Hawkins, 1959: normal town, normal issues. Young Jim Hopper’s car won’t start. Bob Newby’s sister won’t take his radio show seriously. Joyce Maldonado just wants to graduate and get the hell out of town. When new student Henry Creel arrives, his family learns the hard way that new beginnings aren’t so easy… and the shadows of the past have a very long reach.

Stranger Things: The First Shadow is a Netflix and multi-award-winning Broadway producer Sonia Friedman Productions. This landmark production, winner of two Olivier Awards including Best Entertainment, is brought to life by an award-winning creative team featuring director Stephen Daldry (The Crown, Billy Elliot, The Inheritance, The Hours, The Reader) and co-director Justin Martin (Prima Facie, The Inheritance). With amazing special effects, incredible acting and a tale that will keep you on the edge of your seat, this exciting, standalone adventure takes you right back to the beginnings of the Stranger Things saga.

THE WEST END THEATRE EVENT OF THE YEAR

They are really psyched about Stranger Things: The First Shadow. Working with the amazing Stephen Daldry has been nothing short of inspiring and Kate Trefry has written a piece that is startling, disturbing and poignant in equal measure. You’ll meet endearing new characters, as well very familiar ones, on a journey into the past that establishes the groundwork for the future of Stranger Things. They can’t wait to tell you more about the plot, but they won’t because it’s more fun to discover for yourself.

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THE STORY SO FAR

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Season 1

It’s 1983, and a young boy, Will, vanishes without a trace. As his friends, his mother – Joyce – and the police chief – Jim Hopper – search for answers, they are swept into an extraordinary mystery involving top secret experiments conducted by Dr. Brenner at a local lab, a gateway to another world – called the Upside Down, and one very strange little girl with otherworldly powers, known only by a number: Eleven. The story is just beginning and although the small boy is saved in the end, a connection to the Upside Down still exists.

Season 2

In 1984, a larger, more evil monster, the Mind Flayer, is discovered. Our heroes confront a possessed Will and new, horrific creatures from the Upside Down. The town is under attack from all sides. Joyce, Hopper, and her new boyfriend Bob Newby bring Will to the Hawkins Lab for treatment. Meanwhile Eleven learns more about her powers and has found another number like herself. Eleven returns to Hawkins and is able to close the doorway to the Upside Down and presumably defeat the Mind Flayer but as everyone is rejoicing they discover that this is too good to be true.

Season 3

It’s 1985 and the summer brings burgeoning loves, the spanking new Starcourt Mall and of course, the ever present possibility of danger in Hawkins. The Mind Flayer, albeit damaged, survives and starts to build an army of human hosts. Meanwhile, the new mall is erected directly on top of a Russian attempt to get into the gate to the Upside Down. Meanwhile, Joyce and Hopper’s downstairs business is just as important as Eleven and her friends’ upstairs confrontation with the Mind Flayer. At the end they may win the battle of Starcourt but not without loss.

Season 4

It’s 1986, six months after the Battle of Starcourt. A series of grisly killings are terrorising the town. The leading suspect is the town freak, Eddie Munson, but there is a much darker history, connected to a similar case involving the Creel Family in 1959. With Hawkins and the world hanging in the balance, their heroes set out to solve this gruesome mystery and ultimately learn that Vecna, an evolution of the original Hawkins Lab test subject, Henry Creel himself, has been behind it all with a greater plan to end the world as they know it by merging the upside down with their dimension. It’s the beginning of the end but first they have to understand how it all began 27 years ago.

Season 5

Autumn 87. The opening of the Rifts has left Hawkins damaged and their heroes are tied together by one purpose, find and kill Vecna. But he’s gone. No idea where or what he’s doing. The government has placed the area under military quarantine and has stepped up its search for Eleven, driving her back into hiding and making their task all the more complicated. It’s almost an anniversary of Will’s absence and a heavy, familiar dread. The final fight is coming—a darkness more strong, more devastating than any they have encountered before. This nightmare will end, everyone, the whole party, standing together one last time.

Stranger Things: The First Shadow brings the mystery and suspense of Hawkins to the stage in an exciting new way. Set in 1959, the story explores the early lives of familiar characters and the arrival of Henry Creel, revealing important events that shaped the Stranger Things universe. With impressive special effects, powerful performances, and an award-winning creative team, it offers an immersive experience for longtime fans while still working as a stand-alone theatrical adventure.