PARANORMAL ACTIVITY Previews — Page 2

This kind of reminds me of when they did the piece on "Pillowman" on some news show. They filmed the people's reactions during the show.



https://www.broadwayworld.com/article/PhotosVideo-Go-Inside-the-First-Preview-for-PARANORMAL-ACTIVITY-on-Broadway-20260817

Updated On: 8/17/26 at 04:38 PM

As for front mezzanine - row A left or right any preference for this?

While acknowledging my biases when it comes to this kind of material, to me, the show gets three strikes-you’re out purely on structure alone.

1) The story weaves around with no real cohesion and doesn’t make anything of the two main characters leads other than dropping little tidbits about them throughout that, I guess, we’re supposed to keep in our mind until - poof - everything suddenly makes sense (even when the ending can be predicted by the middle of act 2). Those crumbs of religious trauma, sordid pasts, and mental illness weren’t enough for me to emotionally invest in them.

2) The story meanders as if to fill a longer span of time than is necessary, including extended (and musically LOUD) transitions. It also commits the cardinal sin of deflating any tension built during the first act (which, aside from one adequate jump scare - there was very little) with the use of an intermission. It reminded me exactly of what BUG did. When your show promises horror/suspense, and the first act doesn’t amount to much, you are giving your audience an easy out at intermission. (Thankfully, BUG is a far superior play)

3) A good horror/suspense story requires intimacy and claustrophobia. The audience should feel like they are just as much trapped in the story as the characters. As DOG DAY AFTERNOON so painfully demonstrated, the lack of intimacy lets all the air out of the story and, with it, the danger. I was sitting in the rear orchestra and many of the “tricks” and scares onstage were lost and I only knew they happened when the audience ooohed and aaaahed.

Frankly, the only interesting part of the play was the mother-in-law character, who brought life to the proceedings with her Temu version of Laurie Metcalf midwestern folksiness.

It’s not good, and it’s not so bad it’s good. It just wallows in this indifferent space that leaves you more bored than engaged.

witchoftheeast2 said: "Is the left orchestra a horrible place to sit?"

Answered your question in post #18, but it depends where in the left orchestra. How far over? How far back? In general, I would say take the restricted/partial view notice on this one seriously, regardless of how much they’re charging for it.

witchoftheeast2 said: "Is the left orchestra a horrible place to sit?"

Saw it last night and I definitely think so…since the set is a two level house comprising of four rooms there’s action happening in all of them and you might miss something if your far off to the side. You definitely wanna try and see if you can get a center orchestra seat in the middle or dead center in the front mezzanine

that being said, I loved this and was definitely scared out of my mind at some moments (and this is coming from someone who’s watched a lot of scary movies.) Everyone’s talking about Chris Fisher’s illusions and rightfully so (dare I say even better than Cursed Child and Stranger Things?) but I think the lighting and sound design by Anna Watson and Gareth Fry respectively also deserve some recognition as well!

on a side note: as someone who get’s rarely overstimulated (and believe me you will for this show as it gets very dark and loud multiple times throughout) I have to give a major shout out to some of the staff of the August Wilson who were very understanding, and one usher in particular gave me both a fidget and earplugs. You can definitely tell they’re working hard to make this show like this accessible for everyone and I wish more Broadway theaters did this for every show

Updated On: 8/24/26 at 04:56 PM

Plannietink08 said: "I'm a bit put off with these horror plays after seeing 2:22: A Ghost Story, given that the "horror" was essentially a supernatural drama, and the only "scares" came from blasting an obnoxious scream into the audience every now and then...

Is this along a similar vein?"

I haven’t seen 2:22, but I’ve read it and I can solidly say Paranormal Activity is much more explicitly a horror play with a human drama to string it together. If you’ve seen the first movie, it follows a very similar trajectory in terms of mounting supernatural occurrences. Try not to go too deep into spoiling it for yourself if you do plan on seeing it, though.