Following a few ominous opening scenes in Stranger Things: The First Shadow, it’s October 1, 1959. Henry Creel (Louis McCartney), a kid from Lincoln County, Nevada, who’s just moved to Hawkins, Indiana with a static-y radio that seems to have unearthly powers, is being introduced to his fellow students by Hawkins High Principal Newby (Andrew Hovelson).
It so happens that this group of clamoring rowdies resembles no high school students circulating in 1959, when teenagers probably didn’t have the word “dysfunctional” to toss around. Such verisimilitude, however, clearly isn’t a concern for Stranger Things creators, the Duffer brothers (twins Matt and Ross), currently feel hot to go as a result of their triumphant four-season Netflix series—fifth season on the way, additional projects already in the pipeline.
Inspired by the Netflix success, the Duffers have decided that Broadway should be their next step—after testing the charged waters in London’s West End. They’re calling this piece a prequel with the idea that audiences who haven’t experienced the series won’t be in the figurative dark about who and what is transpiring. (This is as opposed to the literal dark, into which eager theatergoers are plunged during a good deal of the two acts.)
[Read Bob Verini’s ★★★★☆ review here.]
All the same, it’s likely the buyers for this hot ticket (relatively modest, considering these price-y days) will largely be series fans who’ll react happily to hints at what they already know. Nonetheless, Kate Trefry, credited with this script and a frequent writer on the series, has been scrupulous about newcomers not being clueless.
Or will they, along with the vets? For, sorry to say, the Stranger Things: The First Shadow plot isn’t an entirely whoop-de-do affair. More to the point, the first-act storyline, designated “Chapter One: The Girl From Nowhere” is kinda scattershot. Not only Principal Newby shows up but offspring Bob Newby (Juan Carlos), who mans radio station WBOB, and sister Patty Newby (Gabrielle Nevaeh), who takes a liking to Henry, whereas the other Hawkins High students rarely do more than keep their distance.
The same for Virginia Creel (Rosie Benton), Henry’s mother, who wants to love him but has difficulty because she’s flummoxed as well as alienated by his strange behavior and frequent contortions. The same distancing from his father Victor Creel (T. R. Knight, back on Broadway after too long away in Grey’s Anatomy), who encounters his own troubles. The same for young sister Alice Creel (either Poppy Lovell or Azalea Wolfe).
All the above figure in more or less dramatically, plus several others, including Joyce Maldonado (Alison Jaye), a notorious bad girl who’s running the school play and about whom it’s said in language not necessarily common in 1959 schools, “…if you don’t have hair on your balls, keep walking.”
Anyway, Henry’s dilemma interweaves along with the disturbed Patty Newby romance and stops at a few other Hawkins locales. Whatever of this makes sense might keep ticket-buyers interested, if not wholly involved, thanks to the proliferating special effects.
Oh, yes, special effects are a huge explanation for the Stranger Things series raison d’etre, and now the production’s Great White Way patrons have renowned stage craftspersons at their disposal. Credits go to lighting designer Jon Clark, sound designer Paul Arditti, illusions and visual effects designers Jamie Harrison and Chris Fisher, and video and visual effects designers 59.
Again and sorry to say, these are abundant but not as overwhelming as expected. The most spectacular is perhaps the one that should register as the most overwhelming. These are the calamities accompanying the moment when whatever is eating (literally?) at Henry’s volcanic insides erupts, finally presenting the explanation of Stranger Things: The First Shadow.
This all overflows the stage in act two, tagged “Chapter Two: Captain Midnight” and improves on the first act. It focuses more explicitly on Henry and what looks to be a losing battle with his own body—whatever it contains. (The outcome may recall Alien, although not likely a deliberate reference. The Duffers have stated the initial impetus for Stranger Things, which begins in 1983, was their intention to celebrate the 1980s movies they love, such as E. T.)
Henry’s nearly inhuman second-act manifestations require McCartney to raise his to-say-the-least hyper-performance even higher. (What does he do between shows to reenergize himself? Does he simply lie supine while inhaling and exhaling?) The entire physically busy cast members meet their unflagging demands gainfully under Stephen Daldry’s direction, but McCartney is acting above and beyond the call of duty.
Given the sci-fi Stranger Things: The First Shadow storyline—and possibly the series predecessor—it may be unnecessary to ask if other thematic implications emerge. Maybe not, but there could be a teasing subtext here concerning human behavior. Throughout—as in the series as well—the theme of parents and children in psychological discord, if not actual competition, persists. Parents often have futures planned for their children against which the children rebel. Is it the future Henry sees for himself that might be what eventually escapes? Just asking.
Positive final note: There’s a big production plus for ticket buyers who themselves were students in 1959: Singers whom sound designer Arditti spins, among them Ella Fitzgerald, Judy Garland, Patience and Prudence, and Patsy Cline, whose “Walkin’ After Midnight” couldn’t be righter for this deliberately nightmare-ish adventure.
Stranger Things opened April 22, 2025 at the Marquis Theatre. Tickets and information: broadway.strangerthingsonstage.com
