{"id":633588,"date":"2026-10-17T16:28:14","date_gmt":"2026-10-17T16:28:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/633588\/"},"modified":"2026-10-17T16:28:14","modified_gmt":"2026-10-17T16:28:14","slug":"joe-keery-on-making-his-broadway-debut-life-post-stranger-things","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/633588\/","title":{"rendered":"Joe Keery On Making His Broadway Debut, Life Post-‘Stranger Things’"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tJoe Keery is making his Broadway<\/a> debut in Other Desert Cities this fall, playing a character who at first seems like a smooth Hollywood talker, but ultimately just wants to keep his family together.<\/p>\n

\n\tOr, as he puts it, \u201cMy goal, I\u2019ve joked to myself for the next 105 or whatever shows, is to save Christmas.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe play, written by Jon Robin Baitz and directed by John Benjamin Hickey, was an easy \u201cYes\u201d for Keery, who had been wanting to back into theater after starring as Steve Harrington in Stranger Things, as he had developed a love for the stage growing up and in drama school. What made it easier was the cast members for the play, which started with Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Allison Janney and Ed Harris.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThe original reading that I did, it was Julia and Allison and Ed doing that reading. So, yeah, big fans of those three in there. That\u2019s the sort of email you get, and you say, \u201cHoly shit! OK, great. Yeah, I will do that,\u2019\u201d Keery said.<\/p>\n

\n\tLily Rabe later joined the cast, playing Keery\u2019s sister. She sets the plot into motion as she and Keery visit their conservative parents (Louis-Dreyfus and Harris) for the holidays, and she brings a copy of a new book she\u2019s written that uncovers dirt from the family\u2019s past. Rabe asks for her parents\u2019 blessing to release the book, despite it casting them in a negative light, while Keery\u2019s character acts as the intermediary as tensions erupt, including with Louis-Dreyfus\u2019s sister (Janney). The play opens Oct. 18 at the Hudson Theatre for a run through Jan. 17.<\/p>\n

\n\tMaking the show work within Keery\u2019s schedule was a challenge. In addition to his onscreen career, Keery is a musician, performing under the stage name Djo, with songs including \u201cEnd of Beginning,\u201d which went viral on TikTok and climbed the Billboard Hot 100. In early 2026, he toured Mexico and South America before going on to be the opening act for Tame Impala. And he had been on the U.K. leg of his own tour right before rehearsals for the play began.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cIt was a rather blunt turnover,\u201d Keery said. \u201cI finished on a Sunday, flew on a Monday, and then started rehearsing on a Tuesday. The first week or two, I was definitely feeling maybe the whiplash of it all, but I just had to make it work.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAmid the starry names on the stage, Keery has one of the standout monologues, in which he points out the love the family actually has for each other, despite the bickering, and how Rabe\u2019s book and overall view on her family may not be entirely truthful and inherently, harmful, despite its artistic value. Preparing for that speech required a deep collaboration with Hickey, as well as learning to internalize the character.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI learned my lines, and then you realize you don\u2019t know them at all, and then you have to learn them all over again. A ton of my work that I end up doing is just trying to, as much as possible, get things into my brain and my body by moving. So, generally, it involves a lot of walking and a lot of talking to myself, and then rehearsing,\u201d Keery said.<\/p>\n

\n\tAnd despite his initial awe at the cast members, including Rabe, Keery said now that they\u2019re on stage, it feels just like being in a high school play.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThere\u2019s something about doing a play that, you kind of have to leave your ego at the door. Everyone\u2019s doing it because they want to do it. Everyone\u2019s doing it because they love it. So, I think it\u2019s kind of this great equalizer,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\n\tKeery is one of the latest Stranger Things cast members to come to the New York stage, following Gaten Matarazzo, Maya Hawke and more. He was encouraged to do so by Sadie Sink, who returned to Broadway in 2025 John Proctor is the Villain. <\/p>\n

\n\tKeery appeared in several independent films throughout Stranger Things as well as in the television series Fargo. Going forward, Keery said he plans to continue both acting and performing as a musician, but he doesn\u2019t have an exact calculation on how it will balance out. He adds that post-Stranger Things, he hasn\u2019t planned out any dream roles, per se, but rather continues to look for parts that feel new and challenging.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cIt\u2019s never really up to you. I mean, it\u2019s not like I have like my pick of the litter of these things,\u201d Keery said. \u201cI\u2019m sort of a big believer in the right things kind of coming my way, and trusting my gut on what I want to be doing, just like day to day.\u201c<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Joe Keery is making his Broadway debut in Other Desert Cities this fall, playing a character who at…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":633589,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[21846,430,156,111,139,69],"class_list":["post-633588","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-broadway","tag-celebrities","tag-entertainment","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/633588","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=633588"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/633588\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/633589"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=633588"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=633588"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=633588"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}