“The stage and the screen will never be substitutes but Stranger Things: The First Shadow never feels limited by the medium. It leans into the theatricality hammering the audience with slick illusions and visually stunning trickery applied impasto. No expense is spared but that is hardly surprising.”
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“This astonishing show turns normal expectations of theatre upside down. Director Stephen Daldry has taken the Duffer Brothers’ Eighties-set Netflix sci-fi hit and magicked it into a spectacular, multimedia prequel, full of enough thrills, scares and knowing nods to please fans and the uninitiated in equal measure.”
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“ ‘The First Shadow’ suffers from dramatic bloat and tonal inconsistency. The biggest frustration with it is the sense that it might have been show of the year with 30 minutes of really ruthless cuts...It’s not perfect, but it’s as close to the Upside Down as you’re going to get without having your head bitten off by a demogorgon.”
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“Those familiar with the series will be able to trace storylines back but the production is not just a clever parlour game for fans. If you come at it afresh, it is still irresistible. A spurt of lazy film-to-stage adaptations have recently hit the West End but this parallel world is a winner.”
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“I can’t claim that, as a piece of drama, this is more than high-class hokum but what we get, as spectators, is a game-changing experience, one which combines state-of-the-art video wizardry with the tricks of the theatrical trade...Standing ovations are ten a penny these days but this show thoroughly deserves the one it gets.”
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“Amid all the crowd scenes there’s little sense of depth to the individual characters or how they relate to one another. You’re left longing to see less of the tiresome play within a play and much more of Ella Karuna Williams’s sweet-voiced Patty Newby.”
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“Netflix makes its stage debut in spectacular fashion with this keenly anticipated – and, I can happily reveal, totally awe-inspiring – theatrical version of the streamer’s hit sci-fi series ‘Stranger Things.’ Crucially, it’s a must-see not just for superfans, but for anyone excited by boundary-pushing theatre that harnesses jaw-dropping special effects while telling a very relatable human story.”
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“Based on the phenomenally popular Netflix series, this visually stunning retro-horror romp is audacious, exhilarating and relentlessly inventive...Subtlety is not the goal here, and this show never quite matches the series’ charming mix of nostalgia, hope and horror. But it is an extraordinary, gripping spectacle.”
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