HARRY POTTER AND THE CURSED CHILD to Apparate Into Broadway's Transfigured Lyric Theatre Next Spring

Sonia Friedman, Colin Callender and Harry Potter Theatrical Productions, producers of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, have today confirmed that the production will have its Broadway premiere in the Spring of 2018 at the newly renovated Lyric Theatre in New York.

As previously announced, the Lyric Theatre is currently undergoing a complete redesign and transformation in preparation for the North American premiere of the production.

The official opening will be on Sunday, April 22, 2018. Preview performances, casting and all further details will be announced in the coming months.

Tickets will go on sale in the Fall of this year via the official website only, and details of how and when tickets can be purchased will be released soon. Visit www.HarryPotterThePlay.com to sign up for the mailing list to stay up to date with the latest news and updates.

Last month, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child became the most awarded production in the history of Britain's 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.

Based on an original new story by J.K. Rowling, Jack Thorne and John Tiffany, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child is a new play by Jack Thorne, directed by JohnTiffany. 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.

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. The critically acclaimed production received its world premiere in July 2016 at the Palace Theatre in London where it continues to play to sold out houses.

Harry Potter and the Cursed Child features movement by Steven Hoggett, set by Christine Jones, costumes by Katrina Lindsay, music & arrangements by Imogen Heap, lighting by Neil Austin, sound by Gareth Fry, illusions & magic by Jamie Harrison, music supervision & arrangements by Martin Lowe.

It was always difficult being Harry Potter and it isn't much easier now that he is an overworked employee of the Ministry of Magic, a husband and father of three school-age children.

While Harry grapples with a past that refuses to stay where it belongs, his youngest son Albus must struggle with the weight of a family legacy he never wanted. As past and present fuse ominously, both father and son learn the uncomfortable truth: sometimes, darkness comes from unexpected places.

Harry Potter and the Cursed Child is produced by Sonia Friedman Productions, Colin Callender and Harry Potter Theatrical Productions.

ABOUT THE ARTISTS:

J.K. Rowling is the author of the seven Harry Potter novels, which have sold over 450 million copies and have been translated into 79 languages, and three companion books originally published for charity. She has also written The Casual Vacancy, a novel for adults, and, under the pseudonym Robert Galbraith, is the author of the Cormoran Strike crime series. In 2016, J.K. Rowling made her screenwriting debut and was a producer on the film Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, a further extension of the Wizarding World and the start of a new five-film series.

Jack Thorne writes for theatre, film, television and radio. His theatre credits include Hope and Let The Right One In, both directed by John Tiffany, Woyzeck at the Old Vic, Junkyard, a Headlong, Rose Theatre Kingston, Bristol Old Vic and Theatr Clwyd co-production, The Solid Life of Sugarwater for the Graeae Theatre Company and the National Theatre, Bunny for the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, Stacy for the Trafalgar Studios, 2nd May 1997 and When You Cure Me for the Bush. His adaptations include The Physicists for the Donmar Warehouse and Stuart: A Life Backwards for Hightide. On film his credits include the upcoming Wonder, War Book, A Long Way Down and The Scouting Book for Boys. For television his credits include "National Treasure," "The Last Panthers," "Don't Take My Baby," "This Is England," "The Fades," "Glue" and "Cast-Offs." He won 2016 BAFTAs for Best Mini-Series ("This Is England '90") and Best Single Drama ("Don't Take My Baby"), and in 2012 won Best Series ("The Fades") and Best Serial ("This Is England '88").

John Tiffany directed Once for which he was the recipient of multiple awards both in the West End and on Broadway. As Associate Director of the Royal Court, his work includes The Twits, Hope and The Pass. He was the director of Let The Right One In for the National Theatre of Scotland, which transferred to the Royal Court, West End and St. Ann's Warehouse. His other work for the National Theatre of Scotland includes Macbeth (also Broadway), Enquirer, The Missing, Peter Pan, The House of Bernarda Alba, Transform Caithness: Hunter, Be Near Me, Nobody Will Ever Forgive Us, The Bacchae, Black Watch, for which he won the Olivier and Critics' Circle Best Director Awards,Elizabeth Gordon Quinn and Home: Glasgow. Other recent credits include The Glass Menagerie at A.R.T, on Broadway, EIF and in the West End, and The Ambassador at BAM. Tiffany was Associate Director of the National Theatre of Scotland from 2005 to 2012, and was a Radcliffe Fellow at Harvard University in the 2010-2011 academic year.

Sonia Friedman Productions (SFP) is a West End and Broadway production company responsible for some of the most successful theatre productions in London and New York.

Since 1990, SFP has developed, initiated and produced over 160 new productions and together they have won a staggering 44 Olivier Awards including a record-breaking 14 at the 2014 Awards. The company has also won 18 Tonys and two BAFTAs.

This year, Sonia Friedman OBE was awarded "Producer of the Year" at the Stage Awards for the third successive year and also took the number one spot in "The Stage 100," becoming the first number one in the history of the compilation not to own or operate West End theatres and the first solo woman for almost 20 years.

SFP's many and varied West End and Broadway productions include: the UK premiere of The Book of Mormon, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, the UK premiere ofDreamgirls, The Ferryman, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, Travesties, Our Ladies of Perpetual Succour, The Glass Menagerie, Nice Fish, A Christmas Carol, Funny Girl West End and UK tour, Farinelli and The King, Hamlet, 1984, Sunny Afternoon West End and UK tour, Bend It Like Beckham, The Nether, The River, Electra, King Charles III, Shakespeare in Love, Ghosts, Mojo, Chimerica, Merrily We Roll Along, Old Times, Twelfth Night and Richard III, A Chorus of Disapproval, The Sunshine Boys, Hay Fever, Absent Friends, Top Girls, Betrayal, Much Ado About Nothing, Clybourne Park, The Children's Hour, A Flea in Her Ear, La Bête, All My Sons, Private Lives, Jerusalem, A Little Night Music, Legally Blonde, Othello, Arcadia, The Mountaintop, The Norman Conquests, A View From the Bridge, Dancing at Lughnasa, Maria Friedman: Re-Arranged, La Cage aux Folles, No Man's Land, The Seagull, Under the Blue Sky, That Face, Dealer's Choice, Hergés Adventures of Tintin, In Celebration, Boeing-Boeing, The Dumb Waiter, Rock 'n' Roll, Love Song, Faith Healer, Bent, Eh Joe, Donkeys' Years, Otherwise Engaged, Celebration, Shoot the Crow, As You Like It, The Home Place, Whose Life Is It Anyway?, By the Bog of Cats, The Woman in White, Guantanamo: 'Honor Bound to Defend Freedom', Endgame, Jumpers, See You Next Tuesday, Hitchcock Blonde,Absolutely! {Perhaps}, Sexual Perversity in Chicago, Ragtime, Macbeth, What the Night Is For, Afterplay, Up for Grabs, A Day in the Death of Joe Egg, Noises Off, On an Average Day, A Servant to Two Masters, Port Authority, Spoonface Steinberg and Speed-the-Plow.

Forthcoming productions include: The Ferryman at the Gielgud Theatre, 1984 at the Hudson Theatre in New York, Hamlet at the Harold Pinter Theatre and King Lear, starring Anthony Hopkins for the BBC (also with Colin Callender).

For a full list of SFP's theatre credits, visit soniafriedman.com.

Colin Callender is an award-winning theatre, television and film producer who founded the New York and London production company Playground in 2012. Callender began his career as stage manager at London's Royal Court Theatre working with David Hare and Sam Sheppard. He won his first Emmy for Channel 4's adaptation of the RSC's Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby.

Under the Playground banner, Callender's recent stage productions include the 2013 Tony-nominated Broadway production of Nora Ephron's Lucky Guy, directed by George C. Wolfe and starring Tom Hanks in his New York stage debut, Harvey Fierstein's Tony-nominated Casa Valentina directed by Joe Mantello, the Tony award-winning revival of the musical Hedwig and the Angry Inch, Jez Butterworth's The River directed by Ian Rickson starring Hugh Jackman, Kenneth Branagh and Rob Ashford's critically acclaimed production of Macbeth at The Park Avenue Armory in New York and John Tiffany's recent award-winning The Glass Menagerie on the West End. Callender is currently represented on Broadway with Dear Evan Hansen and in the West End, in partnership with Sonia Friedman Productions, with Harry Potter and the Cursed Child and Casey Nicholaw's Dreamgirls.

Recent television productions include the Emmy-nominated and BAFTA, Golden Globe and Peabody Award-winning six-part miniseries "Wolf Hall" starring Mark Rylance, Damian Lewis and Claire Foy for the BBC and Masterpiece, Richard Eyre's Royal Television Society winning, Golden Globe and BAFTA-nominated television adaptation of Ronald Harwood's "The Dresser" starring Ian McKellen and Anthony Hopkins for the BBC and "The White Princess" a limited series for Starz drawn from the bestselling book by Philippa Gregory. Currently in production Academy Award winner Ken Lonergan's four hour adaptation of E.M. Forster's Howards End directed by BAFTA winner Hettie Macdonald starring Hayley Atwell, Matthew Macfadyen and Tracey Ullman for the BBC and Starz, and upcoming Richard Eyre's adaptation of "King Lear," starring Anthony Hopkins for the BBC (also with Sonia Friedman).

Prior to Playground, Callender was the long-running president of HBO Films, responsible for an array of award-winning films and mini-series including Mike Nichol's "Angels in America," starring Meryl Streep and Al Pacino, Tom Hooper's "John Adams" and Gus Van Sant's Cannes Film Festival Palme d'Or winner Elephant. Under Callender's leadership, HBO Films garnered an unprecedented 104 Emmy Awards, 29 Golden Globes, 9 Peabody Awards, 12 Humanitas Awards, three Oscars, and top awards at the Sundance Film Festival four years in a row.

Callender is a Trustee of the New York Public Theater and the NYU Tisch School of the Arts. He received a knighthood in the Queen's 2016 New Year's Honours list for his services to British film, theatre and television in the US.

Harry Potter Theatrical Productions was founded by J.K. Rowling and Neil Blair in 2013 to develop and produce the stage play Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, the original new story by J.K. Rowling, Jack Thorne and John Tiffany. The team from Harry Potter Theatrical Productions Ltd have worked closely with Sonia Friedman Productions and Colin Callender to produce the play, and also in controlling the international rights for the production.

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