The first shadow 'on Broadway

Enter into Stranger Things: The First Shadow on BroadwayTheater enthusiasts are welcomed by a giant replica of the Creel house in the center of the Netflix Series, plush Demogorgons for sale and disturbing music from the 1950s by playing as signs welcome them in Hawkins, ind.

“You are going to be right in front of the bark of the mind!” A participant in a few rows said taking place in an April overview.

The show, which opens to the Marquis Theater on April 22, comes to New York After opening in the West End of London in December 2023 and marked the largest foray in Broadway streaming giant to date. For Netflix, bringing this show on stage allows the streaming giant to connect with the Grand Fandom around one of its most popular series, in the same way that society has launched immersive experiences around Bridgerton And Calmar game.

“It goes back to the heart of what we like to do at Netflix, which tells of beautiful stories, and most of the time that happens through movies and television shows, but we also like to do it in other mediums, and especially in a way that really allows fans to enter the worlds of their favorite characters,” said Josh Simon, vice-president of consumer products.

But in addition to feeding the Fandom, the play, written by Kate Trefry, who is also a writer of the Netflix series, is created as the prequel to the events of the streaming show and can inform what will happen next season.

“It is totally canon. It is totally linked to the series with the seasons one to four, but also towards the future with the five season. This must have been this missing puzzle piece that connects all these different things,” said Trefry.

The play takes place in Hawkins in 1959 and presented the versions of the Lycée des Characters in the television series, notably Joyce de Winona Ryder, Bob Newby by Sean Astin and David Harbor, as well as new characters, including Newby's sister, Patty. Their experience in high school is upset by the arrival of a new student, Henry Creel (which was introduced last season), when he begins to experiment with new powers.

Director Stephen Daldry had the initial idea for the Foreign things The adaptation on stage after being attracted by the challenge of bringing the horror and science fiction of the show on stage and creating a bridge between television and the scene. Daldry and CoDirector Justin Martin had already collaborated with Netflix on The crownAfter managing the play, The publicHe was based on.

The two passed the past idea The Duffer BrothersWho created the Netflix series and are now executive producers on the play, has hit theatrical producer Sonia Friedman to direct production and Trefry as a playwright because of her familiarity with the Foreign things world. However, she had not written before the scene.

“We said” do not write a piece. Write two episodes, “said Martin.” And therefore these episodes were brilliant, tentacular, everything we wanted them to be, but also completely impossible to do. There was no limit to his imagination. ”

The challenge then, said Martin, was to ask “how can we explode our own imagination?”

After having restored the elements in the first project, which, according to Trefry, included animals living in the water, the team collaborated on a version on months of workshops which always include several impressive jump effects and stage effects, including floating bodies in ceilings, the characters suddenly turning into monsters And a cold open in which a massive battleship seems to appear from nowhere.

“The open cold is a large part of television obviously in general, but we spend weeks and weeks finding the cold open in the television show. So if you are going to do Foreign thingsYou must have a cold killer, ”said Trefry.

The team also wanted to capture the rhythm and structure of the television series, which implies that the group separates, working on their respective tasks, then “all these pieces would crash together to give meaning to a whole”. This, and the rhythm of the streaming series, is what makes the series “so compulsively observable”, says Trefry.

The construction of the Broadway set took six months, which allowed the team to upgrade some of the special effects of the West End version. For example, a scene, which involves a wall of television screens that quickly breaks as a threatening creature, now involves more practical effects rather than video. Broadway production also has a shorter execution time than the production of the West End, which always takes place at the Phoenix Theater, while Trefry and the directors returned by the script and the fine elements for Broadway actors.

Louis McCartney resumes his role as Henry Creel in Broadway, in a casting who understands Tr Knight like Victor Creel, Alison Jaye like Joyce, Gabrielle Nevaeh As Patty Newby, Nicky Eldridge as Bob Newby and Burke Swanson like James Hopper, Jr.

By creating the story, Trefry said that she had also tried to plant “small Easter eggs” for fans of the series, while creating a scenario that worked for theater lovers who had never seen the television show. She cannot say much about how the story will be linked to the next season of Foreign things, which is planned for the first In 2025, But note that seeing the game, then the five season will be “very satisfactory”.

“I worked on season five and the play at the same time, so they are really two sides of a medal, and I am really delighted that people can admire the full story and see how these two things through different mediums are somehow a kind of dialogue with each other,” said Trefry.

And as the documentary series shows on the production of the program, certain elements of the play had to be rewritten in London, so do not interfere with the narration of season five.

“We do not want to ruin the experience of season five for anyone, and we do not want people to feel excluded who cannot go to New York or London. But at the same time, you want the play to be significant in the world of the game,” said Ross Duffer an event of April 21 for the documentary. “It took a long time to find exactly what this balance is. We are satisfied with where it is now. ”

Daldry had initially approached the Duffer Brothers after the first season of the show, but the timing did not work before the end of season four, added Ross Duffer.

“Even if this season is long, we had no room to put everything we wanted in Henry, and so we thought it was the perfect avenue,” he said.

For the production of Broadway, the team presented a moment before the curtain call in which a Netflix screen falls with the options to “watch the credits” or the “next episode”, which induced public cries during the April overview because they thought they could get an overview of future scenarios. The team also plans to add this in the West End version.

Part of the objective to bring as many special effects on the scene was to transcend the physical limits of the theater And making the experience of seeing the show more immersive, said Simon.

“In the audience, you are sitting there for a few hours looking at something that may seem quite passive, but the way they really could give it life and give the impression that you are really like an episode of the show, I think, is really unique,” said Simon.

This helps put it in the same category as other Netflix experiences, who understands The attraction of Ball Queens for Bridgerton,, Cammar game: experience, A series of immersive games modeled after the show, Netflix Bites, a restaurant with dishes related to titles on the streaming platform, And the next Netflix house,, Permanent exhibitions of immersive experiences. There is also an immersive foreigner: the experience, which was developed with the Duffer Brothers.

All these experiences help extend the scope of the IP from the streaming platform in the same way as companies such as Disney and Nbcuniversal use their theme parks.

“I think it's our version,” said Simon. “We have now launched 170 of our attractions in 100 cities around the world.”

Admittedly, competitors also brought their IP to Broadway, especially in Disney execution Alladdin And The Lion King And Universal Death becomes her And Wicked, among others.

Last season, Netflix was co -producer on Patriots, A piece written by The crown Peter Morgan, who was also produced by Friedman. This credit production was partly to support Friedman's work, said Simon, and at the time, the company said he was developing A screen adaptation of the part. The streaming giant also has the company Roald Dahl, which has seen several adaptations on stage of its stories, especially Witches And Matilda the musical.

Netflix hopes to have Stranger Things: The First Shadow Run on Broadway for several years. The operating costs for the room should be raised given the special effects and more than 30 people (“Do not even ask me Foreign things will cost ”, Friedman recently told The New York Times). The first weeks of previews were largely well attended, with strong starting brushes.

As for whether Netflix could bring more stories on stage, Simon notes that “it's a big area to tell new stories”, in the same vein as the other experiences that the company gives life.

“Whether it is a restaurant or a retail store, a play, an escape room, a murder experience, for us, it is really a question of connecting fans to the stories. And we will explore any medium for that,” said Simon.