PARANORMAL ACTIVITY brings communal live horror to Broadway as previews begin on 14 August 2026
PARANORMAL ACTIVITY is scheduled to begin Broadway previews at the August Wilson Theatre on 14 August 2026, with an official opening set for 25 August. The engagement is limited, and its final performance is scheduled for 3 January 2027. The first preview brings the production to Broadway after a multi-city path through theatres in the United Kingdom and the United States.
The Broadway production is a play written by Levi Holloway and directed by Felix Barrett. Rather than recreating the plot and characters of the original PARANORMAL ACTIVITY film, it tells an entirely new story inspired by the wider film series. That distinction establishes the work as a new piece of theatre within the franchise, not a direct stage version of the original film.
At the centre of the new story are James and Lou, a couple who move from Chicago to London in search of a fresh start. After relocating, they confront a supernatural threat connected to people rather than places. That person-centred idea provides the dramatic framework for the new plot, while keeping the couple and their experience separate from the characters and events of the original film.
The current principal cast comprises Cher Álvarez as Lou and Travis A. Knight as James. Shannon Cochran plays Carolanne, while Eva Kaminsky appears as Etheline Cotgrave. Álvarez and Knight therefore take the two roles at the centre of the announced premise, with Cochran and Kaminsky completing the current principal cast.
The creative team brings together specialists across the production’s physical, visual and aural elements. Fly Davis is the scenic and costume designer, and Chris Fisher is responsible for illusion design. Anna Watson is the lighting designer, Gareth Fry the sound designer, and Luke Halls the video and projection designer.
Taken together, those credits assign the physical environment and costumes, illusion work, lighting, sound, video and projections to specialist designers. Under the direction of Felix Barrett, those distinct visual, spatial and aural disciplines form the creative framework for presenting Levi Holloway‘s new story to a live audience. That structure reflects the practical work of presenting a story inspired by a film series as a live theatrical event.
The move into theatre changes the setting in which the story is received. Performers, stagecraft and audience share the same live event, creating a communal context for the production’s scares. That context does not mean every moment will frighten every theatregoer, so any account of audience response must remain tied to a specific performance.
A review from the production’s final pre-Broadway city offers a documented example of that communal response. At the Boston performance it assessed, Boston.com documented gasps, screams and nervous laughter from the audience following the production’s scares. The review therefore treated audience behaviour as part of its account of the performance, alongside the scares themselves. That observation belongs to one reviewed performance and cannot stand for every audience. It nevertheless provides specific evidence that this Boston audience responded collectively to the live scares.
That Boston engagement ran at the Emerson Colonial Theatre from 11 to 30 July 2026 and was the production’s final stop before Broadway. The stage work originated at Leeds Playhouse, then went on to play London, Chicago and Los Angeles before Boston. Its arrival at the August Wilson is therefore the next engagement in an established production history, while its story remains an original one inspired by the film series.
The Broadway production is presented by lead producer Melting Pot with Simon Friend and Hanna Osmolska. Blumhouse is among the co-producers, and the producing arrangements also involve Paramount Pictures and Solana Films. The announced closing date confirms the August Wilson season as a limited engagement rather than an open-ended run.
For Broadway, the proposition is a new PARANORMAL ACTIVITY story shaped for a shared auditorium, not a reconstruction of the original film. Its narrative reset and multidisciplinary stagecraft define the approach to the franchise as the August Wilson engagement begins previews on 14 August, ahead of its official opening on 25 August.
