By Neil Durham

WORTH A LOOK?: ***

WHEN?: Saturday 18 November, opens 14 December and runs through 25 August 2024 RUNTIME: 210 minutes (including a 20-minute interval)

Season 4 of Netflix hit series Stranger Things is set in 1986 and this spin off play – The First Shadow – turns back the clock in US town Hawkins to 1959.

• Read on for reasons including why this is less Upside Down and more all over the place

The most satisfying element of this disappointing theatrical experience is the riffing between younger versions of beloved characters including Joyce Maldonado and rivals for her affection Jim Hopper and Bob Newby.

We’ve watched all 34 episodes of the show so far with a 5th and final season by the Duffer Brothers delayed by the writers’ strike in America.

The secret of its success in our eyes is the nostalgia for an 80s childhood which we share with its protagonists, their chemistry and Stand By Me-ish camaraderie and the real jeopardy of the genuinelly unsettling sci-fi story at its core.

According to the show’s programme (pictured immediately below) which is at least 200 percent bigger than it needs to be, director Stephen Daldry (The Inheritance, Young Vic) approached Netflix about directing a theatrical version of the show in 2017 and this play by Kate Trefry, the Duffer Brothers and Jack Thorne (The End Of History, Royal Court) has the feel of a dish that’s spent rather too long in the oven.

1 of the least successful elements of the 4th season of Stranger Things was the attempt to provide more backstory to the already complicated tale with a lurch back to 1959 or so and the introduction of a character called Henry Creel, here brought to tortured life by Louis McCartney who is making his stage debut.

The best bits are this production’s X Files-type framing which involves pushing the timeline back even further and, unfortunately for the show, it peaks in excitement in its 1st 5 minutes.

The story, such as it is, revolves around Creel’s arrival at a new school in Hawkins, his falling in love with principal’s daughter Patty Newby, brought to life vividly by Ella Karuna Williams, also making her West End debut, and their casting in a school show directed by a well-played Maldonado. So far, so Grease crossed with A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

For fans of the show this is a feast for the eyes rather than the mind with some terrific special effects involving projections, screens and levitation all with a memorable use of Dream A Little Dream by the Mamas and The Papas, 1 of our favourite songs.

But, like the feature length versions of the later episodes of the show, it is far too long, self indulgent and crammed with exposition at the expense of genuine excitement, chills and heart.

In some of its more interminable scenes, the desire to shout out at the scientific child experimentation taking place onstage and volunteer to take the place of the subject if only the whole show could be ended more quickly almost proves irresistible.

Like the still amazing Cabaret at The Kit Kat Club across town, staff here insist on giving out stickers to mobile phone holders to discourage them from taking pictures but, unlike that show, there really is nothing worth snapping here.

Stranger Things won our 2016 Best TV monsta but, on the evidence of this 2nd preview, its theatrical version is at least an hour too long, offers some entertainment in the company of beloved characters but is less Upside Down and more all over the place.

• Main picture via Facebook courtesy Sonia Friedman Productions Tickets
• Have you seen Stranger Things before or been to the Phoenix Theatre?
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