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Like most sound designers, Cody Spencer has lived his professional life behind the scenes, having built a career from the backstages of theaters and other performance venues on both sides of the Atlantic.
His aversion to being in the spotlight was made apparent at the 2024 Tony Awards last month, when he inadvertently dropped an f-bomb while accepting the award for Best Sound Design of a Musical for his work on “The Outsiders.”
“If you put me in front of 1,000 people and tell me to talk about myself, be excited for myself, I freak out and don’t know what to say,” Spencer, a St. Louis native now based in New York, told HuffPost. “I’m the one who hides behind the console.”
The worst part, he added, was being cut off by broadcast censors before thanking his fiancée, Victoria Bullard. Fortunately, Bullard was in the audience that night and heard him say her name in real time.
“If I ever get nominated again, I’m hiring a speechwriter to help me,” Spencer quipped. “I’m told I got my one free pass.”
Watch Cody Spencer’s 2024 Tony acceptance speech for Best Sound Design of a Musical below.
Spencer’s Tony was one of four that “The Outsiders” won that night ― a seemingly overdue honor, given that his Broadway résumé has included “The Book of Mormon” and “Tootsie,” among other hit shows. That four-award triumph came as a pleasant surprise to many involved with the musical, which opened at New York’s Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre in April.
The show also won for Best Musical, Best Lighting Design of a Musical and Best Direction of a Musical, the latter of which was awarded to director Danya Taymor.
Based on S.E. Hinton’s beloved novel and featuring songs by Justin Levine and folk-rock duo Jamestown Revival, “The Outsiders” is told from the perspective of Ponyboy Curtis (portrayed by Brody Grant), a 14-year-old orphan who joins a working-class “Greasers” gang in Tulsa, Oklahoma, circa 1967.
CBS Photo Archive via Getty Images
Ponyboy and his best friend, Johnny Cade (Sky Lakota-Lynch), find themselves thrust into an ongoing turf war between the Greasers and a rival, upper-middle-class gang called the “Socs” when an altercation between the two groups ends in tragedy. Soon, the two boys are on the run from the law.
The tribal tension climaxes in the buzzed-about “Rumble” sequence, which involves water, dirt, a bevy of actors in wet T-shirts and some of the most jaw-dropping choreography ever performed on Broadway.
Prior to its New York engagement, “The Outsiders” played to enthusiastic critics and crowds at the La Jolla Playhouse in La Jolla, California, last year. During the show’s West Coast run, Angelina Jolie joined the show’s creative team as a producer, reportedly at the urging of her 16-year-old daughter, Vivienne.
Once Spencer was brought on board as the musical’s sound designer, he quickly realized that the show would appeal to young audiences who “are used to listening to music through AirPods.”
Hence, he worked with French audio manufacturer L-Acoustics to implement a state-of-the-art form of immersive sound design, known as the L-ISA system, that would give viewers a 360-degree experience and make them feel as if they were “part of the action, as opposed to just listening.”
Prior to “The Outsiders,” L-ISA had been embraced by pop artists like Adele and Katy Perry, both of whom relied on the system in their recent Las Vegas residency concerts. It was also used on Broadway last year in the musical “Here Lies Love,” which Spencer worked on.
According to Spencer, audiences are likely to hear L-ISA and other immersive audio systems further utilized on Broadway, and beyond, moving forward.
“We were able to make sound a character in this show,” he said. “There are ways you can tell a story with just sound, and [Taymor] pushed me to realize that. It really helps to tell a story and pull everything together.”
Immediately following his triumphant moment at the Tonys, Spencer delved into a pair of new Broadway projects. The first is the psychological thriller “Job,” which opens at New York’s Hayes Theater July 31.
The second is director Sam Gold’s reimagining of “Romeo and Juliet,” starring Kit Connor and Rachel Zegler and featuring music by Jack Antonoff, the Grammy-winning front man of the rock band Bleachers who has worked with Taylor Swift and Sabrina Carpenter, among other pop artists.
Though Spencer can’t disclose much about either production, he has a lot of praise for Antonoff, who is, by some accounts, a theatrical newcomer.
“What excites me the most about working with Jack is just how excited he is to be on Broadway,” Spencer said. “He’s really got a fresh take on it. It’s going to be a ‘Romeo and Juliet’ like no one’s ever seen before.”