‘Stranger Things’ play that may hold ‘key to the end’ taking 1959 Hawkins to West End
The theater world is heading into the Upside Down and even further back in time. Netflix on Wednesday announced the release date for “Stranger Things: The First Shadow,” a new play focusing on some of the original series’ adult characters growing up in 1959 — “before the world turned upside down.”
And co-creators Matt and Ross Duffer “can’t wait to see you nerds in London” when the play premieres at the Phoenix Theatre in the city’s West End later this year.
The play, based on the streaming giant’s hit sci-fi series, serves as a prequel to the hit 1980s-set supernatural saga, mining the backstory of some of the Hawkins, Ind., high-profile denizens and bringing all-new source material to the wildly popular franchise in the same vein as Broadway’s Tony Award-winning show “Harry Potter and the Cursed Child.”
“The First Shadow” is written by Kate Trefry, a writer and co-executive producer on the TV show, and is based on an original story by Matt and Ross Duffer, Jack Thorne and Trefry. It will be “rooted in the mythology and world of the Netflix global phenomenon,” the streamer said.
The synopsis: “Hawkins, 1959: a regular town with regular worries. Young Jim Hopper’s car won’t start, Bob Newby’s sister won’t take his radio show seriously and Joyce Maldonado just wants to graduate and get the hell out of town. When new student Henry Creel arrives, his family finds that a fresh start isn’t so easy… and the shadows of the past have a very long reach.”
And — spoiler alert — Creel, of course, was later revealed to be the terrifying creature Vecna that Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown) banished to the Upside Down in Season 4.
The “gripping new adventure” plans to take fans “right back to the beginning of the Stranger Things story — and may hold the key to the end,” Netflix said.
Netflix’s ‘80s-set horror blockbuster remade part of downtown L.A. for a pandemic-era, drive-through event. We sent two of our critics to report back.
Three-time Tony Award winner and Oscar-nominated director Stephen Daldry (“The Reader,” “The Hours,” “Billy Elliot”) will direct, with co-direction from Justin Martin. Netflix and Sonia Friedman Productions will produce the play. The Duffer Brothers, who say they’re “beyond excited” about the play, will act as creative producers, with 21 Laps as associate producer.
“Collaborating with the brilliant Stephen Daldry has been nothing short of inspiring, and Kate Trefry has written a play that is at turns surprising, scary, and heartfelt,” the Duffers said in statement. “You will meet endearing new characters, as well as very familiar ones, on a journey into the past that sets the groundwork for the future of Stranger Things. We’re dying to tell you more about the story but won’t — it’s more fun to discover it for yourself. Can’t wait to see you nerds in London!”
The oft-nostalgic Netflix series succeeds in Season 4 by treating adolescence as the torturous experience it is for those who don’t fit in.
“Stranger Things has captured the imagination of fans around the world and we are incredibly thrilled to expand this exciting universe with Netflix’s first live stage production,” added Greg Lombardo, vice president of live experiences for Netflix. “With the creative talents of Matt and Ross Duffer combined with Sonia Friedman and Stephen Daldry, theatregoers will be swept up in a truly epic event worthy of Stranger Things.”
The world premiere for “Stranger Things: The First Shadow” has been set for late 2023. Tickets will go on sale in the spring, with additional details being announced later this month. Priority access to tickets will be given to fans who register Wednesday on the play’s website.
“Stranger Things 4,” which began streaming last May, quickly became Netflix’s No. 1 show on its most popular English TV list, with audiences clocking in more than 1.35 billion hours viewed in its first 28 days. It was the second title in Netflix history to cross the billion-hour viewing mark, the streamer said. (“Squid Game” was the first.) Season 3 of “Stranger Things,” which was released in 2019, still holds the No. 6 spot on the streamer’s most popular English TV list. It was also named 2022’s most-streamed TV show and overall program by Nielsen.
Kate Bush’s 1985 single ‘Running Up That Hill’ topped the iTunes charts after featuring heavily in the fourth season of Netflix’s ‘Stranger Things.’
In February 2022, the Duffers said that the original series would likely end with Season 5 and, in a June 2022 interview with Variety, they teased one of the show’s upcoming spin-off projects. The “Stranger Things” events team has already been hard at work bringing real-life Upside Down experiences to fans with live entertainment projects including “Stranger Things: The Drive-Into Experience.”
Meanwhile, “Stranger Things” star Noah Schnapp, who plays Will Byers in the hit, said that shooting for Season 5 begins for him in May.
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