Someone killed him. Someone killed all of them. I'm not afraid. What's up, guys? Leslie Roberts here. Young Hollywood is on Broadway in New York City. All right, here's a question. How do you take a wildly popular TV sci-fi series and turn it into a Tony Award-winning smash hit on a stage? Well, I'm about to take you behind the scenes of Stranger Things, The First Shadow for the answer. Here we are at the stage door of the Marquis Theater. Let's see who's inside.

Hi! Hi, Young Hollywood. Hi, Young Hollywood. Welcome to our Welcome to our Welcome to our Welcome.

Oh, this is going to be so fun. Oh, this is going to be so fun. This is going to be epic. So you want to come inside? If it's as epic as the show, I'm going in. Okay, let's do it.

All right, you're coming in. Okay, we're inside the Marquis Theater now. What one thing I should point out is it doesn't have that vintage feel as most Broadway theaters in New York City. You got the modern theater going for you, right? I mean, hey, modern show, modern theater, can I say? Yes. I'd love to point out our wall of well wishes from opening night. This is from uh every show that was open during that time.

Now, this is your Broadway debut.

Yes. So, welcome. Yeah. Thank you. It's nice to be in the space of like, this is my first time ever doing this. What am I doing here? Uh are you sure that I'm supposed to be here? Yes, for sure. You're supposed to be here. Coupled in the space with someone who has been on Broadway what, three times now? This is, this is number three. Talk about the space behind the scenes at the theater.

We are on the first floor. So, we enter we enter over here. We sign in over here with the rest of the company. These are all of our notes for the day, the ins and the outs. We're a company made up of 34 people. There are often people playing different tracks every day. So, we'll walk in and I may be like, oh, she's playing Patty tonight. She's when, you know, like you find out a lot of things somewhat on the fly about an hour before the show.

Now, is it right side up, upside down? Like, what are we got going on?

Right. We are right side up in the upside down. Well, I mean, hey, depends on the day. You might feel upside down before you get to the upside down. So, It depends on how you walk in that door. It depends on how you walk through the door. Some days I am upside down and some days I am right side up. But it's clearly like a right side up day. Yeah.

Okay, so show me around.

Okay, let's go. Oh, we recently celebrated our 100th show. But since we've surpassed 100, we decided to celebrate um Henry Creel by putting making it 101. That's amazing. But keeping the joy alive. I think we're now at a 100 and almost 30. Yes. Yeah, we are way past the threshold of 100 shows. Right? But we're keeping the celebrations alive here. As long as we can.

Now, since you mentioned the number, I'm not going to give any spoilers away. But when a number thing happens in the show, the audience is just like, yes. Yes. Tell me what it's like to be on stage hearing and feeling the audience just vibe with you and and be there and so excited.

There was a very fun moment where when all the characters were introduced in what we call picture day, which is that first scene at the lockers and you really meet the community. When my character was, when Joyce was called out, they were like, meet Joyce Mama and I was like, what? Yeah. I was like, I literally thought I was in the wrong place. But the joy that was like reverberating from the audience of like just the largest fan base you could possibly have. It was, it was seriously a crazy feeling. I was like, I just need to hit my mark. I just need to make it where I need to make it. But it's been, I mean, every night, I say some nights feel really like we're at Six Flags. Like it feels like we are on as big of a ride and adventure as you are in the audience.

But your character is new. Do they love you as much as they love her or what's the

I am so blessed to say yes. They love Patty. That was really an anxiety-inducing moment for me booking this job because I was such a huge Stranger Things fan and I grew up watching the series. So I remembered when Max was introduced and Robin was introduced. It was like, okay, who are these people? Um and you kind of had to let them grow on you and I knew that Stranger Things fans were going to have the same feeling about Patty. So I was like, oh god, this is me now. What? Don't look at me. Um but they have been so welcoming and so adoring and I'm grateful that people love Patty. I love Patty. It's brilliant and I'm backstage with you guys on Broadway and let's keep it Let's keep it going. People are coming and going. It's a buzz. It's a buzz going.

I mean, you guys are here at the most active point of the day. I mean, it's around like what, 5:30-ish. So people are coming in to get ready for the show. Yeah. Yeah, get dressed. But what you're seeing is a lot of transition costumes. Costumes. Which is costumes. Malvold costumes. An amazing quick change booth. Everything is set up right now for the first quick changes in the show. These are each individual stations. There are so many bodies in here. Choreography down to a pretty good science.

And no one's modest here. It's like boom, boom, boom. Take your stuff off and move.

Yeah. You got to go. Get that moving. I mean, it's really down to the seconds. Like everything is timed exactly. Like people know exactly where others are just because that's the language of the backstage traffic and to be able to let there's as much choreography on stage as there is backstage. So it's so important to remember, okay, well Allison's going to be changing right here. Let me not elbow her in the nose. Yes, sir. Yes.

And this is Burke Swanson who plays James Hopper, Jr. Hey. How fun with these two. Well, I do want to talk about quick changes because some happen on stage as well. Yes. How do you do it?

Magic. Magic. It's Stranger Things magic. There's a quick change that takes place on stage that literally took us months to build and figure out. There were so many different versions of it. You. Yes. It is me. It is me. And that took literally months of rehearsal. Yeah. Yeah. And moving her in different places on the stage to see how quickly we could move her around to get the dress on. Like really insane stuff. And make sure it's safe for everyone who helps assist with that on stage while the turntables of our stage are moving. It's it's right there we can't film it. So close but so so far.

Hi friends, coming up stairs. Coming up, we're coming up. And here we are. So here is our way room. This is the wardrobe and way room where all of the amazing magic happens. Got a ton of costumes. Hi friends. We got a ton of amazing people working over here. Wow. Yep. These are each our individual boxes which hold our wigs and a lot of our pieces. Our socks, our belts. And this is our amazing dresser. Dresser Marie. Yay Marie. Yes, do you want to tell them a little bit about how much how many costumes we have and how much you help us move through the show?

Yes. The show is massive. We have 33 people on stage. And everyone has an average of about seven looks. So we have over 200 costumes. And our supervisor, yes, our supervisor counted how many costume pieces? It's over 3,000 pieces. Wow. That's including pants, hats, belts, jewelry, over 3,000 pieces in this show.

So when I complain about my earrings, there's bigger problems. So very valid. Understood. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's also very valid. But the the wardrobe and the hair makeup, everything is so pristine and exactly spot on from the audience. It's amazing.

Yeah. We have a whole team, not just the dressers, but we have laundry in the building from 8:00 AM to 11:00 PM every day. We have a whole separate team of day workers that irons all of our shirts and make sure everything looks pretty. It's unbelievable. Yeah. It takes a village. It's incredible.

Yeah. Do you want to talk about the blood? There's lots of blood in the show.

There's so much blood. Especially that gets on her costumes. Specifically from a Patty perspective. We've had to have a lot of blood dialogue. A lot of blood. We had these beautiful canvas sneakers that were getting blood on them constantly. So we actually had to change them to leather sneakers so we could wipe the blood off easier. That is lovely. Blood friendly uh sneakers. It's a blood friendly environment. All inclusive. Let's keep it moving. Let's keep it moving because showtime is upon us. It is upon us. Okay. So we're going back down. There is an Oh, wait, look. This is a hazmat. Yes, this is a hazmat. We don't want to give too much away but yes. But they are present and they are here. But come and see what that is. They're very spooky.

The casting for this show was kind of unreal because you all seem like school kids hanging out. It's a beautiful show.

We really like each other. We really like each other.

So like how did you know that was going to happen? You don't. You have you have amazing casting directors like Jim Carnahan and our incredible team of directors. The best people and teachers in the world. So not even just directors like people that taught me more about myself as an as like an individual and as an artist. Even Dalry and Justin Martin. And our incredible writer, Kate Trefry. It was like the most collaborative working process I've ever been a part of. On something that is so massive and could be so intimidating. It was the most freeing environment.

Well, let's head to our room.

Let's do it. Our dorm room as we like to say. This is our little dorm room. Our couches, they turn into beds but they were also Sean Astin's couches when he was here. This was his room. So it's all in the Stranger Things family. Yeah. So thank you, Sean.

Thank you, Sean. For a place of R&R.

Yes. This is their birthday. Yeah. Yeah, the birthday cheer continues. Yeah. I'll pass it on to the next birthday. But there's a lot of amazing little trinkets. Incredible fan art from like our beloved fans that keep coming back and who know him forever. Oh, yes, my mom. This is incredible. Opening night, my mom got me this amazing hat. And so when I walk out the stage door with this, it's pretty goofy.

That's really good. Have you seen her in the audience yet?

I have not.

Do you want to ask her to come?

Um I can't wait to meet you one day. Whatever that looks like.

I mean, you guys share a person.

Yeah, we share a person. Come on. I'm working on this scrapbook here of pictures of the two of us. Um You you gave me a lot. This is your Broadway debut. I need a wall of

I know it. I know it. We're working on it.

This is my side of our pillar. Um I've got moments from the show, moments with other cast members that I absolutely adore. We've got a few uh nods to fan art, uh things that have been given to me at the stage door, things that have been sent to me. Your amazing floral shirt and your amazing floral. Yes. I mean

The chair is essentially me.

Yes. It's an extension of me. Yes. Um I'm a garden. I guess so. Yeah. Um but yeah, I've got pictures of my friends here, friends from Los Angeles. We were very blessed to have tons of Stranger Things uh cast members show their love and show their support on opening night. Who's in those photos? Sean Levy. We've got Natalia Dyer and Charlie Heaton. We've got Jamie Campbell, Bower, both Duffer Brothers. We got the Duffers, baby. I'm honored to be here.

Talk about your journey getting here because to be part of this cast is epic and it doesn't happen. It's like once in a lifetime.

I turned in a self tape about a year ago just for fun because I was like, I'm never going to book a Broadway show. What are you talking about? Heard back about two weeks later, did a week's worth of callbacks and then just didn't hear anything for like a month. Was waiting, was like, ah, well, you know, that was fun. That was kind of a cool thing. Got to meet Stephen Daldry and Justin Martin. That was kind of neat.

That's awesome.

Um and then I came to New York and did a seven-hour callback. I basically did the entire play as a one-woman show. It was like 170 pages or something like that. By the end of that seven-hour callback, I had lost my voice.

Wow. She gave it all. She left it all in the room.

It was kind of insane and it was kind of a precursor to things that were to come in rehearsal and intact and um it was a true test to see if I was going to break. Your journey too. My journey a little different. I started working with this team of people like three years ago. That audition process alone was a few months and it was an untitled project. And eventually booking that job led me to a workshop in LA for a week where that was where the show was greenlit for Netflix. So that was where they said, yes, we're doing this. We're bringing it to London. And then I was told, we want you for Broadway and it came true. I have such a deep reverence for Stephen, Justin and Kate and the way they have shepherded me into this world. I feel like this is the biggest show to lift constantly. Every day for every day. Stranger Things is redefining theater. What we're able to do on stage, no one has ever done before. And do you like starting to be a part of that? Like Kate Trefry, our writer, who's been writing on the on the series since season two and executive producing. She really when you are to read our script for the show that you just saw, it sounds insane. It sounds insane. You read what's going on in the stage directions and you're like, that is not possible. But the gorgeous thing about what she did is she wrote, this is what's coming out of my mind. It is what's possible and the people surrounding her went, we're going to make it possible. And they did. You don't have to have seen the show at all to even see the Broadway show. Look at what your experience was. Look how excited you are.

I was I was blown away.

If you come see the play, there are so many Easter eggs for season five. So many. So I hope that you were reading. I hope that you were listening very closely. It's not the obvious things.

Yeah.

But they're everywhere. But they're everywhere. Almost in every scene. So.

Why have you guys seen season five yet? Like cuz you're in the know.

I mean, look, we're part of the prequel. We have to know certain things for character development, for the artistry. There are some secrets. There are some secrets. That we get to that we get to hold that you get to wonder about. Yeah.