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Hollywood studios are finding new ways to bring stories to life
Watch Stranger Things on stage, eat at a Batman-themed restaurant – or take your chances at Squid Game
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Actors taking a curtain call after performing in Stranger Things: The First Shadow at Phoenix Theatre in London, on Dec 14.
PHOTO: REUTERS
The Economist
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The latest episode in Netflix’s Stranger Things saga was released on Dec 14, featuring levitating bodies, shrieking monsters and an exploding rat. The reviews were stellar. Yet unlike the previous season of the science-fiction show, which clocked nearly one billion hours of viewing in its first month, the new instalment has so far been seen by only a few thousand people. That is because Netflix’s latest show is not being streamed down fibre-optic cables to television screens, but performed live on a stage in London.
Stranger Things: The First Shadow, the streamer’s first stab at theatre, is playing at the Phoenix, with hopes for an international run. It is not the only example of Tinseltown invading theatreland. A few streets away at the Theatre Royal, Disney offers a live version of Frozen; at the nearby Adelphi, there is a musical tribute to Back To The Future. In 2025, Paddington will join the London line-up. Meanwhile, on Broadway, Amazon is getting ready to launch a musical of Transparent, a drama that first ran on its Prime Video service.
