Broadway economics typically favor the comfort of musical revivals or intellectual prestige of limited-run star vehicles. Staging high-cost, tech-heavy original horror carries immense financial risk. Yet the arrival of Paranormal Activity at the August Wilson Theatre proves that live theater can out-scare streaming platforms and cinema screens.
By turning theatrical craft into a delivery system for raw fight-or-flight tension, Holloway and Barrett have altered expectations for Broadway genre drama. The production demonstrates that fear on stage does not require costumed monsters or ironic self-awareness. When artists weaponize silence, spatial sound, and analog mechanics, theater becomes an extraordinarily potent medium for absolute terror.
