A ‘Stranger Things’ Prequel Set in 1959 Is Headed to Broadway
Taking place 24 years before the Netflix series, ‘Stranger Things: The First Shadow’ sees things shake up in Hawkins, Indiana.
Stranger Things may be gearing up to release its fifth and final season but the sci-fi show will live on as a Broadway play.
Stranger Things: The First Shadow first debuted on London’s West End late last year. A prequel set 24 years before the Netflix series, the production looks back on the lives of young Jim Hopper, Joyce Maldonado and Bob Newby and his sister Patty, in Hawkins, Indiana in 1959.
“Before the world turned upside down. 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 the hell 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 play’s synopsis reads.
Following its debut on the West End, The First Shadow has snagged two Olivier Awards, one for Best Comedy Play and another for Best Set Design. The final productions in London will wrap up in February. The First Shadow will begin showing previews on Broadway in March 2025, followed by shows open to the public in April.
The play’s screenplay was written by Kate Trefry, based on an original story by the Duffer brothers, Jack Thorne and Trefry. Stephen Daldry will be directing the three-hour production, while Netflix and Sonia Friedman are producing.
