Friday, September 04, 2026
Paranormal Activity Opens on Broadway August 25
Playbill: Transferring from sold-out runs from London to Los Angeles, the stage adaptation of the 2007 screen horror favorite is directed by Felix Barrett and penned by Levi Holloway. The Paranormal Activity stage play is a story distinct from the film, following couple Lou and James who move from Chicago to London to escape their past, soon discovering that places aren’t haunted—people are.
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6 comments:
I'm so intrigued by the idea of a horror play on Broadway. My friend is a big horror buff, and she recently saw this show and said it was incredible. I'm looking at all the production photos from this website, and the lighting of the show looks spectacular; I got chills just looking at it from my couch. I've never seen the movie Paranormal Activity, so I don't really know what to play about, and I don't think I want to see it; however, the spectacle of the show looks very great. I saw that this was a limited 20-week engagement for the show, which is a decent amount of time, so if I can work up the guts to see a horror play, I might just have to go see it. I also think it's so fascinating that the show has already performed in London too. It's already made its rounds and will continue to make its debut in different theaters, hopefully across the whole world.
I wouldn't say I am a huge horror fan in the sense that I watch a ton of horror movies; however, I do LOVE reading horror, listening to horror podcasts, and I actually assistant directed a production of Misery adapted from Stephen King's book when I was in undergrad, because the idea of bring horror to the stage fascinates me! It poses challenges in so many different ways, building and maintaining tension, being able to surprise your audience, and to achieve all of the effects you need an immense amount of coordination between all the design areas and actors! I've never seen Paranormal activity, but I've heard a bit about it. I'm curious how related it is to the original film, as reimagining the found-footage style on stage would be an interesting challenge, or if they use the same concepts of characters and arc, but omit the need for cameras. Also if I'm not mistaken a lot of the scares are inspried by poltergeist The fact that they have an "illusion designer" is so fun to me.
I accidentally published, before I finished my thought - (scares are inspired by poltergeist)s which at least to me sounds like a lot of fun prop/furniture movement, and other fun effects for pneumatics, tracked things, etc. And I think working with an "illusion designer" would be an interesting experience on a show like this!
The idea of a horror play is so interesting to me. While I really do not enjoy watching or reading horror, I think that I might be able to handle a play. The design credits for projection, video, and illusions have me really interested to see what they do with the story. There has been a rise in horror type plays like stranger things the first shadow. While it is based on the hit show, the play itself is far more horror focused and makes for a truly thrilling watching experience. Coming from multiple sold out runs I hope this doesn't catch the short run broadway bug. Normally with shows that open under a limited engagement, they last all the way through but with the way Broadway has been lately, you never know. So I really hope this new cast of fresh faces can truly make an impact in NYC and spark a new trend of plays and musicals.
I love it when broadway branches out to a new genre of performance, while I know horror has been done in the past in theatre, this is an that I actually have some history with, I’ve seen paranormal activity a couple of times as kid before I became horror averse in my teens back then it was truly something special so I can see why they would choose it, the name alone would probably bring in a lot of people. However I’m not sure if it would translate well to the stage, I think as an adaptation it doesn’t make a lot of sense, I’ve seen a lot of my favorite movies in the past have adaptations and not really stick the landing, I feel like this could be the case in this instance but it’s possible they could change some things around, a good direct and team of designers can really make this special
I think it is really interesting how there are not that many horror plays on Broadway at the moment. I think part of the reason is how difficult the technical effects can be and how that translates onto a stage, with the lack of cuts during intense or gory scenes can be very difficult for a theater setting.I also think that people do not usually go to the theater to watch a psychological horror/thriller genre because the current demographic of the goers tends to be older people. I think this show will really be a pioneer if it goes well into Broadway shows becoming a different type of medium where movies can be more directly translated onto the stage.There might be other horror/thriller plays but I personally haven't heard of or seen any of them. I have personally gone to shows and felt uncomfortable/scared but I haven't ever had the same experience as when you're in a movie theater watching a scary movie and it just scares the crap out of you, so maybe they have a unique way of doing it that would change the vibe.
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