Three Nominations and Two Wins – Meyer Sound Dominate Tony Awards for Sound Design

Meyer Sound has proudly congratulated the sound designers of Buena Vista Social Club, Stranger Things: The First Shadow, and Just In Time on their 2025 Tony Award nominations for Best Sound Design. Each of these acclaimed productions relies on Meyer Sound reinforcement systems to deliver immersive, emotionally resonant audio that supports both technical precision and artistic expression.

On June 8 at Radio City Music Hall, it was Jonathan Deans’ design for Buena Vista Social Club that took home the trophy for Best Sound Design of a Musical, and Paul Arditti’s work on Stranger Things: The First Shadow that won Best Sound Design of a Play.

Buena Vista Social Club

Jonathan Deans

In Buena Vista Social Club, staged at the Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre, music doesn’t just support the story, it is the story. For sound designer Jonathan Deans, the production was less about theatrical spectacle and more about emotional authenticity. Drawing on decades of experience and a deep respect for the show’s cultural roots, Deans crafted a design that foregrounds the lived-in intimacy of Cuban music, played live onstage by master musicians. “These musicians know this music from birth,” says Deans. “They’re not reading music onstage. It’s all instinct, and that instinct changes from show to show.”

Because performances can shift subtly night to night, Deans’ design focuses on delivering every nuance exactly as it happens onstage; no colouration, no distractions. “What that does is allow a conduit between the instrument, and that might also be the voice of an actor or a voice of a musician, to the audience, and for it to be layered in the correct context. You want to meet that expectation for the people who know the music.”

Rather than embellish, Deans took a straightforward approach to sound reinforcement, deploying a focused Meyer Sound system, provided by PRG, centred on ULTRA-X40 and ULTRA-X20 compact point source loudspeakers. The result is a sound design that disappears into the show’s rhythms; unobtrusive but deeply felt.

“It’s very simple, yet complex,” he says. “Every string, every bit of air, every space, everything is critical. Meyer Sound gave me the transparency I needed to let the music speak for itself.”

The Tony nomination, Deans adds, is a rare kind of recognition. “We try to be invisible. But when people do notice, and they understand what’s been achieved, it’s incredibly meaningful.”

Stranger Things: The First Shadow

Paul Arditti

The Broadway transfer of Stranger Things: The First Shadow gave sound designer Paul Arditti the opportunity to rebuild the show’s sound design from the ground up. Building on the West End production, the creative team embraced new material, new effects, and a new scale. “Every scene is to some extent new, and there is virtually no sound or piece of music that we’ve left untouched,” says Arditti. “There are several new special effects and new sounds to go with them!”

To meet the demands of the larger Marquis Theatre, Arditti specified a Meyer Sound system from Masque Sound, incorporating LEOPARD compact linear line array loudspeakers and LINA very compact linear line array loudspeakers along with a range of ULTRA family and UP-4slim loudspeakers. Low-end reinforcement comes from 900-LFC low-frequency control elements and what Arditti called “some truly stunning 2100-LFCs” in both the orchestra and mezzanine. “From the moment we powered up the system I knew I’d made the right decision,” he says.

The theatre’s acoustic treatment added to the sonic precision. “Effectively the auditorium is a dead room, with almost every surface covered in acoustically absorbent material,” says Arditti. “With the excellent controlled coverage of the Meyer Sound speakers, there are no bad seats for sound; rare in a theatre of 1,600 seats.”

Arditti describes the Broadway run as a demanding but creatively rewarding process, an evolution of one of the most challenging projects of his career. “Being nominated for a Tony is a huge honour,” he says. “Acknowledgment from your peers is the ultimate reward.”

Just In Time

Peter Hylenski

Set in a reimagined supper club with cabaret tables and an onstage band, Just In Time blends concert-style performance with character-driven storytelling. For sound designer Peter Hylenski, the challenge is to create a mix that can shift fluidly between emotionally charged scenes and high-energy musical numbers, often within a single transition.

“The show tells the life story of Bobby Darin, so there are scenes of intimate dialogue followed immediately by an explosion of his live performances taking place at venues such as the Copa club,” Hylenski says. “I play with the expansion and contraction of the theatre using focused point-source systems combined with surround usage.”

Just In Time is staged in-the-round at Circle in the Square, in a wraparound layout that presents distinct technical challenges. “When sourcing vocals in-the-round, the level of complexity increases exponentially,” Hylenski explains. “Actors are walking through the audience, blurring the lines between ‘performance stage’ and ‘listening area,’ which requires extreme accuracy as far as system coverage and control.”

He adds that the complexity is heightened by the physical proximity of musicians and performers. “The onstage band shares the same acoustic space with the actors.

Balancing band versus vocals to each zone is challenging in a small space. As sound designers we are often tasked with adding sound to a room, but sometimes our job is to figure out how to manage the acoustic sound as well!”

The show’s Meyer Sound system, provided by Sound Associates, is centred around ULTRA family loudspeakers, with ULTRA-X40 and ULTRA-X42 compact point source loudspeakers forming the system’s core, supported by ULTRA-X20, ULTRA-X22, and ULTRA-X23 compact point source loudspeakers, UP-4slim ultracompact installation loudspeakers, plus MM-4XP miniature self-powered loudspeakers and an array of 750-LFC very compact low-frequency control elements.

Meyer Sound’s NADIA integrated digital audio platform is used for output management, matrixing, and Spacemap Go panning. “Meyer Sound’s digital control platform has always been my go-to ‘Swiss army knife’ for handling complex system designs like this one,” says Hylenski.

It’s a complex design shaped by constant collaboration, a process that, for Hylenski, reflects the spirit of the entire production. “Just In Time is a collaboration that challenges the entire creative team,” he says. “To be recognised for this work, and the sonic contribution to the storytelling, is such a great honour.”