Evan Alexander Smith joins Stranger Things: The First Shadow on Broadway tonight as Dr. Brenner, and will play the role to the end of the New York run in January. The Phoenix Theatre production continues in London.
Evan Alexander Smith takes over as Dr. Brenner in Stranger Things: The First Shadow on Broadway this evening, and stays for the final fourteen weeks of the run at the Marquis Theatre. Netflix and Sonia Friedman Productions call it the production’s last casting announcement in New York.
Smith has appeared on Broadway in Back to the Future, Merrily We Roll Along and Amazing Grace, and off-Broadway in Little Shop of Horrors and The Play That Goes Wrong, which he also toured. Four other company members begin performances alongside him tonight: Taylor Sage Evans as Karen Childress, Neil McCaffrey, Drew Redington and Kala Ross.
The Broadway company closes on Sunday 3 January 2027, after an extension the producers have confirmed is the last. The London production, which opened the story at the Phoenix Theatre, carries on.
Nearly 1.8 million tickets have been sold across the West End and Broadway, over more than 1,500 performances. The play took four Tony Awards in 2025, more than any other play that year, including scenic, lighting and sound design, plus a Special Tony Award for its illusions and technical effects.
The play is written by Kate Trefry, from an original story by the Duffer Brothers, Jack Thorne and Trefry, and is directed by Stephen Daldry with Justin Martin as co-director. It was Netflix’s first move into theatre.
Tickets for the London run are on the Stranger Things: The First Shadow show page; for New York, see our sister site’s Broadway page.
