By: Kyle Cheung
West End, London, December 14, 2023: the world of Stranger Things changed forever… On this date, the soon-to-be hit play Stranger Things: The First Shadow made its debut. While the play is now very successful and staged perfectly with little to no problems, that was not the case when it first began rehearsals and previews. As referenced in Behind the Curtain: Stranger Things: The First Shadow, the playwright Kate Trefry had a really hard time trying to get the script down; she even said that she rewrote the script “hundreds of times” before she could get it right. An even more severe roadblock occurred when Kate had to rewrite the script in its entirety 1 month before previews; this caused lots of strain on the cast of actors/actresses, with the actress playing Patty Newby, Ella Karuna Williams, being affected the most by this change, since her character was rewritten so severely it was like 2 vastly different palettes. Although in the end they successfully finished the script, special effects, and the show overall. This show was so good they were awarded 2 Olivier Awards in the West End. In spring 2025, Stranger Things: The First Shadow expanded to Broadway, and with this, it made the show much more accessible and successful, so successful that it grossed over 81 million dollars as of October 2026. Overall, the show is amazing and just such a fun time!
The plot of Stranger Things: The First Shadow is a very complex blend of horror, thriller, and comedy. The show opens up with the USS Enterprise in 1943, as they are trying to experiment with new technology that is allegedly able to turn their ship invisible to other ships’ radars. As soon as they attempt this tech maneuver, the crew (including Captain Brenner) hear a sharp, high-pitched shrill sound. All of a sudden, the lights go out in the theater, and a massive ship appears out of nowhere in a dimension called the abyss/dimension. As the crew –in shambles– tries to calm down, a large humanoid creature called the Demogorgon hops down and slaughters the crew, all except Captain Brenner, who survived against all odds.
Part One, The Girl from Nowhere, kicks off with a knock at the door, and the Creel family walks in. At first they appear to be a perfectly normal family, but Henry Creel acts a bit differently; he has a Captain Midnight radio that he uses to telepathically eavesdrop on his parents, who are outside talking about how Henry’s brain is rotting, and how he is a “disturbed kid” because of the Captain Midnight radio. After they move into the house, Henry attends his first day of school. There he meets his soon-to-be friend, Patty Newby, the outcast archetype who is the daughter of Principal Newby; she is also the one who introduces him to the rest of Hawkins High’s class of 1959 (who, if you’ve seen the show, are very familiar). Some notable characters include: Jim Hopper jr (whose dad is the police chief and the “tough guy” character), Bob Newby (who appeared in Stranger Things season 2 of the show), who runs the Hawkins AV club since Bob is the tech-savvy nerd archetype, Claudia Young (who is Dustin’s mom from the show and the animal lover), and lastly Joyce Monodlo, who runs the school’s drama club and the “Rebel” archetype. The play then pushes Henry’s social boundaries further because Patty stops Walter (who is the “bully”) when he is picking on Henry about an accident that happened in Nevada. Then Patty proceeds to compliment Henry’s Captain Midnight radio since she is also a Captain Midnight fan, thus kicking off their friendship. After that, Joyce host the first meeting of the drama club, she explains that she is seeking change, she explains that she will market the fall production as Oklahoma the musical, but instead she will put on a production of Dark Of The Night, this switch up is also to impress a “Gary Lancaster” from the greater Indiana high school drama scholarship, what will grant Joyce a chance to attend this great drama academy in Indianapolis. As they are stage reading the script, Henry and Patty decide to give it a shot at being the 2 leads who fall in love.
Later that night, Henry eavesdrops on his parents again, where he hears his mom plead to his dad to have Henry stay away from Patty, since she believes that Henry will hurt her… as soon as they’re done, Henry enters a trance called the void where he is blinded by darkness and sees a sentient smoke around him. In this trance, he sees Henderson’s liquor and a cat inside of the store; he approaches the cat and pets it. The moment the cat gets a bit anxious and frisky, Henry uses his powers to lift the cat in the air, then… Henry, in a fit of rage, kills the cat.
The next day he attends church where a distressed Claudia stumbles into the church with a bag and exclaims “THE DEVIL HAS COME TO HAWKINS!!!” In that bag is the corpse of Prancer, the same cat Henry killed in the liquor store. The whole town is in shambles, and Jim Hopper jr and Bob Newby decide to attempt to get the reward money for catching the cat-killing culprit. At the same time, Henry tells Patty about his abilities, and Patty acts as an anchor for Henry’s emotional stability, since she views his abilities as a power instead of a weakness that defines Henry. They then use Henry’s powers to try to find Patty’s mother (or at least who Patty thought was her mom), who worked as a Jazz singer and performer under the name Ella Fitzgerald. As they are pulled into Henry’s trance/dream, they start to dance; then, for a moment, Patty sees her mom. All of a sudden, Henry pulls them out of the trance. Patty is pissed because she was so close to finding her mom, and Henry scurries off into the bathroom. As Henry enters, the mirror starts to crack, and the sentient smoke appears in the mirror. Moments later, Patty enters and bombards Henry with bad ideas. This is clearly not Patty, but in another fit of rage, Henry beats up and kills Patty after she turns into a demogorgon and attacks Henry first. The next second Patty appears, and it is revealed that she is perfectly fine, and the person Henry saw and killed was not Patty but a monster in Henry’s mind; the two then share their first kiss. On the flip side, Jim Hopper and Bob Newby keep looking for the person who killed Claudia’s cat when they find out that more pet killings are happening. On the horizon of the end of the first act, Henry is being comforted by his mom when she says to him, “Hey, there is someone who I would like you to meet.” Then a man walks into the room, and he states something that always makes the audience gasp. He states, “Hello, Henry, I’m here to help you; my name is Dr. Brenner”.
While part one is very eventful and fun, part 2 takes it to a whole new level. I don’t want to remove the experience of seeing how it plays out in the end, so I won’t be recapping part 2, but I strongly believe that EVERYONE should see Stranger Things: The First Shadow. I can’t stress enough how great this show really is!
