It is finally official! Harry Potter and the Cursed Child will be coming to Broadway in Spring 2018. The official opening will be April 22nd at the redesigned Lyric Theater. Tickets will go on sale this Autumn and can be purchased only through the official Cursed Child website. You can sign up for updates on the play’s official website.
Harry Potter and the Cursed Child opens on Broadway in the spring of 2018 at the newly renovated Lyric Theatre in New York. The official opening will be on Sunday, April 22, 2018. Ticketing information, performance schedule, casting and further details will be announced in the coming months.
As previously announced, the Lyric Theatre is currently undergoing a complete redesign and transformation in preparation for the North American premiere of the production.
Based on an original new story by J.K. Rowling, Jack Thorne and John Tiffany,Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, a new play by Jack Thorne, received its world premiere in June 2016 at the Palace Theatre in London, where it plays to sold-out houses. The critically acclaimed play recently became the most awarded production in the history of the Olivier Awards, winning a record-breaking nine awards including Best New Play and Best Director. The production has won 22 major theatre awards in the UK since opening last July in London, including the Evening Standard Best Play Award.
Written by Olivier and BAFTA Award winner Jack Thorne and directed by Olivier and Tony Award® winner John Tiffany, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child is the eighth story in the Harry Potter series and the first official Harry Potter story to be presented on stage, bringing together some of the most exciting talent working in the theatre today.
As we posted when the Harry Potter and the Cursed Child script book was first announced, there will be a “Definitive Edition” released later this year. This second edition, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, Parts One and Two: The Official Playscript of the Original West End Production, will be published July 25, 2017. According to Amazon:
This revised paperback edition updates the “special rehearsal edition” with the conclusive and final dialogue from the play, which has subtly changed since its rehearsals, as well as a conversation piece between director John Tiffany and writer Jack Thorne, who share stories and insights about reading playscripts. This edition also includes useful background information including the Potter family tree and a timeline of events from the wizarding world prior to the beginning of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child.
Additionally, the Cursed Child site announced that another wave of tickets will be released on April 25th. Three months of advance tickets will be released for sale on Tuesday 25 April 2017, at 11am BST, for performances from 2 May 2018 – 22 July 2018. Tickets are priced from £15 per part and for every performance there will be over 300 tickets at £20 or less per part.
Continuing on with their record-breaking, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child and it’s actors have added some more awards to their growing collection. The play was nominated for 11 Olivier Awards and took home 9 of them! The play was honored with the following awards:
Pottermore revealed in a blog post this morning that fans who go see Harry Potter and the Cursed Child in London after May 21st 2017 will get to see it with an entirely new main cast. They also announced that the next wave of Cursed Child tickets will be available on April 25th 2017. Visit the play’s official website for more details.
Jamie Glover, Rakie Ayola and Thomas Aldridge join the award-winning production as the central trio of Harry, Hermione and Ron respectively. Original cast member James Howard* will play Draco Malfoy, and Emma Lowndes takes on the role of Ginny Weasley.
As for the younger characters, original cast member Helen Aluko will play Ron and Hermione’s daughter Rose Granger-Weasley, while newcomers Theo Ancient and Samuel Blenkin make their professional stage debuts as Albus Potter and Scorpius Malfoy.
Also joining the production are new cast members David Annen, Ruthxjiah Bellenea, Danny Dalton, Leah Haile, Rupert Henderson, Elizabeth Hill, April Hughes, James McGregor, Sarah Miele, Jordan Paris, James Phoon, Henry Rundle, Ged Simmons, Mark Theodore, Gideon Turner and Ed White.
Original cast members Nicola Alexis, Rosemary Annabella, Phoebe Austen, Annabel Baldwin, Jabez Cheeseman, Morag Cross, Esme Grace, Lowri James, Martin Johnston, Alfred Jones, Barry McCarthy, Sandy McDade, Tom Mackley, Harrison Noble, Ben Roberts, Nuno Silva, Hope Sizer and Joshua Wyatt will complete the 42-strong company playing a variety of characters, including seven children who will alternate two roles.
* As a side note, we saw the play when James Howard was an understudy for Draco and he did an amazing job! You’ll love him.
Director John Tiffany discussed the revamp by saying:
‘Think of Doctor Who: new regenerations happen all the time,’ he said. ‘People like seeing new actors and their different approaches to characters. We like to see different actors and actresses playing Hamlet, for example — or Lady Macbeth or James Bond.’
‘Productions that expect to run a long time will always have to plan for cast changes. A company is usually contracted for a year on long running productions, though they also may stay on longer. Some of the company from the first cast will be staying on but the majority of the cast in year two will be new and they will start performing in a couple of months.’
A video of the new cast is now in rehearsals, a video showing some of that may be watched below:
Harry Potter actor Timothy Spall and Harry Potter and the Cursed Child actor Anthony Boyle will be starring in an episode of Channel 4s new series Electric Dreams. It is a 10-part sci-fi anthology series, each featuring standalone episodes based on short stories by Philip K Dick. Timothy and Anthony will be playing father and son in an episode titled The Commuter. The episode has another Potter connection with Harry Potter And The Cursed Child writer Jack Thorne writing the episode.
Timothy Spall plays Ed Jacobson, an unassuming employee at a train station who is alarmed to discover that a number of daily commuters are taking the train to a town that shouldn’t exist. When he investigates for himself, he comes face to face with an alternate reality that forces him to confront his own struggles around his relationship with his wife Mary (Rebecca Manley) and his very troubled son Sam (Anthony Boyle).
The show will air on Channel 4 in the UK later this year and on Amazon in the US.
Harry Potter and the Cursed Child has been nominated for ELEVEN Olivier Awards, a record for a stage play. The Olivier Awards re the most prestigious theatre awards in the UK and are named after Laurence Olivier, famed actor and founder of The National Theatre Company. The winners will be announced at the Royal Albert Hall on Sunday 9th April. Cursed Child was nominated in the following categories: