According to Deadline, television actor Louis McCartney (Game of Thrones, Hope Street) is set to make his Broadway debut. Sonia Friedman Productions and Netflix announced his involvement with the Broadway production of Stranger Things: The First Shadow. According to mxdwn, the production will preview on Friday, March 28, 2025, at the Marquis Theatre and officially opens on April 22, 2025.
The show is based in the universe of Stranger Things, which follows a series of events in Hawkins, Indiana before the series’ main group of friends get swept up with the Upside Down in the 80s–setting the scene for Vecna’s villain origin story, says mxdwn. According to Deadline, the play’s synopsis is as follows: “Before the world turned upside down. Hawkins, 1959: a regular town with regular worries. Young Jim Hopper’s car won’t start, Bob Newby’s sister won’t take his radio show seriously and Joyce Maldonado just wants to graduate and get the hell out of town. When new student Henry Creel arrives, his family finds that a fresh start isn’t so easy…and the shadows of the past have a very long reach.”
Cast in the role of Henry Creel in the off-broadway production, McCartney won the Critics’ Circle Award for Most Promising Newcomer and The Stage 2024 Debut Award for Best Performer in a Play for his debut performance via Deadline. As Stranger Things: The First Shadow takes Broadway, McCartney will reprise his role as Henry Creel.
Director and co-director of the production, Stephen Daldry (The Reader, Billy Elliot) and Justin Martin (V/H/S, Woman in the Book), commented on McCartney’s take on Henry’s character, saying, “Louis is an astonishing actor, and we are unbelievably proud of the incredible life he has breathed into the role of Henry Creel onstage in the West End. From the moment we first met him, we knew he was special, and we are thrilled that Broadway audiences will have the opportunity to witness his extraordinary performance,” per Deadline.
According to Deadline, McCartney’s last performance in the off-broadway production of Stranger Things: The First Shadow is November 10, 2024, until he returns as Henry Creel in 2025.