Posted: 4/17/25 at 1:13pm
I’m conflicted about how I felt about this last night. For context, I was in a group of 3 and our experience with Stranger Things (the show) runs the gamut: one is a huge fan, one watched a full series recap in preparation (me), and one only watched the first season a long time ago. We all walked away feeling pretty much the same, with the fan among us really only catching the more niche Easter eggs.
On the one hand, it is a pretty horribly-written “play”. The plot is all exposition and set-up for huge set pieces, and the dialogue is serviceable at best and cringe at worst. The actors… somewhat do their best to overcome to material, but they’re mostly breathless from running all over the place and playing the broadest caricature of whoever they are (doting mother, drunk father, overeager theatre kid, freak, so on and so forth). It’s a lot of clearly intentional Bad Acting to play to the back of the auditorium. If you’re looking for depth? Not here.
And yet, on the other hand?
I kind of had a blast?
It’s a spectacle, for sure. Individual effects are cooler than others on the scale of “Ha, neat” to “HOLY SH*T!” but it’s how seamlessly everything happens - and how quickly - that’s so awe-inspiring to me. They go all out, and it’s truly beginning to end. There is an over-reliance on screens and projections; but damned if they’re not the clearest, least obvious use of them I’ve seen.
Ultimately, if you want a 3-hour theme park show that’s based on Stranger Things, that is exactly what you’re going to get. It’s not aiming for profundity in the way Cursed Child does (ymmv on that point), which is the most direct comparison one can make. It’s here to deliver thrills and it mostly kind of does. But if you’re the type who thinks Broadway is turning into Disney/Universal, this won’t dissuade you.
Updated On: 4/17/25 at 01:13 PM
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