A new Dimension opens on Broadway

Since late this spring, Broadway has been transforming New York City’s Marquis Theater into the fictional town of Hawkins, Indiana, where secret portals and interdimensional monsters lurk in the night.

Stranger Things: The First Shadow serves to share the backstory of the popular Netflix show’s main antagonist, Vecna, and how he turned from the socially awkward teenage boy Henry Creel into a telekinetic monster intent on destroying the world.

Upon entering the theater, audience members – many donning Hellfire Club shirts and clutching demogorgon plushies – are immediately taken back in time to the 1950s with a pre-show playlist of Buddy Holly and Sheb Wooley songs as part of a local radio show hosted by the character of Bob Newby. By the time the curtain rises, the show transports viewers to Hawkins, complete with both new and familiar faces.

From the first scene, it is apparent that the play is attempting to bank on the audience’s love of the streaming series; filling it with character cameos, such as younger versions of future mom to Will and Jonathon – Joyce Wheeler, town police chief Jim Hopper and the infamous government scientist Dr. Martin Brenner. 

The play even goes as far as to make itself appear as you are watching the small screen version of Stranger Things rather than a live adaptation with each of the two acts beginning with the same title card from the TV series and then before the bows by using a projector to showcase the words “Next episode” that Netflix viewers are all too familiar with.

Those touches obviously aim to invoke the feeling of streaming the show on your TV at home, however, some aspects of the play struggle to connect with the canon events of the Netflix series. 

Seeing the characters of Hopper, Joyce and Joyce’s future boyfriend Bob Newby in their younger forms is an interesting draw but it begs some questions for hardcore fans. Among them are why Hopper’s dad being the police chief before him was never addressed, how Henry’s blood gives other experiments their powers when in the show it is revealed that Eleven gained hers from her mother being involved in MKUltra experiments and how Joyce, Bob and Hopper go through an inter-dimensional mystery in their teenage years and not immediately clock anything strange happening in Hawkins 20 years later. Most importantly, it causes audience members to ask: “In what world is Joyce a former theater kid?”

For the most part, the show does a good job of sticking closely to the source material. Much like the original TV series, the play bends a multitude of genres such as thriller, romance and comedy as the ensemble cast simultaneously works to uncover the mystery of their small town. 

The most memorable details of the play come in the form of the spectacular display of the effects and CGI used on the Netflix show – effects that earned them three Tony Awards for Best Lighting Design, Best Sound Design and Best Scenic Design of a Play this year. The use of screens, projectors, practical effects, actors on wires and well-crafted set pieces all work together to curate eye-catching effects such as when the two-story tall Mind Flayer descends from the catwalk and the stage is transported into the world of the Upside Down.

Impressive effects are matched by equally impressive cast performances, many of whom are making their debut on Broadway with the show. 

Leading the Broadway cast is Louis McCartney, an Irish actor who plays Henry Creel. McCartney initially appeared in the show’s world premiere on the West End. At only 21 years old, it is apparent McCartney is a talented actor both physically and vocally who manages to convey the different sides of the awkward young man he is and the darkness hiding inside that is working to take him over completely. 

Standout performances in the cast come from both Alison Jaye (Joyce Wheeler nee. Maldonado) and Burke Swanson (Jim Hopper Jr.), who both work hard to embody the vocal and physical characteristics of the characters originally portrayed by Winona Ryder and David Harbour in the original Netflix production.

Jaye and Swanson also provide the play with many of its comedic moments (alongside the rest of cast making up the Hawkins high-school students) such as when Swanson imitates the father of his character in an attempt to scare information out of suspect and when a blackout occurs during the production of Hawkins High’s play and the students try to distract the audience with an acapella symphony of Oklahoma.

While it is not imperative to be a fan of the original show to understand the story taking place onstage, the jokes and Easter eggs (including the appearance of a familiar shaved-headed child with an affinity for waffles) embedded within the book and series definitely land better when you are familiar with the inhabitants of Hawkins.

Still, you have plenty of time to catch up on the Netflix series and grab a ticket to the play before the fifth and final season of Stranger Things premieres later this year.