‘The First Shadow’ Stage Play Premieres on Broadway in Spring 2025

NEW YORK (AP) — The Upside Down is coming to Broadway.

Producers of the “Stranger Things” stage play announced on Tuesday that the franchise’s latest effort will make its way to New York City’s Marquis Theatre in the spring of 2025. This stage adaptation is directed by Stephen Daldry and co-directed by Justin Martin.

“Stranger Things: The First Shadow” will commence performances on March 28, 2025, with an official opening scheduled for April 22, 2025. The play premiered in London earlier this year and secured the Olivier Award for best new entertainment or comedy play, along with a trophy for best set design.

This new installment, penned by the Duffer Brothers, Jack Thorne, and Kate Trefry, dives back four decades before the 1983 setting of the original Netflix series. It functions as an origin story for Henry Creel, the first test subject of the Hawkins Lab who appeared in Season 4 as Vecna.

The play has garnered praise from critics, with Time Out describing it as a “sprawling maximalist monolith, a gargantuan entertainment that goes beyond being a mere ‘play,’” and the Guardian lauding it as “breathtaking theatre with its own arresting imagination.”