Netflix’s ‘Stranger Things’ Play Looks to Move to Broadway

A Broadway transfer may be in store for the stage production of Stranger Things: The First Shadow. 

A casting notice calling for video submissions from Equity actors has been posted for the production, with a listed Broadway start in 2025. A theater has not yet been named. Stephen Daldry, who helmed the West End production of the show, is listed as director for the possible Broadway transfer, with Justin Martin as a co-director.

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Neither Netflix nor Sonia Friedman Productions, the two producers on the show, immediately responded to a request for comment on plans for Broadway. A spokesperson for the production in London said more information about the “future life of the production” will be shared at a later time. The audition notice alone does not automatically mean it’s coming to Broadway, but the play is already proving popular in the West End.

Written by Kate Trefry, the play opened at London’s Phoenix Theatre on Dec. 14. Stranger Things: The First Shadow is set up as a prequel to the Netflix television series, with younger versions of the characters from the television series, including Winona Ryder’s Joyce, Sean Astin’s Bob Newby and David Harbour’s Hopper.

Netflix’s Tudum blog sums up the plot of the play saying, “Hawkins, 1959: a regular town with regular worries. Hopper’s car won’t start, Bob’s sister won’t take his radio show seriously and Joyce just wants to get out as soon as she can. When new student Henry Creel and his family arrive, they find a fresh start isn’t that easy … and the shadows of the past have a very long reach.”

The Duffer brothers, who created the series, are credited with the original story for the play, in addition to Trefry and Jack Thorne, who wrote the stage adaptation of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child. 

This would be the next step in Netflix’s foray into Broadway. The streaming giant is a producer on the stage play Patriots, alongside Friedman. That play, which is written by Peter Morgan, creator of the Netflix series, The Crown, is scheduled to begin previews April 1 and open April 22 at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre.

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