Stranger Things’ Sadie Sink As Annie Will Help You Recover From The Season 4 Finale

Spoilers ahead for the Stranger Things Season 4 finale. If you didn’t make it through Stranger Things Season 4 without tearing up, you’re not alone. From Will’s heartbreaking veiled confession to Mike and his later moment with Jonathan to that shocking finale where two of the show’s best characters were violently hurt, if not gone forever (RIP, Eddie Munson), the season left the entire fandom — as well as the town of Hawkins — devastated. Max Mayfield’s (played phenomenally by Sadie Sink) arc this season has been especially harrowing. She managed to stay alive for eight episodes, only to end up in a Vecna-induced coma in the finale.

With her fate unknown, fans are already brimming with theories about what happens in Season 5 — both optimistic and grim. Fortunately, that’s not all that’s circulating on the Internet. Sink’s videos as another iconic red-headed character on Broadway, one with a less-fatal but equally hard-knock life have been a salve for heartbroken fans.

Before she took a turn as Maxine Mayfield, an 11-year-old Sink first played Annie in the Broadway revival of the titular orphan in 2013, singing the show’s hits like “Tomorrow” and “Maybe.” When she started, Sink was “swing” for the musical, meaning she was an understudy for most of the cast including Annie — a huge feat for a child actor. The young performer even did an interview gushing about her Broadway experience. “I like everything about being on Broadway. I love being with this incredible cast. I like just hearing the audience laugh and making them happy,” she said in a behind-the-scenes clip for Annie on Broadway.

In 2015, just two years after her Annie stint, she played a young Elizabeth II on The Audience, another Broadway show, this time alongside Oscar-winner Helen Mirren.

Sink loved Broadway so much, in fact, that she almost didn’t go into film and TV acting. “[Broadway was] always what I envisioned myself doing,” Sink revealed in an interview with Collider Extras. “Film and TV acting... I hadn’t tried that or I wasn’t really interested in it. It was only the stage in musical theater that I loved.”

Continuing to map out a child star’s typical Broadway career arc, she said, “I think once I turned 13 or something, that’s kind of when your Broadway career just comes to a temporary halt, and [the producers are] like, ‘OK we’ll see you when you’re 18.’ During that time I auditioned for a few TV shows or movies here and there and that’s kind of when I ventured into that side of acting but, yeah, I always wanted to be on the stage.” She still does, she said. But luckily for all of us, film and TV acting captured her heart. “I definitely love it a lot.” The biggest difference she found between the two? Onscreen “you can mess up and it’s OK to mess up.” She added, “Coming from a theater background, no you don’t mess up you have to do it right every single time. It was very freeing to not feel this pressure just to always have it perfect.”

And if these clips aren’t enough to sate your Stranger Things appetite, don’t fret. Sink isn’t the only Hawkins rep who acted on stage. Here’s the rest of the cast and their Broadway roots.

Before landing the role of Dustin Henderson, an 11-year-old Gaten Matarazzo was in Les Misérables in 2014, playing Gavroche, a young boy who joins the revolution before getting fatally shot in an epic scene. Matarazzo even performed “One Day More” with the cast during the 2014 Tony Awards. When he was eight, he was an alternate for Benji in Priscilla Queen of the Desert.

Caleb McLaughlin, the actor who plays Max’s love interest Lucas Sinclair, also got his start as a child star on Broadway. It’s actually how the two met before co-starring on the hit Netflix show. “I’ve known her since I was 10 years old,” McLaughlin told Variety. “We were on Broadway in different shows, and we used to see each other in Times Square at this park that all these Broadway kids used to go to.” It’s why he thinks Max and Lucas’ onscreen relationship is “very genuine.” “I feel that because of Sadie and I’s friendship, it’s easy to just have that same type of relationship on the show,” he added.

While Sink was on Annie, from 2012 to 2014, McLaughlin played a Young Simba in The Lion King singing the earworm “I Just Can’t Wait To Be King.” He even performed his Broadway number in 2016 alongside his sister and Glee alum Darren Criss at The Elsie Fest, a music festival for theater lovers.

Even Gabriella Pizzolo, who plays ultra hacker Suzie and Dustin’s love interest, played Small Alison in Broadway’s Fun Home in 2015, and Matilda in the titular musical in 2013 through 2014. The young Broadway star even got to sing in Season 3 with Matarazzo’s Dustin. (Remember the “NeverEnding Story” song?!)

And, as a bonus, if that’s not enough cuteness to erase the bad taste Vecna left this season, here’s a clip of the young Hawkins boys — this time including Noah Schnapp, Finn Wolfhard, all joined James Corden on his show in 2017 to do a mashup of ’80s hits.

Petition to have more Stranger Things cast sing on the show. Maybe this could be a new anti-Vecna playlist?