A parody of Netflix’s Stranger Things isn’t just an opportunity to salute and spoof the beloved sci-fi thriller series.
“It also gave us an opportunity to give fans what they might have wanted, but that didn’t happen in the show,” said Nick Flatto, producer-director of Stranger Sings! The Parody Musical, playing at The Straz now through April 21.
If you’re thinking, hoping, praying that means more Barb, congratulations! Proceed to the head of Hawkins High’s class!
Among the students in that class was Barbara “Barb” Holland, the bright, somewhat nerdy best friend of the more popular Nancy. Barb disappeared during season one and after the initial shock receded and initial searches turned up nothing, seemed to be forgotten.
“The fan base said, ‘We want more of her. What happened to her?’” Nick said. “And no one seemed to care. The characters just moved on.”
Barb backers responded swiftly with a movement centered around the hashtag #JusticeForBarb. Stranger Sings! creator Jonathan Hogue incorporated that sentiment into his book, razzing the show a bit while giving Barb more space and the fans more Barb.
Jonathan, Nick and the rest of the Stranger Sings! creative team are “ultra-Stanger Things fans,” Nick said.
“We basically have slumber parties where we watch a new season when it comes out,” Nick said. “We watch every episode until we finish the season, usually about 7 a.m. We cannot have any spoilers. We are those types of fans.”
It’s not, however, essential to be that type of Stranger Things fan to enjoy Stranger Sings!, Nick said.
“We have the Stranger Things sci-fi humor and insider jokes that the fans crave,” Nick said. “But we also have fans who come in and don’t know Stranger Things and they have the best time because we have all these references to ’80’s nostalgia, ’80’s movies and musical theater humor. I like to say we created a home for nerds with our show.”
References to an array of ‘80s cultural totems, as well as later seasons of the series are part of the script, which primarily spoofs the season one story arc.
In fact, Nick said, Jonathan’s initial inspiration was a season one scene with Joyce (Winona Ryder) and her Christmas lights. “It was just so frenetic and campy and bigger than life, that he said, ‘This feels ready for a musical.'” Nick said.
Taking on that frenetic, campy, bigger than life role of Joyce in Stranger Sings! is Tampa native Caroline Huerta. Like Nick and Jonathan, Caroline is a huge fan of Stanger Things, even if it gave her Midwestern college days a sinister edge.
She was in her senior year at Indiana University when the first season was released. The school, she said, was “incredibly similar to the show’s setting,” fictional Hawkins, Ind.
“My roommate and I were very scared for a couple months watching Stranger Things,” she said with a laugh, “fearing the Demogorgon would pop out on our way home from class.” The Demogorgon spared her, possibly because it sensed she’d be a fine parody Joyce. And Will.
Will is Joyce’s son who quickly goes missing. When Will is onstage, he’s portrayed, a la Avenue Q, through the miracle of handheld puppetry. Caroline has drawn some excellent notices for her portrayal of Joyce and Will.
According to a theatrely.com review, Caroline did “great work making the character (Will) feel like a part of the human cast,” and that her performance allowed “the character’s oh-gee-why-me-where-am-I? whininess to shine through.” Her portrayal of Joyce was praised as “superb” by the New York Theatre Guide, while BroadwayWorld called it “stunning and hilarious.”
A Berkeley Preparatory School graduate (Class of ’13), Caroline is “over the moon” about her first hometown performance as a professional actress. ”It’s hard to express how wonderful it is to be coming back to Tampa, my hometown, doing a show that I originated in New York, and I get to bring it to the people and the place I love the most,” Caroline said. “Every time I think about going back to do my favorite show in my favorite place, I get butterflies. I’m so excited.”
Stranger Sings! is, of course, in no way connected to the Netflix series, nor is it particularly slavish in its portrayal of the show and its characters.
“We have the world of Stranger Things that we’re working from, but it’s really our version of these familiar characters,” Nick said. “So it’s not a cut, copy, paste. It is a truly a new experience and style and version of the stories we know.”
And lest you worry about an overload of snark, fear not. Stranger Sings! is a fond parody put together by creatives who love the show.
“It’s affectionate and loving and smart,” Nick said. “Jonathan Hogue just gets the rhythm and the style” of the series. The show, Nick said, contains “so many surprises, so much joy and so much laughter. Tampa is going to have such a great time and we cannot wait to be there.”