'Stranger Things: The First Shadow' star nominated for Best Actor Tony Award
MANHATTAN, New York (WABC) -- It's a series that has captivated audiences for nearly a decade, and now we finally know where the story begins.
Broadway's "Stranger Things: The First Shadow" is the prequel to the hit Netflix show.
Set in 1959 Hawkins, Indiana, the show follows the Creel family who's hoping for a fresh start.
It's now one of the most Tony-nominated plays of the season, including one nomination for Best Actor, Louis McCartney, who plays Henry Creel.
"We end off season four introducing this new character called Henry Creel," McCartney said. "This is the question of how and why did he become Vecna. It's just a very interesting kind of in look on, you know, psychology and someone losing their mind."
Many of those who have gone to see the show are not the typical Broadway-going audience.
"There's a statistic that over 65% of our audience are first-time theatergoers, but you can really see it at stage door," McCartney said. "There's a lot of people who tell me either that they've seen 50 Broadway shows and they're like, that's really good. Like, well done. Or it's their first time ever or they're bringing their little kid because they love the TV show. And it's beautiful because the kid has probably never held a play bill before and never done that experience."
Some of the cast from the television series have come to see the show including Joe Keery, Jamie Campbell Bower, Cara Buono and Sadie Sink, who is currently performing in Broadway's "John Proctor is the Villain."
"She just, like, showed up one night because she had a show off," McCartney said. "And I was like, 'what are you doing here? You should be performing.' And, she's, 'yeah. But they've been off.' They've been so lovely, dude. They're literally saying, welcome to the 'Stranger Things' family."
"Stranger Things: The First Shadow" is truly unlike any other show on Broadway.
"You step into the theater and you're not gonna experience anything like this ever again, but it is the in between," McCartney said. "Because, you know, there's interesting things with our set design where it's squares and rectangles and it's very TV-esque, but we also bring like the effects and we, you know, you do the stuff that people ask how the hell can you do that which makes it seem like TV which would normally be produced by CGI green screen. You know, we've taken the ability to transfer that to real life. We're a spectacle and you know, we want to shock you but also ground you in the, like I said, you know, the kids in the mythology of 'Stranger Things' and you know, it's just a lovely show."
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