Paranormal Activity: A New Story Live on Broadway opens previews on Friday, August 14 at the August Wilson Theatre, bringing the stage adaptation of Blumhouse and Paramount’s horror franchise to the Theater District for a strictly limited 20-week engagement. The production, written by Levi Holloway and directed by Felix Barrett, arrives after sold-out runs at Chicago Shakespeare Theater, the Ahmanson Theatre in Los Angeles, Shakespeare Theatre Company in Washington D.C., American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco, and a Boston engagement this July, along with an Olivier Award-nominated West End run at London’s Ambassadors Theatre.
Key Takeaways
- Paranormal Activity begins Broadway previews Friday, August 14 at the August Wilson Theatre, with an official opening night on August 25, 2026.
- The production runs for a strictly limited 20 weeks, closing January 3, 2027.
- Director Felix Barrett created Sleep No More, the immersive theater production that has run in New York for over 15 years.
- The cast includes Cher Álvarez, Travis A. Knight, Shannon Cochran, and Andrea Syglowski, most of whom reprise roles from the national tour.
- A new Paranormal Activity film is set by Paramount for May 2027, running in parallel with the stage production’s cultural footprint.
Barrett Returns to New York With a Different Kind of Immersion
Felix Barrett built his reputation in New York. His company Punchdrunk created Sleep No More, the immersive theatrical experience that opened in Chelsea in 2011 and has run continuously since, redefining what audiences expect from live performance in the city. Paranormal Activity operates differently. Where Sleep No More sends audiences roaming through a building, Paranormal Activity seats them in a traditional proscenium house and uses the constraints of that format, the fixed sightlines, the darkness beyond the stage edge, the shared vulnerability of sitting still, to generate dread.
Barrett acknowledged that connection to New York directly when the Broadway transfer was announced. The director described the city as his home away from home and said audiences here shaped his understanding of how theater can land when viewers engage fully with the work. The Paranormal Activity production represents Barrett’s first Broadway credit as a director, a distinction that comes after more than a decade of influencing the city’s theater culture from an Off-Broadway address.
The creative team around Barrett reinforces the production’s dual identity as both a serious theatrical endeavor and a franchise extension. Playwright Levi Holloway previously wrote Grey House, which played Broadway in 2023 with Laurie Metcalf and Tatiana Maslany. Theatre illusion designer Chris Fisher, whose credits include Stranger Things: The First Shadow, handles the production’s practical effects. Jason Blum of Blumhouse produces alongside Melting Pot’s Simon Friend and Hanna Osmolska, with the production mounted in association with Paramount Pictures.
An Original Story Built From a $15,000 Film That Became a $900 Million Franchise
The stage production does not adapt any specific film from the franchise. Instead, Holloway wrote an entirely new narrative that uses the franchise’s core premise, that supernatural forces attach to people rather than places, as the foundation for a standalone theatrical work. The story follows Lou and James, a couple who relocate from Chicago to London for a fresh start, only to discover that whatever haunted them has followed. The tagline, “Places aren’t haunted. People are,” doubles as the production’s structural thesis.
That creative independence from the source material is notable given the franchise’s commercial scale. The original 2007 Paranormal Activity, written and directed by Oren Peli, was produced for approximately $15,000 and earned over $190 million worldwide, spawning six sequels and a spinoff that pushed the franchise’s cumulative gross past $900 million. Paramount has a new film installment scheduled for May 2027, meaning the stage production and the film franchise will occupy cultural space simultaneously through the Broadway run’s closing in January.
Holloway described the Broadway transfer as a validation of the production’s theatrical ambitions. The playwright said the work is unlike anything else currently on the American stage, calling it a collaboration built on horror, emotional depth, and what he termed absolute mischief.
The Cast Brings Continuity From a National Tour That Built the Production’s Reputation
The Broadway cast draws heavily from the production’s pre-Broadway engagements. Cher Álvarez plays Lou, Travis A. Knight plays James, and Shannon Cochran plays Carolanne, all reprising roles they originated during the national tour. Andrea Syglowski joins the company as Etheline Cotgrave for the Broadway run, replacing Eva Kaminsky from earlier engagements. Understudies Caron Buinis, Caroline Hendricks, and Michael Holding round out the company. For most of the principal cast, the August Wilson Theatre marks their Broadway debut.
Knight also serves as the production’s assistant director, a dual role that reflects the small-cast structure of the show. With only four characters, Paranormal Activity relies on sustained performance intensity rather than ensemble scale, a dynamic that reviewers across the national tour consistently highlighted. The production runs two hours and ten minutes with one intermission, and the August Wilson Theatre recommends it for audiences aged 15 and older.
Broadway’s Growing Appetite for Genre Entertainment Frames the Arrival
Paranormal Activity arrives during a period when Broadway is actively courting audiences beyond its traditional base through IP-driven genre productions. Stranger Things: The First Shadow has demonstrated that horror and science-fiction properties can sustain commercial Broadway runs, and the Paranormal Activity transfer follows that template while operating at a smaller physical scale. The production’s 20-week limited engagement positions it as an event rather than an open-ended run, a strategy that creates urgency around ticket sales while managing the risk profile for producers backing a genre play in a 1,200-seat house.
The West End production earned a 2026 Laurence Olivier Award nomination for Best Entertainment or Comedy Play, losing to Oh, Mary! in a competitive field. That recognition, combined with five-star reviews in The Guardian, Financial Times, and The Telegraph, gave the production critical credentials that extend beyond the horror-fan base the franchise name attracts. Josh Silverman, President of Global Products and Experiences at Paramount, said the Broadway transfer allows the studio to expand the franchise in a format that delivers something a screen cannot: the shared, real-time vulnerability of a live audience sitting together in the dark.
Tickets are currently on sale through the August Wilson Theatre box office and authorized sellers, with prices starting at approximately $55. The performance schedule runs Tuesday through Sunday, with matinees on Saturdays and Sundays.
FAQs
When Does Paranormal Activity Open on Broadway?
Previews begin Friday, August 14, 2026. The official opening night is Tuesday, August 25, 2026, at the August Wilson Theatre (245 West 52nd Street). The production runs for 20 weeks, closing January 3, 2027.
Is the Broadway Production Based on One of the Paranormal Activity Films?
The stage production tells an entirely original story written by Levi Holloway, inspired by the franchise’s premise that supernatural forces attach to people rather than locations. It does not adapt the plot or characters from any specific film in the series.
Who Directed the Broadway Production of Paranormal Activity?
Felix Barrett directs. Barrett is the founder of Punchdrunk and creator of Sleep No More, the immersive theatrical production that has run in New York’s Chelsea neighborhood since 2011. Paranormal Activity marks Barrett’s Broadway directorial debut.
