‘Paranormal Activity’ Sets New Broadway Opening Date

UPDATE, with new opening date: Paranormal Activity has moved up its Broadway opening date to Tuesday, August 25, at the August Wilson Theatre, several weeks earlier than previously announced.

The previously announced first preview performance of Friday, August 14, remains in place. The production will play a strictly limited 20-week run.

The Olivier Award nominated play is written by Levi Holloway (Grey House) and directed by Felix Barrett (Sleep No More).

The synopsis: “James (Knight) and Lou (Álvarez) move from Chicago to London to escape their past, but they soon discover that places aren’t haunted, people are.” The original story inspired by the film franchise, Paranormal Activity “reimagines the modern ghost story with an intimacy that only live theatre can provide.”

The Broadway production will follow a strictly limited pre-Broadway engagement in Boston at the Emerson Colonial Theatre from July 11 through July 30. Prior to Boston, Paranormal Activity played engagements at Chicago Shakespeare Theater in Chicago, Center Theater Group at The Ahmanson Theatre in Los Angeles, Shakespeare Theatre Company in Washington D.C., and American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco. A production in Toronto at the CAA Ed Mirvish Theatre began performances on June 9 and will run through July 5.

The Broadway – as well as Boston – cast will feature Cher Álvarez, Travis A. Knight, Shannon Cochran and Andrea Syglowski. (Understudies will be Caron Buinis, Caroline Hendricks and Michael Holding.)

Álvarez has appeared on TV in Sugar, Matlock, Criminal Minds, Grey’s Anatomy, and others. Stage credits include Steppenwolf Theatre Company, Goodman Theatre, Drury Lane and Berkeley Repertory Theatre.

Knight is an ensemble member at A Red Orchid Theatre in Chicago, and has appeared on TV in Chicago Fire, Chicago P.D., Chicago Med, and Mind Games. Films include The Hand That Rocks the Cradle, and TV credits include NCIS, The Office and Star Trek: DS9.

Syglowski has appeared on Broadway in Dog Day Afternoon and Pass Over, and is currently appearing as Sammy in the limited series The Terror-Devil in Silver on AMC+.

The play premiered at the Leeds Playhouse in the UK before transferring to the Ambassadors Theatre in the West End, where it received a Laurence Olivier Award nomination this year for Best Entertainment or Comedy Play.

Joining Melting Pot on the producing team for the Broadway run is Jason Blum, founder and CEO of Blumhouse, the original producer of the Paranormal Activity film franchise.