How Excited Are You?: “Paranormal Activity”

by Chris Peterson

Welcome to a new series where we look at upcoming Broadway productions and ask: how excited are we?

If you listen to the OnStage Blog Theatre Podcast, you’ve probably heard Rachael and Jacklyn talk about this from last season, and we’ll be sure to get their thoughts on the upcoming year.

I’ll take a look at upcoming Broadway productions, run through what we know, and think about where my excitement lies.

First up: Paranormal Activity.

And I’ll just say it right away. My excitement level for this one is high.

The new stage adaptation, officially titled Paranormal Activity: A New Story Live on Broadway, is headed to the August Wilson Theatre for a strictly limited run beginning August 14, with an official opening now set for August 25. Written by Levi Holloway, who also gave Broadway the eerie and divisive Grey House, and directed by Felix Barrett, the creative mind behind Sleep No More, this already sounds like the kind of project that should be seen live.

The production is inspired by the Paranormal Activity film franchise, but it is not simply putting the movies on stage beat for beat. This is being billed as a new story, centered on James and Lou, a couple who move from Chicago to London trying to escape their past, only to discover that hauntings may have less to do with houses than with people. That is a smart way into this material for theatre, because the best stage horror usually works when the human tension is just as unsettling as the supernatural threat.

Reviews out of earlier stops have praised the production’s ability to make audiences jump, scream, and lean into the communal thrill of being frightened together.

Personally, I love live horror on stage.

There is something about horror in a theatre that film can’t quite replicate. In a movie, the scare is trapped behind a screen. On stage, it shares the room with you. You hear the audience hold its breath. I saw The Woman in Black at the Westport Community Theatre more than a decade ago, and it’s still the most terrifying experience I’ve had in a theatre. 

Broadway could use more of that.

The real question is whether the production can make Broadway audiences genuinely scared, not just impressed by stagecraft. If it can, this could be one of the more talked-about arrivals of the season.

So, my excitement level: very high. I’m always rooting for theatre that tries to make the room feel alive in a different way, and horror does that better than almost any genre when it is done well.