Harry Potter and the Cursed Child

[foxy]

Whenever I'm about to spend too much money on something, I think of something more expensive and the first option doesn't seem so bad.

Yesterday I priced tickets for Harry Potter and choked a little when the ticket agent started rattling off prices. I told myself it was cheaper than a plane ticket to London and handed over my credit card.

Next week will be my 5 hours in the theater so if I divide 5 into the price of the ticket(s) ......

Hope to post a good review.

 

https://www.theatermania.com/broadway/news/harry-potter-and-the-cursed-child-makes-history_84735.html/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=12apr2018

[+ BenjaminNicholas]

It's a brilliant piece of theatre. Money well spent.

 

Not only is it well-acted, but the stagecraft is unlike anything I've ever seen before. Enjoy!

[Cooper]

Next week will be my 5 hours in the theater so if I divide 5 into the price of the ticket(s) ......

Hope to post a good review.

 

I, too, am looking forward to this production. I have a ticket for this week. Hope we’ll both be left “spellbound”

 

[foxy]

Yesterday I saw parts 1 & 2 of Harry Potter at the cavernous and opulent Lyric Theater. My impression is that it will settle in for a long run. There’s no shortage of Potter swag that can be yours if you want to do some shopping.

The theater was filled with an enthusiastic crowd of fans who were determined to love every minute of this production.

There’s a lot going on with the large cast rushing about in swirling black cloaks and a great deal of stage magic leaving you wondering how they did that. There are some spectacular moments.

I’ve read all the books and have seen all the movies. I was expecting to have a great time. But for some reason I didn’t.

I expect I will be in the minority. I found myself a little bored with the story at times and was sort of exhausted when the 5 hours ended.

I’m sure it will do extremely well at the box office. It’s already setting records.

[+ poolboy48220]

I read the script when they published it a couple of summers ago, and could see that it was written towards some amazing on-stage effects. A friend saw it in London, I would love to make it out to NYC to see it but given my usual lackadaisical attitude towards travel, it probably won't happen. Pray for a touring show that visits Detroit.

[Cooper]

From Theatermania:

Harry Potter and the Cursed Child

The two-part play will officially open at the Lyric Theatre on Sunday, April 22.

A scene from Harry Potter and the Cursed Child on Broadway.

Harry Potter and the Cursed Child officially opens on Sunday, April 22, at the Lyric Theatre. Based on an original story by J.K. Rowling, Jack Thorne, and John Tiffany, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child is a new play written by Thorne and directed by Tiffany. The production is one play presented in two parts. Both parts are intended to be seen in order on the same day (matinee and evening) or on two consecutive evenings. The production received its world premiere in July 2016 at the Palace Theatre in London, where it continues to play to sold-out houses.

 

The production features seven of the original West End production's stars reprising their roles: Jamie Parker (Harry Potter), Noma Dumezweni (Hermione Granger), Paul Thornley (Ron Weasley), Poppy Miller (Ginny Potter), Sam Clemmett (Albus Potter), Alex Price (Draco Malfoy), and Anthony Boyle (Scorpius Malfoy).

[Cooper]

Saw this play on Wednesday. A matinee & evening performance. The newly renovated Lyric Theatre is huge. The Theatre is decorated just for this production. You get the feeling it’s going to be playing there for a very long time. The sold out performance was fill with Potter fans & they were just wild about Harry.

 

If you’re not familiar with the books or movies, you might be lost trying to figure out what’s taking place & why.

 

If you’re planning on seeing both Plays in 1 day, there’s enough time for a relaxing dinner between shows. Although the info says each Play is 2 1/2 hrs, it was longer than that & Exiting the theater is a long wait.

[edjames]

A little background on the show...

This show will run forever. It's a huge sold-out hit in London and US audiences will flock to see it.

FYI The Lyric Theater is actually two theaters that were combined together during the 42nd St restoration.

If I'm not mistaken, the new entrance to the theater is on 43rd Street. It was once the Apollo Theater and the Lyric theater.

The theater has 1600+ seats, making it one of Broadway's biggest houses.

The play won 9 Olivier Awards, including Best Play.

It is also opening in Melbourne and no doubt a US based touring company is in the works.

 

 

Another Harry Potter Landmark: At $68 Million, the Most Expensive Broadway Nonmusical Play Ever

By MICHAEL PAULSON APRIL 14, 2018

The Lyric Theater underwent major renovations for “Harry Potter and the Cursed Child,” including exterior additions that are symbolic to the play: a wing on the facade and a rooftop nest with a child huddled inside.

The Harry Potter economy is filled with jaw-dropping numbers, including 500 million books sold and $7.7 billion in worldwide film grosses.

 

Here’s another one: “Harry Potter and the Cursed Child,” a two-part drama now in previews and opening April 22, cost about $68.5 million to bring to Broadway, including not only $35.5 million to capitalize the show — more than for any other nonmusical play in history — but also another $33 million to clear out and redo the theater.

 

It’s a huge bet in a flop-prone industry, but also a seemingly safe one, predicated on the expectation that “Cursed Child” will become a big hit on Broadway, a long-running production that can spin off profits for years.

 

“That’s a ton of money, no question about it, in terms of what things cost around here, but it’s Harry Potter, one of the most popular brands in the history of brands,” said Tom Viertel, the executive director of the Commercial Theater Institute. “It has a title the likes of which we would rarely, if ever, get to see on Broadway.”

 

Even in previews, as the cast finds its footing and the creative team makes adjustments, the show is setting box-office records. Potter fans have been filling up the Lyric, one of Broadway’s largest theaters, and the $2.1 million the play took in during the first week of April was more than any play had previously grossed in a single week.

 

The record-setting $35.5 million capitalization — the amount raised from producers and investors to pay an unusually large cast and crew, rehearse an unusually long show and build an unusually elaborate production — was disclosed in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. By comparison, most nonmusical plays on Broadway are between $3 million and $5 million, and even the splashiest musicals rarely top more than $25 million.

 

But the capitalization is only a portion of what it took to pave the way for “Cursed Child” to get to Broadway.

 

The Ambassador Theater Group, the British theater giant that operates the Lyric, spent about $23 million to persuade its previous occupant, Cirque du Soleil, to shutter its “Paramour” musical and make way for “Cursed Child,” according to two people with knowledge of the transaction.

 

Interior touches include dragon lanterns, a monogrammed carpet with “H” for Hogwarts, and phoenix sconces.

Ambassador, which competed with other Broadway landlords to woo “Cursed Child,” overhauled the Lyric at the behest of the play’s producers. A charmless barn of a theater (previously home to a series of flops, including the $75 million musical “Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark”), it was reconfigured to feel more like an old-fashioned opera house, with a vaulted ceiling, a necklace of boxes, and 1,622 seats (down from 1,896). Even the entrance was relocated, from crowded 42nd Street to the less dense 43rd Street.

 

The work on the building was expected to cost about $10 million, according to documents filed with the New York City Department of Buildings.

 

The play, a two-part experience with a running time of more than five hours, is a sequel to the series of young adult fantasy novels written by J.K. Rowling about a boy wizard. “Cursed Child” takes place 19 years after the final book, at a time when Harry and his friends have become parents.

 

“Cursed Child” was written by Jack Thorne, based on a story by Mr. Thorne, Ms. Rowling and the director John Tiffany. It was developed in Britain and has been sold out in London’s West End for 22 months, and last year it won a record nine Olivier awards — the British equivalent of the Tonys — including one for best play. A third production, in Melbourne, Australia, is scheduled to open next year.

 

In response to questions about the show’s finances, two of the lead producers, Sonia Friedman and Colin Callender, offered a tour of the renovated theater. Strolling through the theater, they showed off phoenix sconces and dragon lanterns and a lobby wall featuring prints of patronuses (silvery animal guardians).

 

The color scheme is rich and dark — most of the walls are painted a color called raven plume — and a custom carpet features H monograms (for Hogwarts, Harry’s alma mater). The newly adorned exterior features giant wings and large sculptures of a child (symbol alert!) trapped in a nest.

 

“We wanted to create a mood, without crossing a line into theme park,” Mr. Callender said. Ms. Friedman added, “It was really important to us that the lobbies and the front-of-house had the atmosphere of the Harry Potter world, because this is the beginning of the audience’s experience.”

 

Ms. Friedman, who has been vocal about the high cost of working on Broadway, said that the play has cost significantly more to mount in New York than in London. Labor, marketing and theater rentals all tend to cost more in New York.

 

The theater’s interior was dramatically altered to create a more intimate space with fewer seats and more character. CreditDorothy Hong

“I find the costs here difficult to comprehend,” Ms. Friedman said. “It’s a number I do not like.”

 

But she also said that particular aspects of “Cursed Child” make it expensive. A play in two parts required twice as much time to rehearse; the show’s elaborate illusions required significant substage mechanics and extra training. It took 16 weeks just to load the show’s set elements into the theater.

 

Investment documents filed with the New York attorney general’s office offer a rough breakdown of the capitalization, including $11.7 million for the physical production, $7.8 million for “general and administrative” costs, including the design and signage of the facade, $3.4 million for advertising and publicity and $3.2 million for salaries.

 

That money goes to pay a cast and crew that is much bigger than for most plays. According to Ms. Friedman and Mr. Callender, a shop crew of 220 people was assembled to build and install the scenery and lighting and costumes. The show has 40 actors, a stage crew of 26, some 16 people assigned to wardrobe and hair and 5 stage managers.

 

“It’s very obvious where the money went — the whole theater has been transformed to fit the show, and the level of technical expertise is like nothing I’ve ever seen on Broadway,” said Jonathon Rosenthal, a 38-year-old I.T. consultant from the Bronx who runs a Harry Potter meet-up groupand who saw the play on Broadway earlier this month. “It looks like there is magic going on on the stage.”

 

The Broadway production is already largely sold out through next March, although there are periodic releases of more tickets, including some low-priced ones every Friday. Each part of the show had a recent average ticket price of $164.83 and a top price of $286.50; 300 seats per performance cost $40 or less. The two parts can be seen on the same day or consecutive days.

 

Among the biggest beneficiaries will be Ms. Rowling. The investment papers do not detail her compensation, but say that the “underlying rights owner, licensor and their affiliates” — a group that includes Ms. Rowling — will initially receive 31 percent of the play’s net profits, and that cut will eventually rise to 41 percent as the show moves deeper into profitability. Ms. Rowling can profit from the play in other ways as well; she is the third lead producer, through her company Harry Potter Theatrical Productions.

 

Her deal appears to be more lucrative than the ones negotiated by other prose writers whose work was the basis of a Broadway show. Harper Lee, before her death, signed an agreement giving her 2.5 percent of the net profits, plus an author royalty, for a coming stage adaptation of “To Kill a Mockingbird” (that money will now go to her estate), while Ron Chernow, the author of a biography of Alexander Hamilton, gets 1 percent of the adjusted grosses from “Hamilton.”

 

The comparisons, however, are imperfect. Fiction writers generally get a bigger share of profits than do writers of nonfiction, since the novelists actually dream up their characters. And, unlike “Mockingbird,” “Cursed Child” is not adapted from a novel — it is a new story, created for the stage.

[edjames]

A sure Tony nominee and winner...I'm seeing it Thursday/Friday evening. Can't Wait!

 

Review: ‘Harry Potter and the Cursed Child’ Raises the Bar for Broadway Magic

 

Time is a dangerous toy in “Harry Potter and the Cursed Child,” the enthralling two-part play about the later life of its title wizard. Various characters in this deluxe London import, which opened on Sunday night at the Lyric Theater, find it in their power to journey into the past, which means altering the future, which means serious trouble for everyone.

 

In that regard, these stumbling adventure-seekers must be regarded as lesser magicians than their creators, who include J.K. Rowling, the writer of the prodigiously popular Harry Potter fantasy novels, and the poetic director John Tiffany (“Black Watch,” “The Glass Menagerie”). This inspired team bends time to its will with an imagination and discipline that leave room for nary a glitch, making five hours of performance pass in a wizardly wink of an eye.

 

Featuring a script by Jack Thorne — from an original story by Ms. Rowling, Mr. Thorne and Mr. Tiffany — “Harry Potter and the Cursed Child” also gives vibrant, decades-traversing life to those wistful “what if” speculations about the past that occupy both grown-ups and children. It’s a process that involves folding stories into stories into stories, collapsing years into minutes and making dreams feel eternal, and more vivid than reality.

 

If you give yourself over to this show’s hypnotic powers — and I’m talking to the parents who may be accompanying their Potter-mad offspring with reluctance — you’ll find everything that happens onstage seems as improbably fluid as, well, time itself. It helps that what happens includes some of the most eye-boggling illusions you’ll ever witness, without a visible wire or trap door in sight.

 

In embodying the magical with such seeming spontaneity, “Cursed Child” becomes the new gold standard for fantasy franchise entertainment on Broadway. By contrast, most of the family-courting stage versions of animated films that have ruled the theater district for so long look as stiff and artificial as parades of windup toys.

 

The budget for “Cursed Child,” which has been a sold-out hit in London since opening there in 2016, is a staggering $68 million, the most ever spent on a nonmusical Broadway production. Yet I mean it as the highest praise when I say that the show doesn’t look expensive.

 

Or rather, it seems expensive only in the way of a custom-made little black dress, one with endless tricks up its deceptively simple sleeves. “Cursed Child,” which has a deeply symbiotic cast of 40, shimmers with beguiling richness, but you’re never conscious of its seams or the effort that’s gone into the making of it.

 

This effect is evident as soon as you step into the lobby of the Lyric Theater, which has been transformed from a too big, ungainly show barn into a cozy yet sumptuously appointed environment that seems to have been exactly as it is for many, many years. On the stage, open for your inspection, looms the vaulted central hall of Harry Potter’s alma mater, Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

 

This stately mansion is the work of the ace set designer Christine Jones and has been shrouded in beckoning, velvety and inventively concealing shadows by Neil Austin’s lighting. The scenery at this point consists mostly of suitcases and trunks. But watch out for the gliding staircases that will soon become a crucial part of the mise en scène.

 

Luggage and staircases are appropriate motifs for a show that turns out to be all about traveling, in the broadest sense of the word, and unpacking the conflicted feelings that are part and parcel of the long-distance journey of growing up. Overseeing everything from above, like an inescapable eye, is a palely glowing clock.

 

Beneath this formidable timepiece, a series of scenes melt into one another, approximating cinematic cross-cutting, while managing to feel both epic and intimate. The story begins where the final novel in the Potter series, “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows,” ended.

 

Harry (an irresistibly anxious Jamie Parker) is an adult now (which doesn’t mean he has entirely grown up), employed by the Ministry of Magic, which is run by his old school chum (and partner in fighting the forces of darkness), Hermione Granger (the marvelous Noma Dumezweni). Harry and his wife, Ginny (Poppy Miller), are seeing their sons off to school from King’s Cross Station in London.

 

Anthony Boyle, center left, as Scorpius Malfoy, and Brian Abraham as the Sorting Hat.CreditSara Krulwich/The New York Times

It will be the first year at Hogwarts for their younger boy, Albus (Sam Clemmett), who is understandably ambivalent about going to the place where his student father became “the most famous wizard in the whole world.” Hermione and her prankster husband, Ron Weasley (Paul Thornley, delightful) are there, too, with their daughter, Rose (Susan Heyward).

 

Also on the platform: the platinum-haired Draco Malfoy (Alex Price), once Harry’s sinister rival, and his nerdy son, Scorpius (Anthony Boyle, who leads with his adenoids in a show-stealing performance). Scorpius and Albus are destined to bond, both as outcasts in the young wizarding world and as allies in a quest that may lead them into the realms once occupied by the ultimate dark lord, Voldemort.

 

Their insular friendship, which opens up enough to include a determined young woman named Delphi Diggory (Jessie Fisher), will be sorely tested, as will their contentious relationships with their dads. And yes, the script has more variations on father issues than the entire canon of Greek tragedy.

 

Part of the generation-crossing appeal of Ms. Rowling’s novels lies in her ability to give operatic grandeur to the most universal and pedestrian hopes and fears — feelings harbored by anguished adolescents of all ages — by placing them in a wildly fantastical context. (In this sense, her fiction resembles that of Stephen King.) And this show more than honors that dichotomy.

 

That everyone who sees “Cursed Child” is implored to “keep the secrets” relieves me of the onerous burden of parsing the byzantine but only occasionally tedious plot. Those who have read the Potter novels, or seen the blockbuster film adaptations, should not feel that the carefully appointed logic of Ms. Rowling’s fictional prototype has been violated.

 

The uninitiated may be confused when the mere mention of certain names (Dolores Umbridge, Neville Longbottom) draws gasps from the audience. But I can’t imagine anyone ultimately not feeling strangely at home within the show’s magical flux.

 

This state of enchantment is sustained through Steven Hoggett’s balletic movement direction of the large ensemble and Katrina Lindsay’s wittily transformative costumes. Working with Ms. Jones and Jamie Harrison (credited with illusions and magic), they summon an alternate universe of a world gone fascist, for the show’s darkest and most uneasily topical sequences. And do watch out for the phantasmal Dementors.

 

The leading cast members, most of whom I first saw in London, have relaxed into looser but completely detailed performances. (Mr. Parker, Ms. Dumezweni and Mr. Thornley cut loose delightfully to portray their characters as inhabited by young’uns.) It is impossible not to identify with most of the people — and creatures — onstage, who memorably include a fabulous centaur (David St. Louis) and that great, giggling ghost of the first-floor girls’ bathroom, Moaning Myrtle (Lauren Nicole Cipoletti).

 

For this slyly manipulative production knows exactly how, and how hard, to push the tenderest spots of most people’s emotional makeups. By that I mean the ever-fraught relationships between parents and children, connections that persist, often unresolved, beyond death.

 

Time-bending, it turns out, has its own special tools of catharsis in this regard. In the multiple worlds summoned here, it is possible for kids to instantly become their grown-up mentors, and for a son to encounter his forbidding father when dad was still a vulnerable sapling.

 

“I am paint and memory,” a talking portrait of the long-dead wizard Dumbledore (Edward James Hyland) says to his former star pupil, Harry. Well, that’s art, isn’t it? Substitute theatrical showmanship for paint, and you have this remarkable production’s elemental recipe for all-consuming enchantment.

[foxy]

I thought this was a very well written and thoughtful review. And I actually agree with it and I’m trying to ponder why this production left me cold. I’m certainly not saying there’s anything bad about this show. It just didn’t click with me for some reason. I hope everyone who goes loves the show (despite the $$$).

[edjames]

I had a great two evenings of theater. It was a memorable experience.

Everything about it rates 5 stars, and excellent production.

It will run forever. I was reminded of that fact when I saw an ad for Phantom on the side of a bus yesterday celebrating it's 30th year!

Pricey, but highly recommended for all Potter fans.

It does help if you are familiar with the previous story lines and characters.

[+ nycman]

I saw it last Wednesday in a 5 hour marathon. I got cheap orchestra tickets.

If I had paid full price, or even a fraction of what they were asking on

most resale sites....I would have been pissed. It’s very good to ok....not great.

 

The first 1/2 was interesting and mesmerizing in ways that plays rarely are.

Of course this show is more Disney-like spectacle than true theater....but I

knew that going in.

 

The movement, choreography, and staging....are pure magic. I never knew

a set made up of mostly just stairs and suitcases could be so incredible.

 

The much talked about tricks and stunts....were mostly “meh” in my book.

I kept seeing the unfortunate ghost of Julie Taymor, as dementors were

flying around the old cursed Spider-Man theater. It’s not a good memory.

 

The story line was interesting, but you really need to read the books first.

Even though I have read all the books (and think that most of them are

quite excellent), I still didn’t understand why the audience was gasping

1/2 the time at the mention of some minor character from HP lore. If

the HP world is completely new to you....you will not understand large

parts of the storyline.

 

Unfortunately, the 2nd play fell flat for me about 1 hour in. The stunts got

repetitive as did the plot. “Does daddy love me?”....gets old after the

4th or 5th reincarnation in the play. The answers are “yes, yes, yes, and

no one cares your father is evil incarnate.”

 

The acting is mostly very good. The actors playing the roles of Hermione

Granger and Scorpious Malfoy are spectacular. Harry Potter and his son...

are strangely the weakest and most boring members of the cast by far.

And since it’s a “Harry Potter play”....that’s obviously a big problem.

 

They could have cut tremendous amounts of time out of this play without

any great loss. On the way out they adminish you to “keep the secret”.

The “secret” is it’s a good play with some moderately interesting tricks.

 

If you like HP and you can get cheap seats (good luck) it’s worth it.