Inside the Upside Down: How Netflix’s ‘Stranger Things’ came to life in the Marquis Theatre lobby

The Creels have moved from Hawkins, Indiana, to New York City.

Or rather, Creel House from the fictional Stranger Things universe has been erected in the lobby of the Marquis Theatre in Times Square. It’s an activation created by sister agencies Salt and Pinch (which are handling production and creative, respectively) that’s aimed at extending the beloved Netflix IP into a Broadway setting for theater and streaming fans alike.

The two-story house is made of wooden slats wrapped around the theater’s facade to create a Victorian-style structure recognizable to fans of the show. The structure, which leans into the red-and-black show aesthetic that fans have come to expect, features luxe and spooky details that tell the story of a Creel House in all its original splendor, like gilded picture frames, a stained-glass door, striking shadows, and lots of candlelight.

It’s not the first time Netflix has dived into experiential marketing with Stranger Things; the streaming giant, which has also hosted events tied to titles like Bridgerton and Squid Game, has held activations for the Duffer Brothers’ series in cities around the world, and later this year, the show will come to life at Netflix House experiences around the country. This time, the Creel House lobby is the first thing theatergoers see as they head into Stranger Things: The First Shadow, a Tony Award-winning prequel play that critics have lauded for its production value.

While the lobby is designed for fans headed to see the show, it’s not limited to ticketholders, since anyone passing by or staying in the Marriott Marquis hotel can also venture into the Upside Down. It’s an aspect that its creators, Don Strom, co-founder and managing partner at Salt and Pinch, and Michael Brown, executive creative director at Pinch, kept in mind while putting it all together.

“We’re really designing it as part of that larger piece [of theater],” Brown said. “But the great, intentional side effect of it is that we are creating great backdrops for social share, whether I’m attending or not, that aren’t just a logoed backdrop.”

Set the scene

When Strom and Brown signed onto the project, the first thing they had to think about was the physical space where they were installing the activation. Most New York theaters don’t have much extra room beyond the required stage and seats, but luckily at the Marquis Theatre, there is plenty of space to build out something special, Brown told us.

The Marquis Theatre is housed inside of the Marriott Marquis hotel, providing an expansive lobby area that shows like Once Upon a One More Time have previously also used to their advantage, using it for photo ops and merch displays. For Stranger Things, the Creel House structure in the lobby serves as both marketing and storytelling space, Brown said, welcoming guests into the show experience as they go up the hotel’s escalator and providing a gateway into both the physical space and fictional world.

“Outside of the Stranger Things universe, the house is also just this very real, imposing yet mysterious structure that sets the stage for the intriguing and thrilling spectacle audiences will experience during the play,” Greg Lombardo, VP of experiences at Netflix, told us in an email. “By having guests go through the doors of the Creel House, we created an immersive environment that begins before the show starts and extends to shareable photo moments that help draw audiences in.”

Working in a hotel lobby can have its challenges. Strom and Brown said they focused on creating a plan that allowed for regular guest traffic, and because some elements of the lobby are not changeable, they leaned into lighting, color treatments, and bold iconography to match the overall effect of the install.

“What would it look like in a theater lobby in 1959 Hawkins?” Brown said. “[We brought] in all these custom-made posters from that era of Hawkins to really take it over, making concession stands, all these smaller things that really delight people and really start to build and complete that illusion even before they’ve gone through the front door and taken their seats inside the theater itself.”

Take a seat

From the beginning of the process, the design duo were focused on the audience that would be walking through Creel House, which could include not just diehard stage fans, but fans of the TV series eager for a new experience from their favorite show.

“Somebody who’s made the decision [of] ‘I don’t want to just enjoy Netflix on a screen at home, I want to—and I know this word gets thrown around a lot—immerse myself in it, both in the theater and in the space,’” Brown said. “There’s a certain intentionality, excitement that we want to deliver and build a story around for them.”

There’s also a third possible audience: the casual attendee who may or may not be familiar with the Stranger Things universe. Lombardo said that because the play itself is a prequel, the story’s standalone nature is welcoming to anyone—a quality they also sought to reflect in the lobby experience.

“While being familiar with Stranger Things will certainly deepen your understanding of the play, it was designed to work independently, requiring no prior knowledge of the series—allowing us to reach both new audiences and fans,” he said.

In evaluating the success of experiential marketing activations, Lombardo said revenue and engagement are both important metrics for the company. Stranger Things: The Last Shadow has sold out its theater multiple times in previews and its official run, and most recently grossed more than $1 million in one post-Tony’s week in June. Awards also come into play; the production took home four Tony Awards and 23 total award wins this season, per Lombardo.

But there’s also a much more immediate form of feedback: guest reactions on the spot, which Strom said he sought out when he attended the lobby to show it off to his own friends.

“I wanted to just see the reaction, and they get to the top [of the escalator] and you see it,” he said. “There’s a gasp, there’s a ‘Whoa!’ It almost has the excitement of when you’re about to enter a new world at a theme park.”