“Stranger Things: The First Shadow” has been runnin’ up that road — and struggling — on Broadway for months. What industry watchers assumed would be a surefire cultural juggernaut has instead left many feeling as though they’ve wandered into the Upside Down.

The highly ambitious play, produced by Netflix in collaboration with Sonia Friedman Productions, was widely expected to dominate the Broadway landscape, drawing on the massive global fandom of the hit Netflix series. Yet, to the surprise of many, the production has not lived up to those sky-high expectations (Variety).

Last week, the show — which only made its Broadway debut in late March — played to just 75% capacity, a modest improvement from the 65% posted the week before. For a production of this scale, one with technical demands and financial expectations comparable to a major musical, the attendance numbers are startlingly low. As one insider quipped, “There might as well be Eleven people in the audience.”

A Costly Undertaking With Uncertain Returns

Broadway insiders estimate the production costs at a minimum of $1 million per week, a level it has reportedly exceeded only once in the past three months. While Netflix’s exact spending on the project remains unknown, one source joked that the multimillion-dollar show is little more than “a rounding error” for a company that casually shelled out $320 million on the sci-fi film The Electric State, one of its priciest and most critically panned releases (The Hollywood Reporter).

Compounding the pressure, the show is rumored to be the first installment of a planned theatrical trilogy — plans now in jeopardy given the shaky box-office performance.

Trouble in London as Well

The production began in London’s West End, where it initially generated buzz for its technical wizardry and narrative ties to the streaming phenomenon. But even there, the enthusiasm has cooled. Sources say the Phoenix Theatre may soon reclaim the space for the vibrant musical Buena Vista Social Club if The First Shadow doesn’t begin attracting more customers (Deadline).

Louis McCartney and Gabrielle Nevaeh lead the Broadway cast, delivering committed performances in a large-scale production filled with elaborate effects — including, notably, a massive ship that dominates one of the show’s centerpiece sequences.

Netflix’s Broader “Stranger Things” Problem

A source familiar with Netflix’s franchise strategy said the company is slowly realizing that even record-breaking streaming numbers do not automatically translate into demand for merchandise, live events, or theatrical productions. “High viewership doesn’t always equal demand for lateral content,” the insider noted.

This isn’t the first off-screen “Stranger Things” venture to falter. Netflix’s multimillion-dollar immersive attraction, “Stranger Things: The Experience,” has underperformed in most of the ten cities in which it appeared. The event even had to retool its finale after the series introduced the villain Vecna in Season 4 (BBC Culture).

Hoping the Final TV Season Will Rescue the Play

With the final season of Stranger Things set to begin rolling out on November 26, producers are pinning their hopes on a surge of fan enthusiasm to increase ticket sales.

“Everyone’s holding onto hope that the new season drives ticket sales,” one source said. But industry experts caution that this optimism may be misplaced. Historically, even the most successful streaming hits — including Netflix’s top-performing animated musical KPop Demon Hunters, now the platform’s most-watched film — have struggled to spark broad consumer demand for live entertainment tie-ins (Deadline).

“The shelves are stocked with ‘Stranger Things’ collabs,” the source added, “but kids aren’t begging for them.”

A Tale of Two Franchises

Meanwhile, the Broadway fantasy that the Stranger Things team once had — to emulate the enduring success of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child — appears increasingly out of reach. That production, also produced by Sonia Friedman alongside Colin Callender, is now in its seventh year at the Lyric Theatre and remains one of Broadway’s most financially successful plays. It won the Tony Award for Best Play in 2018 and continues to draw strong reviews (The Guardian).

By contrast, critics have been far less kind to The First Shadow, a play many reviewers described as visually impressive but narratively thin.

Adding to Cursed Child’s momentum, actor Tom Felton, who played Draco Malfoy in the $7.7 billion-grossing Harry Potter film franchise, recently joined the Broadway cast — prompting ticket sales to soar “like a Nimbus 2000,” one source joked. The advance reportedly now exceeds $30 million, giving the production yet another shot of magical invigoration.

One can almost imagine Vecna himself looking vexed.