Photo credit: Official website of Stranger Things On Stage
Netflix’s smash-hit streaming series Stranger Things is about to get its theater debut.
The prequel, Stranger Things: The First Shadow, will be set in Hawkins in 1959 and follows some familiar characters, including a young Jim Hopper. This will be the streaming giant’s first live stage production.
The show will run at London’s Phoenix Theatre in late 2023. It’ll be written by Kate Trefry, who also worked on the TV series. The story is by Trefry, Stranger Things creators the Duffer brothers, and Jack Thorne, who penned the stageplay for Harry Potter and the Cursed Child.
The show is being produced by theater powerhouse Sonia Friedman Productions, with 21 Laps as associate producers, and will be directed by Stephen Daldry (Billy Elliott).
Here’s what has been released about the plot of the show so far:
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 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.
"The world and mythology of Stranger Things has enabled a rich and fertile ground for creating an incredible story for the stage,” producer Sonia Friedman said in a statement. "Set within the canon of Stranger Things, this new play opens in London, with the West End hosting the only place in the world to experience this new story - for now.”
Casting for roles like young Jim Hopper has not been announced, and further ticket information is yet to come.
