77th Annual Tony Awards, set for June 16 at Lincoln Center's David H. Koch Theater. The evening will kick off with The Tony Awards: Act One, streaming for free on Pluto TV. Details are to be announced. The 77th Annual Tony Awards will follow beginning at 8 PM ET, broadcasting live on CBS (check local listings) and streaming live (for premium-level subscribers) via Paramount+. All Paramount+ subscribers will have on demand access to the broadcast beginning June 17. Stage and screen star Ariana DeBose will be back for the third consecutive year to host.

Visit Playbill.com/Tonys for more.