The Further
‘Stranger Things: The First Shadow’ Comes to Broadway in 2025
While we wait for the final season of Netflix’s “Stranger Things,” we’ve learned this week that the live stage play “Stranger Things: The First Shadow” is coming to Broadway.
The critically acclaimed, Olivier Award-winning, “mega five-star hit” (Sunday Times) play will begin performances Friday, March 28, 2025 and officially open Tuesday, April 22, 2025 at Broadway’s Marquis Theatre (210 West 46th Street).
Based on an original story by the Duffer Brothers, Jack Thorne and Kate Trefry, and rooted in the mythology and world of the Netflix global phenomenon, “Stranger Things: The First Shadow” is a new play written by Kate Trefry, directed by Stephen Daldry and co-directed by Justin Martin.
“Stranger Things: The First Shadow” is described as “a new story live on stage,” and it’s set in Hawkins, 1959. “The First Shadow” takes place “before the world turned upside down.”
Hailed by the Daily Telegraph as “The West End Event of the Year” and the recipient of nineteen 5-star reviews and twelve 4-star reviews, “Stranger Things: The First Shadow” opened in its world premiere production at the Phoenix Theatre in London’s West End, where it is currently breaking box office records and is now on sale through February 16, 2025.
The cast includes Louis McCartney (Silent Roar, Hope Street, Game of Thrones) as Henry Creel, Ella Karuna Williams (The Equalizer) as Patty Newby and Patrick Vaill (Oklahoma!, Macbeth, Dash & Lily) as Dr. Brenner.
Oscar Lloyd (The 47th, Hotel Portofino, 4 O’Clock Club) takes on the role as Jim Hopper, Jr., Isabella Pappas (Finding Alice, The Villains of Valley View, The Nether) is Joyce Maldonado (Joyce Byers’ maiden name) and Christopher Buckley (David Copperfield, Orphans, Stig of the Dump) plays Bob Newby.
Then there’s Michael Jibson (Bodies, The Essex Serpent, Hamilton) as Victor Creel and Lauren Ward (Dear Evan Hansen, Matilda the Musical, Caroline, or Change) as Virginia Creel, Shane Attwooll (Wonder Woman 1984, Legend, The Last Days of Judas Iscariot) as Chief Hopper, Kemi Awoderu as Sue Anderson (Sue Sinclair’s maiden name), and Chase Brown as Lonnie Byers. Ammar Duffus plays Charles Sinclair, while Gilles Geary is Ted Wheeler and Florence Guy is Karen Childress (Karen Wheeler’s maiden name). Max Harwood plays Allen Munson, Matthew Pidgeon is Father Newby, Calum Ross is Walter Henderson, and Maisie Norma Seaton takes on the role of Claudia Henderson.
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 are featured as well.
Here’s the official plot synopsis…
“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.
“Brought to life by a multi-award-winning creative team, who take theatrical storytelling and stagecraft to a whole new dimension, this gripping new adventure will take you right back to the beginning of the Stranger Things story – and may hold the key to the end.”
Can you believe this year marks the 25TH ANNIVERSARY of Bloody Disgusting?! Yes, it was way back in 2001 that Brad Miska and Tom Owen launched this very website, with yours truly taking over as Editor-in-Chief around 10 years ago. It’s been the highlight of my life to run and write for this website every single day of those past 10 years, and one of the very best things about writing for Bloody Disgusting is the community that’s kept us alive all these years.
It’s thanks to you, the readers and supporters of Bloody Disgusting, that we get to keep doing this for a living, and we’re deeply proud of the fact that we’ve continued to have an engaged and active readership over the years and throughout the many changes we’ve had to weather.
We’re not going anywhere anytime soon, and we hope you’re not either.
On that note, we thought it might be fun to fire up monthly discussion threads where you can essentially use the comments sections of those articles to ask us anything. Sure, we’re always hanging around in the comments sections of different articles here and there when we can, but these will be dedicated spaces that we can repeatedly come back to throughout each month to answer questions and chat about what’s going on in the world of horror.
For the month of June 2026, this is that discussion thread. Feel free to come on back here any day throughout June to ask us literally anything, or start up a discussion on any topic of your choosing. Whenever we’ve got some spare time in between writing articles, we’ll pop in here and engage back with as many of those comments as we possibly can.
As long as you’re being pleasant, even if you’re expressing disagreements with our opinions or frustrations with anything we’re doing, the conversation will be more than welcome.
So go ahead… ASK BLOODY DISGUSTING ANYTHING!