"As for sound, it's hard to describe the astonishments Cody Spencer puts in our ears: what a child hears when his parents brawl, what it sounds like inside a concussion, how a car roars in memory."
Jesse Green · The New York Times · The Outsiders
"The lighting by Justin Townsend, the projections by Peter Nigrini, and the sound by M.L. Dogg and Cody Spencer do not simply enhance the show: they are the show."
New York Stage Review · Here Lies Love
"A high-pitched ringing brings the audience inside Ponyboy's skull when he is knocked unconscious by a haughty rival."
Variety · The Outsiders
"'Queen Bitch,' by David Bowie, reverberates with a sound quality that rivals a Madison Square Garden concert."
Devon Ivie · Vulture · Dog Day Afternoon

Cody Spencer is a Tony Award–winning sound designer based in New York City. He received the 2024 Tony Award and Drama Desk Award for Best Sound Design of a Musical for The Outsiders, directed by Danya Taymor, and was nominated for a Tony and an Outer Critics Circle Award the same year for Here Lies Love, co-designed with M.L. Dogg. The earlier production at The Public Theater received the Lucille Lortel Award.

Recent Broadway productions include Dog Day Afternoon, directed by Rupert Goold; The Last Five Years, directed by Whitney White; Romeo + Juliet, directed by Sam Gold; Job, directed by Michael Herwitz; and Gutenberg! The Musical!, directed by Alex Timbers. School Girls; or, the African Mean Girls Play opens at Manhattan Theatre Club this fall. Highlights from the last decade include ongoing collaborations with Alex Timbers, Whitney White, and David Byrne, including both stagings of Byrne and Mala Gaonkar's Theater of the Mind. Here Lies Love was the first Broadway production to use L-Acoustics' L-ISA system.

Selected Work
Dog Day Afternoon
Dog Day Afternoon
2026
 Burnout Paradise
Burnout Paradise
2026
 The Last Five Years
The Last Five Years
2025
 Romeo + Juliet
Romeo + Juliet
2024
 Job
Job
2024
 The Outsiders
The Outsiders
2024
 Gutenberg! The Musical!
Gutenberg! The Musical!
2023
 Here Lies Love
Here Lies Love
2023
 Theater of the Mind
Theater of the Mind
2023 · 2026
Production photography by Billy Bustamante, Matthew DeFeo, Emilio Madrid, Matthew Murphy, Austin Ruffer and Evan Zimmerman.

Credits

Sound Design

Upcoming

2026
School Girls; or, the African Mean Girls Play
Dir. Whitney White · Samuel J. Friedman Theatre · Manhattan Theatre Club · Broadway · Opens September 28
2026
Spring Awakening
Dir. Danya Taymor · Studio Seaview · Off-Broadway · Opens Fall 2026
2026
Memoirs of Amorous Gentlemen
Dir. Rob Ashford · Music by Duncan Sheik · The Night Egg at the Culture Club · Off-Broadway · Opens Fall 2026

Broadway

2026
Dog Day Afternoon
Dir. Rupert Goold · By Stephen Adly Guirgis · August Wilson Theatre
2025
The Last Five Years
Dir. Whitney White · Hudson Theatre
2024
Romeo + Juliet
Dir. Sam Gold · Music by Jack Antonoff · Circle in the Square
2024
Job
Dir. Michael Herwitz · Music by Dev Hynes (Blood Orange) · Hayes Theater
2024
The Outsiders
Dir. Danya Taymor · Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre
Tony Award · Drama Desk Award

Broadway — Co-Sound Design

2023
Gutenberg! The Musical!
Dir. Alex Timbers · Co-design with M.L. Dogg · James Earl Jones Theatre
2023
Here Lies Love
Dir. Alex Timbers · Co-design with M.L. Dogg · Broadway Theatre
Tony Nomination · Outer Critics Circle Nomination

Off-Broadway

2026
Broad Strokes
By Cat Cohen · Music by Cat Cohen and David Dabbon
2026
Burnout Paradise
Pony Cam · Astor Place Theatre
2023–24
Energy Curfew Music Hour
Audible Theater
2021
Rock of Ages
New World Stages
2019
Broadway Bounty Hunter
Greenwich House Theater
2017
Joan of Arc: Into the Fire
Dir. Alex Timbers · The Public Theater

Off-Broadway — Co-Sound Design

2021
Trevor: The Musical
Co-design with Brian Ronan · Stage 42
2013
Here Lies Love
Dir. Alex Timbers · Co-design with M.L. Dogg · The Public Theater
Lucille Lortel Award

Regional & Immersive

2026
Theater of the Mind
David Byrne and Mala Gaonkar · Dir. Andrew Scoville · Goodman Theatre at the Reid Murdoch Building, Chicago
2025
The National Pastime
Dir. Johanna McKeon · Syracuse Stage
2022
Theater of the Mind
David Byrne and Mala Gaonkar · Dir. Andrew Scoville · DCPA Off-Center, Denver · World premiere
2022
May We All
Dir. Shelley Butler · Tennessee Performing Arts Center, Nashville

International — Co-Sound Design

2014
Here Lies Love
Dir. Alex Timbers · Co-design with M.L. Dogg · National Theatre, London

Press

Selected coverage

Features & Interviews

L-Acoustics
The Artisans of Sound: Cody Spencer
Career profile — the early years, the Ronan mentorship, and the field-recording archive behind the designs.
Read
HuffPost
Tony Winner Cody Spencer Talks 'The Outsiders' On Broadway
On making sound a character in the storytelling.
Read
Fast Company
Here Lies Love's Spatial Audio Secret
How David Byrne's musical used spatial audio to build its immersive room.
Read
ZDNet
This Broadway Show Won a Tony for Best Sound Design
A first-hand account of The Outsiders' sound system.
Read

Industry & Technical

Front of House
The Outsiders on Broadway, Heard via L-Acoustics L Series and L-ISA
Technical breakdown of Broadway's first L Series deployment.
Read
Live Design
Romeo + Juliet: Shakespeare for Gen Z
On the design approach behind Sam Gold's production.
Read
Stage and Cinema
Theater of the Mind at Goodman Theatre
On the design work across radically different rooms in Byrne and Gaonkar's immersive installation.
Read

Video

L-Acoustics
Here Lies Love — Immersive Audio Discussion
David Byrne, Cody Spencer, and M.L. Dogg on the bespoke L-ISA spatial sound system built for the production.
Watch
Cheddar News
Pulling Back the Curtain on Broadway Sound Design
Inside the immersive audio of The Outsiders.
Watch

Contact

Inquiries

Representation

Charles Kopelman

CPK Artists LLC

charles@cpkartists.com

Affiliations

IATSE Local 1 · United Scenic Artists 829