Death Becomes Her (c) Matthew Murphy and Evan Zimmerman
Tuesday, May 13, 2025
Monday, May 5, 2025
Theater Reviews: “Stranger Things: The First Shadow” Is a Broadway Prequel-Thrill-Ride Through the Right-Side Up; Yes, “Real Women Have Curves,” but Also the Right Formula for a Musical Crowd-Pleaser; and “Five Models in Ruins, 1981” Provides an Amusing Glimpse Into the World of Fashion
Stranger Things: The First Shadow (c) Matthew Murphy and Evan Zimmerman
Broadway: Stranger Things: The First Shadow
Marquis Theatre
During the Act One finale of Stranger Things: The First Shadow, the audience is suddenly flooded with actors in hazmat suits, shining huge flashlights at us, when one of them (at my performance) stopped at the guy in an aisle seat who happened to be holding to his newly bought Mind-Flayer stuffie. The hazmat guy grabs and examines it, before giving it back to the giggling guy, does the two fingers to his eyes and then points them to his (the universal sign for “I’ll be watching you!”) before walking on stage, all to the cheers and laughter of the nearly sold-out crowd. And if there was any doubt that fans of the TV series Strangers Things would shell out Broadway-sized dollars to see a prequel, they vanished faster than Barb at the pool. And if you understood anything I wrote so far, this new play, backed by Netflix, will certainly be a fun time. I was certainly a fan of the show (it premiered in 2016) that focused on a group of kids in the early 1980s who come in contact with an evil supernatural force. It was a fun throwback to a time of Dungeons & Dragons, when the TV’s cable box was an antenna and video game arcades were the Friday night hangouts. Stranger Things: The First Shadow is an extension of a flashback from Season 4 in which the kids learn about a troubled young boy named Henry Creel (Louis McCartney, perpetually on edge) whose family, after moving into Hawkins, Indiana, was massacred in 1959. This tragedy now involves the younger versions of the adults from the show, who are all now high school teenagers, including Joyce (Alison Jaye), Hopper (Burke Swanson) and Bob Newby (Juan Carlos).
Theater: Recipients of The 79th Theatre World Awards
Here are recipients of 2025’s Theatre World Awards, which honors actors making Outstanding Broadway and Off-Broadway debuts. I am honored to have been on this committee again this year.
Congrats to all the winners. The awards will be handed out on Monday, June 2 at 7pm at The Hard Rock Café Times Square.
Thursday, May 1, 2025
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