Although the fifth season of Stranger Things is still some time away, fans can get their fix of Hawkins sooner - provided you can make it to London, of course. Stranger Things: The First Shadow - the stage play adaptation of the smash hit Netflix series - opens officially in November at the Phoenix Theatre in London's West End, with the premiere taking place on December 14th.
Fans who signed up to early access for tickets received emails today to let them know that they would go on sale on March 28th, before heading to general sale on March 30th. Prices begin at a very reasonable £20 (USD $24.50) for all performances. The show will be directed by three-time Tony Award-winning director Stephen Daldry. Daldry has also been Oscar-nominated for his work on Billy Elliot, The Reader and The Hours, and he is an executive producer for Netflix's hit series The Crown.
Daldry will be joined by Justin Martin as co-director, and the play is written by Stranger Things series writer and co-executive producer Kate Trefrey and is based on an original story by Trefry, the Duffer Brothers, and Jack Thorne. The show's official synopsis reads:
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.
Matt Duffer added that Daldry was the engine behind the stage adaptation, having approached the brothers with an idea and taken it from there.
The idea did not come from us. I don't think I would have had the idea. The idea came from Stephen Daldry. Daldry was a big fan of the show and wanted to do a play, but he was so busy with The Crown that I thought this would never happen. Finally a window opened up, he came back and expressed his interest again, and we met up with him and started to talk about what the play could be. I think when I first heard play, you immediately think it's going to be a musical of season one or something like that. He was not interested in that kind of thing at all. He wanted to tell a new and original story.
The sign-up list for priority booking closes 11:59PM (GMT) on 26 March, with the pre-sale opening on March 28th at 12pm (GMT) and general sale from 12pm on March 30th. Previews of the show will begin on November 17th, with the premiere on December 14th.
Stranger Things Season 5 will begin filming sometime this summer, and Seasons 1-4 are currently available on Netflix. Check out our post-Season 4 conversation with the Duffer Brothers down below.