A Demogorgon Gave Gabrielle Nevaeh a Concussion on Stage During ‘Stranger Things: The First Shadow’ (Exclusive) originally appeared on Parade.
Most of us endured a bad teacher or two in our schooling days and spent our classroom hours fantasizing about proving them wrong. Few have achieved such satisfying success as Gabrielle Nevaeh though. The Nickelodeon star made her Broadway debut earlier this year in Stranger Things: The First Shadow after years of thinking stage acting wasn’t for her because of a bad teacher.
“I went to a performing arts schools,” she remembers while chatting exclusively with Parade in our in-office studio. “I had a musical theater period, and this teacher would do this thing where he would bring up two students: one he felt would be audition ready and another who wasn’t audition ready. I was usually that student.”
The exercise, which even with the purest of intentions ends up serving as a mode of humiliation, did not foster a love of theater in Nevaeh. “[I was] shaking and looking down at my paper. My voice was cracking, so I never thought I would have the courage to do theater,” she recalls.
However, as luck would have it, after an extremely successful career on shows like That Girl Lay Lay and All That, Nevaeh was cast as Patty Newby when the West End sensation Stranger Things: The First Shadow transferred to Broadway. The play is a prequel to the hit TV show and focuses on the life of Henry Creel, the young boy who will eventually become Vecna on the series. While many of The First Shadow‘s characters are younger versions of adults we see on the TV show, Nevaeh’s Patty is the sister of Bob Newby (played by Sean Astin in the series) who has yet to be mentioned on the TV show.
Nevaeh has certainly proved her teacher wrong by nabbing a lead role in one of the world’s most popular franchises, but her audition story makes the success even sweeter.
“I had to sing for my audition,” she remembers, “but I didn’t have a musical theater book [of songs]. I remembered the song that my teacher used to have me sing in front of the class as kind of an embarrassment ritual of sorts. It was ‘I Got Rhythm’ by Judy Garland. I figured Stranger Things: The First Shadow takes place in the ’50s. This is kind of around that time period. I don’t really know what else to sing, so I’ll just sing that song.”
“I booked my show with the song that was used to embarrass me in middle school,” Nevaeh says triumphantly. There’s no sweeter revenge than that.
While in our studio, Nevaeh not only broke down the lengthy audition process for Stranger Things: The First Shadow but also chatted about celebs coming backstage, on-stage mishaps and why she’s a Stranger Things superfan.
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Read the full interview with Stranger Things: The First Shadow‘s Gabrielle Nevaeh below:
Matthew Huff: You’re in Stranger Things: The First Shadow on Broadway. Were you a Stranger Things fan before you got cast in this?
Gabrielle Nevaeh: I was a mega fan of Stranger Things. It was absolutely surreal to be creating in the world that I grew up watching. I mean, I was at every fan experience. I waited in line for 12 hours to meet Millie Bobby Brown. I went to an early screening of Season 3, like I was deep in the fandom.
Wait, where did you wait to meet Millie Bobby Brown?
She was doing her launch for her makeup line. It was way back in the day, and she was doing a meet-and-greet at Ulta. My parents took me at midnight because the meet-and-greet started at noon, and she was only going to meet a certain amount of people. I think I was like third in line. We were really committed.
And you got to meet her?
Yes! She was so sweet.
Have you met her since? Has she come to see the show?
No, not yet, but I’m waiting for my moment to be like, “Hey, girl, guess what? You’re not gonna believe it.”
Did you re-watch the show at all to study up for the role you’re playing?
I totally re-watched the show. When I got the part of Patty Newby, I was concerned because she’s a new character to the franchise. She is a unique character and has her own story arc, I just wanted to make sure she fit in the ecosystem. So I did go back and watch Seasons 1 through 4, and then specifically Season 4, because [The First Shadow] is the prequel to the series, starting with Henry Creel. So that was something vital to creating Patty.
Related: Hey Mouthbreathers, We’ve Got the 45 Best ‘Stranger Things’ Quotes by Character—Everyone From Eleven to Eddie!
What was the audition process like?
It was so grueling. I auditioned for Stranger Things: The First Shadow just kind of for fun. I never thought I would ever have the courage to be on Broadway. I auditioned because I thought maybe the Duffer brothers [Matt and Ross Duffer] or Netflix would see [my tape] and consider me for something else, but definitely not this project. So I did the audition. Two weeks later, got called back in Los Angeles for in-person mix-and-match sessions. They kept me for about an hour, and then they asked me to come back the next day and the next day and the next day. Then it was just silent for like a month. And I was like, “Okay, well, I had fun. I did my best.” Then, they called me back to New York, and I had a seven-hour callback of just singing, doing different scenes. That was the most grueling process I had ever been through. By the end of the day, I had lost my voice, my body was in so much pain, but I figured if I didn’t get the job, I did my best.
So how did you find out you got the part?
I was back in L.A. taking my dog to the groomer. I brought him home, and I got a text from my agent saying, “Hey, we have a brand deal for you. Can you jump on this Zoom call real fast?” So I jumped on the Zoom call, and they said, “Gabby, bad news, we don’t have a brand deal for you, but you are gonna be on Broadway.” I was so confused, and so out of it, like it was just so random. And they were like, “You’re gonna play Patty Newby in Stranger Things: The First Shadow.” Then I just started crying. This was the first part I had ever cried when I heard that I got the role. It was an overwhelming experience.
Had you done much live theater before this?
No, this was my first theater audition ever. Growing up, I was such a shy kid, and I never thought I would have the courage to do theater, so it was off the table. Never auditioned for it, never wanted to even look in its direction. It was just so off limits in my brain. So it was a true blessing that my first theater audition was the Broadway show I ended up booking.
Related: How Does Broadway’s ‘Stranger Things: The First Shadow’ Connect to the Netflix TV Series?
What was the rehearsal process like for you?
We rehearsed all of January, February, moved to the theater in March, did tech, which is where we rehearsed with all of the technical elements, and then it was previews. So it was a really crazy process because for me, coming from TV and film, we shoot an episode in a week. You have to have your performance in three days, and then at the end of the week, whatever you got, you got. I remember in the first few weeks of rehearsal, I didn’t have my performance, and I felt so bad because things were just changing non-stop — fundamental things about Patty, about her relationship with her father and how she interacts with Walter. Things that, as an actor, you need for your compass to direct you into I just didn’t have, and it caused a lot of panic. But theater is different. We have tons of time, and it’s a process. By the time we got to the theater and previews started, we were locked in.
It was long days. We were rehearsing during the day and performing at night. It was a lot of going home really late at night, waking up really early, rehearsing and having to do a performance. Then getting notes and changing things. Sometimes entire scenes will be different, and we’d have to put them in at the end of the night. So it was grueling, but it was totally worth it.
What was the most difficult part of the rehearsal process?
Learning what my body needed because in TV and film, it’s a night-and-day difference of the physicality. With Stranger Things: The First Shadow, our floor is moving. Not only are we acting on a literal treadmill, we’re fighting each other, we’re running around, we’re screaming, we’re in these high-intensity moments for a prolonged period of time. I was not a self-care girly at all, not even a skincare girly, really. I needed to learn how to take care of my skin, my body, my voice, to be able to sustain my performance for eight shows a week. That’s like 400 times a year. It was hard, trying to be like, “Okay, what do I need in this moment?”
Having not done live theater before, what was going through your head before you went on for an audience the first time?
I felt at home because I grew up on Nickelodeon doing multi-cam comedy, so I did grow up performing in front of an audience, just not the live aspect of it. There’s no take two. I remember standing in the wing, and I hear the audience laugh and cheer for the first time. and I just felt so calm. I didn’t know what that was going to be like, because I’ve never had the experience of not being able to go back and redo something. It was peaceful, and it was exciting and vibrant. I felt like, in a weird way, I was just doing another episode of That Girl Lay Lay where my special friend was now a supernatural serial killer.
What’s your favorite moment in the show?
In Act Two, when we get to meet the mind flayer. She comes down, and she says hello to the audience. We were all so scared of the mind flayer during rehearsal that we had to give her a name. We call her Mindy. Has nothing to do with the show, but whenever Mindy comes down, it’s always an epic moment because we can hear the audience gasp. We can hear them cheer. Some people scream. We have a little monitor backstage that shows us the audience, and it’s always really cool to see people lean back and point and whisper to their friends.
Related: ‘Stranger Things’ Cast, Ranked by Net Worth: Who Is the Richest?
What’s the craziest thing that has gone wrong during a show?
We were doing a show, and there’s a sequence that takes place in the light and the dark, and I have to move very quickly. I gave myself a concussion on stage. It was the day before my 20th birthday too. I was moving real fast, and all of a sudden my head went boom. I continued to do the show, and I just figured, I hit my head. I was icing it. It wasn’t swollen or red, so I was like, “I’m fine.” Started to feel a little dizzy, a little nauseous, but I was like, “Okay, you just hit your head. That’s normal.” Finished the entire show with a concussion. The next day, a doctor came to the house, and she was like, “Girl, you have a little more than a headache. You’re gonna have to sit this one out.” I was so upset, but I sat out for a few days.
What did you hit your head on?
The Demogorgon got me! I thought I could take him, but his bite is definitely much worse than his bark.
Have any cool celebrities come to see the show?
Yes! Tom Hanks came to see our show. It was the week of opening, and we were like, “Tom girl, what are you doing here?” It was absolutely insane. When he was talking, I was like, “This is Woody from Toy Story.” My inner 4-year-old was just so excited. He was the sweetest man. Took time with all 34 of us, took pictures. It was the most magical experience to be like, “Okay. Tom Hanks just saw us perform. What in the world? What is life right now?”
Does you being in Stranger Things: The First Shadow mean you have insider information about the final season of the TV show?
I can’t tell you that. Netflix will come in and whack me over the head again, give me another concussion. That’s not good.
This interview has been edited and condensed for length and clarity.
Related: ‘Stranger Things’ Season 5 Will Drop in 3 Parts in Late 2025: Everything to Know About the Final Season
A Demogorgon Gave Gabrielle Nevaeh a Concussion on Stage During ‘Stranger Things: The First Shadow’ (Exclusive) first appeared on Parade on Jun 23, 2025
This story was originally reported by Parade on Jun 23, 2025, where it first appeared.
