Callum Maxwell told David Hennessy about making his West End debut in the stage version of Stranger Things.
Callum Maxwell (24) from Oldcastle, Co. Meath joined the West End cast of Stranger Things late last year.
Of course Stranger Things is the Netflix hit that captured the imagination and made stars of actors such as Millie Bobby Brown and rejuvenated the career of Winona Ryder.
Written by Kate Trefry and with direction by Stephen Daldry and co-director Justin Martin, the stage production opened to rave reviews at the Phoenix Theatre on 14 December 2023.
The show, currently breaking box office records at Phoenix Theatre where it is now booking until 7 September 2025, has won several awards including the Olivier Awards for Best Entertainment and Best Set Design, the Critics’ Circle Awards for Best Set Design and Most Promising Newcomer, and the WhatsOnStage Award for Best New Play.
It has also been announced that Stranger Things: The First Shadow will transfer to Broadway in 2025, opening at the Marquis Theatre on 22 April, with previews from 28 March.
Callum was part of a new cast to join the show when he took on the role of Bob Newby who was played by Sean Astin in the Netflix series.
The story of the stage production takes the audience to Hawkins but 20 years before the events of the series.
It is 1959.
Joyce Maldonado wants to make a success of the school musical so that it could be her ticket out of the small town.
When a new student Henry Creel arrives, his family finds that a fresh start isn’t so easy… and the shadows of the past have a very long reach.
But when pets start turning up dead, Jim Hopper begins to investigate for the $100 reward but he needs Bob Newby’s help.
It is a show that takes you right back to the beginning of the Stranger Things story – and may hold the key to the end.
The cast also includes Louis Healy (Henry Creel), Joshua James (Dr Brenner), Miranda Mufema (Patty Newby), Jessica Rhodes (Joyce Maldonado) and George Smale (James Hopper Jr.).
How does it feel to have joined the West End cast of Stranger Things?
“Loving it so far. It’s been a wild ride but I’m having a great time.”
Were you a fan of Stranger Things before?
“I saw it when it first came out.
“I watched every season and I loved it, but you never think you would ever be involved with something like that, so I was a big fan of it very separately.
“And then when the thing came through I was like, ‘Oh Jaysus, I didn’t know it was a play’.
“It’s just mad that we’re here.”
Obviously it is your West End debut. Is it still quite surreal that you’re working with people like Stephen Daldry?
“It is, yeah.
“When I was doing the opening week and stuff, it is crazy but at a certain point you just have to kind of pull up the boot straps and go, ‘This is what you’re doing now’.
“Because I think when you kind of stay in that frame of mind of like, ‘Oh, wow, Gosh, how am I here?’ it’s not useful to you or to anyone else so you have to kind of plough on with it.
“But it’s great and it’s unbelievable to have the opportunity to work with those people.”
And I’m sure once you’re all in a rehearsal room, it’s about to work anyway, and there is no ego…
“Exactly, 100%.
“You’d want to be mental to see yourself as above someone else when you’re in the same room doing the same thing, so it’s great and it’s really nice that there are these people who obviously have these wide, mad, expansive careers but they’re just totally down to earth and very open to work with you.”
Tell us about the play. We all know Stranger Things but this is a prequel and it has its own story. It’s very much its own thing, isn’t it?
“It is indeed.
“It’s 20 years before the series happens.
“It just explores the lives of the characters that we love from the series but is in their teenage years when they’re younger and a bunch of supernatural things happen- shocker- and It’s kind of them dealing with that without the years of maturity that they have in the series.
“It’s a really fun play.
“It’s one of those ones that you don’t necessarily have to enjoy theatre to watch it, because it’s formatted almost like a series just put on stage.
“It’s so action based and it brings you along for the entire ride that you’re never sitting there waiting for something to happen.
“You’re kind of really brought along with it.
“It’s absolutely amazing to be a part of.
“It obviously takes place still in Hawkins but in 1959 and there are characters that aren’t present in the series too.
“For example Patty Newby’s my sister.
“She’s not present in the series and that’s explained in the play.
“It’s done very well.
“It’s very clever and it’s woven very neatly into the fabric of the TV show.
“We get to see these young people deal with really crazy supernatural experiences but not entirely aware of what’s going on.
“And there are subplots going on.
“There is magic, there is kind of demonic presences.
“And then there’s proper family drama.
“There is real human drama.
“There is a lot of issues: Serious issues, normal issues, day to day issues and also supernatural issues which is really cool.
“It’s also just a clever human story about people navigating their own world besides all the supernatural elements.”
And that has always been the strength of the show, hasn’t it? The characters…
“Absolutely, 100%.
“I’m a strong believer that if you don’t care about the people, then nothing matters because some crazy things can happen to someone and unless you care about the person, you’re just all mentally checked out.
“But something that obviously Kate Trefry does very well in the series and in the script and just in general is about creating these people is that they all feel like real people.
“They’re all flawed.
“No one is perfect.
“They all have needs and wants and they’re not just these surface level kind of characters as you can see sometimes.
“They all feel like real people and you feel for all of them even when they’re doing horrible things or good things, you still kind of know why which is really just good and obviously very lucky for us.”
You say you needn’t be a fan of theatre, you probably don’t need to know Stranger Things really, do you? As it is its own self- contained story..
“No, I think it’s very, very cleverly made by the whole team.
“Sometimes the people that come to see it and love it the most haven’t ever seen an episode of Stranger Things and they come away being like, ‘Oh God, I have to watch the series now’, because it is its own thing. There’s nothing you need to know before coming in.
“You just sit down and let the thing happen in front of you which obviously is the mark of a good play.
“It’s very action heavy.
“It’s just fast paced and witty and it’s great craic.”
It sounds like a lot of fun and that’s inherent in the set up of seeing characters like Chief Hopper long before he was in the police or Joyce long before she was a mother..
“You get to see where they’re coming from as adults because all of us as teenagers, there’s things that happen to us and ways that we are that influence who we are as adults.
“It’s really cleverly made that way that you do get a view into these really well known characters as young people and see maybe where they’re coming from as adults.
“It’s just extra info on them and it is fun to see them kind of squirming and just being kind of awkward, hormonal teenagers.
“I play Sean Astin’s character Bob in the series.
“He’s just like this really lovable tech nerd but he’s very self-confident and in love with Joyce, and very unapologetically in love with Joyce.
“You kind of see the seeds for what kind of is shown in the actual series which is really cool.”
Mentioning Sean Astin there, I’m sure it’s not a case of imitating what he does on screen but is there a need to follow his lead somewhat for continuity?
“All the actors in this, like myself and Jess and George and Louis who have characters that are kind of in the series, we all took different routes.
“The actors Jess and George, playing Joyce and Hopper, felt a bit more pressure on that front because there’s four whole seasons, loads of information about these characters whereas Bob was only in season two.
“I did watch it and I kind of got who was as a person and I had lots of face to face time with the creative team who made these people so they offered their insight as well.
“But for me, I was trying to attempt a marrying of the two, a healthy balance between who he is in the series but also who I am as an actor and what the script is which I think is kind of the Bible at the end of the day.
“So it was kind of a mix of a few things, I think.”
You just mentioned the script being the Bible, and I also asked at the start if you were familiar with Stranger Things.
So as an actor is it important to know about the universe you’re going into or can it even be unhelpful if you’re paying too much attention to the TV show because as we said, this is its own thing and you’re telling your own story here?
“That’s a great question.
“I do think sometimes people can get lost in the homework of it sometimes.
“I already watched the series twice before I even auditioned for this thing and then I watched it again to get me kind of updated on it.
“But I think, for me, what’s most important about this is what the audience is getting, not always what I’m feeling and what’s real for me in the moment.
“It’s about what people are getting because people are coming to the play to see this thing.
“So obviously you get anything you can from the universe of the play and obviously do your homework and know it but also, don’t let it kind of take away from what’s happening in the moment because I think people can overcomplicate things sometimes.
“Acting can be a very ‘me, me, me’ thing but in theatre especially, it’s about sharing.
“It’s about giving people something and letting them come away with something as opposed to an exercise in, ‘I want a clap’.”
Is it about being in the moment as opposed to conscious of everything that is around it?
“100% yeah, absolutely. Being present with people, which is why I love theatre, because for me, there’s nothing cooler than the feeling of live performance. Things are happening right in front of you and things can go wrong and that’s human and that’s exciting.
“I think that’s what I love about theatre: That it’s real people, it’s all happening.
“And nothing, in my opinion, can kind of replicate that, that kind of live feeling.”
I was wondering if there were any similarities with certain Irish works.
Obviously Stranger Things is supernatural but many Irish plays have a touch of that…
“Absolutely, I am an absolute die hard fan of Irish theatre but especially Irish classics.
“Historically a nation of storytellers, the land of saints and scholars, the amount of mythology that exists in the world because Ireland is a country.
“I find that really exciting and it’s just something that’s so deeply ingrained in our culture and it isn’t in a lot of other cultures.
“It’s just something that we, I think, have so abundantly in Ireland and so that’s something that I find really gorgeous about this kind of stuff, because it feels related to it or familiar.”
Does it make it easier, or perhaps more enjoyable, when you take on a role in a production like this where there is that built in fan base there due to Stranger Things being such a phenomenon at this point.
What is that experience like?
“I find it just flat out exciting.
“I think sometimes people expect it to be like, ‘Oh, are you worried now that there’s people that love this thing?’
“And I’m like, ‘No, sure I love it’.
“Because most of the cast in this thing love Stranger Things beyond just the play and so when people love something we’re not going to do it wrong, we’re not going to do it unjustly.
“So for me, it’s just something really cool to be a part of but then also come out of that stage door and see people who this series is a huge part of their identity and their life and somethings that they spend a lot of time caring for. It means a lot to see them smiling and really happy with the work.
“It obviously takes the pressure off that we came in in the second year of this cast, it was already a success and we know the play works because people already loved it so it was more so the thing of, ‘What can we bring to it?’
“And we did make changes in the rehearsal room, there were some things cut, some things added in, some things changed.
“Every now and again there were things altered to fit the new cast which is really exciting and lovely to experience because none of us would have been surprised if we came in and were very strongly encouraged to do something a certain kind of way but no, we were really listened to and our questions were answered and there was space there for everyone, which is really nice.
“It is going to be opening on Broadway this year as well but it hasn’t yet so the only place in the world you can kind of see it for now is in London so people are flying from all over the world to come and see it which is really cool.”
As you say, Stranger Things goes to Broadway this year..
“It will be a new cast of almost entirely American actors apart from the lad who played Henry last year, Louis McCartney.
“He’s an absolute stellar actor.
“He’s also an Irish man.
“He is moving over to Broadway with the show.
“He’s going to be leading the show over there, as he did last year, and doing so excellently as he did.
“He’s an absolutely stellar performer, really just genius performer and incredible mover.
“I don’t know if America are ready for him but they will be soon enough.”
Stranger Things has made a star of Millie Bobby Brown and taken Louis McCartney to Broadway. Who knows where the journey takes you..
“Very true.
“I’m very, very excited.
“Obviously, at a certain point you get up and go to work and you do thing the best you can.
“But every now and again I have to kind of stop myself and go, ‘Wow’ because I think it’s one of the things that, if you just ride the wave, you don’t think about it and that can be useful sometimes but then sometimes you do look back and go, ‘God, I could so easily not be here’.
“In Dublin there is an absolutely insane wealth of acting talent.
“I have so many excellent friends who aren’t being presented with opportunities and so when you are lucky, as I have been, to get something like this, it is very, very kind of humbling and exciting.
“I’m very much grateful to be here.”
Have you got to interact much with the Irish community in London yet?
“I actually have.
“I mean, most of the friends I’ve made since I came here have been Irish people, Irish creatives, Irish singers, Irish actors, Irish whatever.
“And they’ve really, really looked after me and made me feel so comfortable.
“Because I was so busy for the first while that I never got to see anything, because I was in the rehearsal room six days a week for nearly 11 hours a day.
“But since I’ve kind of had my days back and my stuff together, I’ve really found a lovely, lovely kind community in the Irish creative scene in London.
“I really, really have so I’m very grateful for them.”
Netflix and Sonia Friedman Productions present Stranger Things: The First Shadow at Phoenix Theatre until September 2025.
For tickets and more information, click here.
