Producers of Stranger Things: The First Shadow have released a brand new behind-the scenes video featurette, ahead of the show starting performances at the Phoenix Theatre on 17 November 2023.
The featurette includes Stranger Things creators The Duffer Brothers, plus director Stephen Daldry, and the cast and creatives of the new show.
The featurette has been released on “Stranger Things Day”, which marks the day Will Byers in the TV show went missing – 6 November.
In the featurette, playwright Kate Trefry teases that, “There are so many Easter eggs. It’s Easter morning.” and that “the main thrust of the story is Patty and her little, budding romance with Henry.”
Producer Sonia Friedman also confirms that the play is also “the origin story of how Henry Creel became Number One.”
The play is set in Hawkins, Indiana in 1959, and begins with a young Jim Hopper, played by Oscar Lloyd, whose car won’t start. Bob Newby’s (Christopher Buckley) sister Patty refuses to take Jim’s radio show seriously, and Joyce Maldonado just wants to graduate and get the hell out of town!
But when new student Henry Creel arrives, Henry’s family finds that a fresh start isn’t easy, and shadows of the past have a very long reach.
The cast features Louis McCartney (Game of Thrones) as Henry Creel; Isabella Pappas (Finding Alice) as Joyce Maldonaldo; Oscar Lloyd (The 47th) as James Hopper Jnr; Christopher Buckley (David Copperfield) as Bob Newby; and Ella Karuna Williams (The Equalizer) as Patty Newby.
This Stranger Things stage spin-off also stars Shane Attwooll (Wonder Woman 1984) as Chief Hopper; Christopher Buckley (David Copperfield) as Bob Newby; Michael Jibson (The Essex Serpent; Hamilton) as Victor Creel; Patrick Vaill (Oklahoma!) as Dr Brenner; and Lauren Ward (Dear Evan Hansen) as Virginia Creel; alongside Kemi Awoderu (Sue Anderson), Chase Brown (Lonnie Byers), Ammar Duffus (Charles Sinclair), Gilles Geary (Ted Wheeler), Florence Guy (Karen Childress), Max Harwood (Allen Munson), Matthew Pidgeon (Father Newby), Calum Ross (Walter Henderson) and Maisie Norma Seaton (Claudia Henderson); and an ensemble and swings that include Tricia Adele-Turner, Lauren Arney, Reya-Nyomi Brown, Patricia Castro, Lydia Fraser, Isaac Gryn, Mark Hammersley, Tom Peters, Kingdom Sibanda, Tiana Simone, Danny Sykes and Meesha Turner.
Based on the Netflix series Stranger Things created by the Duffer Brothers, Stranger Things: The First Shadow is written by Kate Trefry (Netflix’s Stranger Things), and has an original story by the Duffer Brothers, award-winning writer Jack Thorne (The Motive and the Cue), and Kate Trefry.
The show is co-directed by Stephen Daldry and co-director Justin Martin with set design by Miriam Buether, costume design by Brigitte Reiffenstuel, lighting design by Jon Clark, sound design by Paul Arditti, illusions design by Jamie Harrison & Chris Fisher, video design by 59 Productions, movement direction by Coral Messam, wigs, hair and make-up design by Campbell Young Associates, casting by Charlotte Sutton CDG, international casting consultancy by Jim Carnahan, and Gary Beestone for Gary Beestone Associates is Technical Director.
The hugely anticipated stage show, featuring an original new story that pre-dates the Netflix series by being set in Hawkins in 1959.
Stranger Things: The First Shadow is playing at the Phoenix Theatre from 17 November 2023 to 25 August 2024, produced by West End and Broadway impresario Sonia Friedman (Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, The Book of Mormon), alongside Daldry, the Duffer Brothers and 21 Laps.
Book tickets to Stranger Things: The First Shadow at the Phoenix Theatre in London
Also see: New rehearsal photos
Phoenix Theatre, London
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