Review Roundup: HARRY POTTER AND THE CURSED CHILD

HARRY POTTER AND THE CURSED CHILD has its official opening this week, with a special gala performance on Saturday 30 July. The eighth story in the Harry Potter series, and the first official Harry Potter story to be presented on stage, 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.

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.

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 John Tiffany with movement bySteven Hoggett, set by Christine Jones, costumes by Katrina Lindsay, music & arrangements byImogen Heap, lighting by Neil Austin, sound by Gareth Fry, special effects by Jeremy Chernick, illusions & magic by Jamie Harrison, music supervision & arrangements by Martin Lowe and casting by Julia Horan.

Let's see what the critics had to say...

James Hibberd, Entertainment Weekly: Harry Potter and the Cursed Child has pulled off a transfiguration challenge worthy of Professor McGonagall: Converting the visually arresting world of Harry Potter into stage play. Currently in previews and officially opening July 30 in London's West End, Cursed Child goes far beyond dutiful brand extension with an entirely original and hugely ambitious sequel to the Potter books, presented in two parts and nearly five hours long. Author J.K. Rowling, working with London theatre veterans Jack Thorne and John Tiffany, have delivered a production that's as spectacular as it is ambitious, stuffed with special effects and twists that had a preview audience gasping, Cursed Child is a story that doesn't play it safe with the Potter canon and will change how fans see certain favorite characters forever.

Matt Trueman, Variety: It is, quite simply, spellbinding: The Show That Lived Up to Expectations - and Then Some. Three years after J. K. Rowling announced her boy wizard would hit the stage, "Harry Potter and the Cursed Child" - no mere rehash, but a whole new chapter - proves a proper theatrical blockbuster. Not just at the box office, but onstage as well: a captivating story given a spectacular staging and - Rowling's specialty - a big, big heart. Twenty years ago, Harry Potter turned a generation onto reading. "The Cursed Child" could do the same for theater.

Kate Maltby, Wall Street Journal: "Harry Potter and the Cursed Child" isn't quite the real thing either: a nostalgic reverie for the Potter generation, devoid of Ms. Rowling's sharpest metaphysical logic. Fans might prefer to blame playwright Jack Thorne, who wrote much of the dialogue, but his new plot was overseen by Ms. Rowling herself, with director John Tiffany. Yet thanks to the presence of some of Britain's most talented theater makers, including Mr. Tiffany, and a bevy of heartfelt performances, the latest addition to the Potter canon makes a surprising case for the restorative power of theater. Perhaps Dumbledore was wrong to dismiss illusions. The script, to be published separately on July 31, won't do the show justice.

Ben Brantley, New York Times: This point of view saturates "The Cursed Child," which seems to occur in a land of hypnotically luminous darkness that should mesmerize adults as effectively as children. By even existing, this play is destined to fight against the gravitational force of the memories of young readers. I mean the ones whose coming of age paralleled that of Harry Potter (who advanced from 11 to 17) in the books and the eight blockbuster films they inspired and who may want the Boy Who Lived to stay frozen forever as he was when they last encountered him.

Theo Bosanquet, TIME: While many Potter fans might have preferred a new movie or a book, this is a story that feels made for the stage. Yes, it's packed with effects as characters cast spells, fly and even transform, achieved through old school stagecraft rather than digital trickery. But Thorne and Tiffany also conjure up moments of intimate drama; it's telling that the biggest gasp in Part One came not from a twist of the plot or a moment of magic but during a blazing argument between Harry and Albus where the father firmly crosses a line. In these scenes between father and son, Jamie Parker as Harry captures a sort of tortured celebrity anxiety, suggesting his concerns about Albus's shortcomings are in part driven by ego, and in part an orphan's struggle to connect with his child.

Chris Jones, Chicago Tribune: The fear in Potterville was needless. Heretical as this may sound, I walked out of the theater quietly lamenting that the movies ever were made. Tiffany, Hoggett, and, not least, the set designer Christine Jones and magic persons Jeremy Chernick and Jamie Harrison collectively make the case that it is the theater that more naturally expresses the Rowling gestalt beyond the page. And although there is resonant music from Imogen Heap, thank god they did not make this a musical.

Elysa Gardner, Rolling Stone: Paul Thornley's Ron Weasley is just as convincing as a lovable goofball, while Noma Dumezweni. gives Hermione, Ron's wife, a gravitas befitting her inevitable high stature, but also a delightful wit. Perfection is impossible in this messy world, we're assured by a familiar, beloved authority figure who pops up in Cursed Child; love is the best we can manage. For all the twists taken in Parts One and Two - several of which drew gasps at a recent pair of previews - this much is never in doubt.

Michael Billington, The Guardian: Anthony Boyle as a wonderfully quirky Scorpius and Sam Clemmett as the Oedipal Albus carry the bulk of the story and even hint at something stronger than friendship. Jamie Parker as the adult Harry is a suitably distraught figure haunted by the death-count he has caused and Noma Dumezweni, as an authoritative Hermione who is now Minister of Magic, and Paul Thornley, as a bluntly commonsensical Ron, suggest a couple bonded by love. I'd liked to have learned more of their daughter, Rose, but watch out for Esther Smith as the delphic figure of Delphi Diggory.

Marianka Swain, Broadwayworld: Steven Hoggett's otherworldly movement maintains the atmosphere during balletic spell-casting and transitions characterised by swirling cloaks, while Imogen Heap's music is evocative but less syrupy than the movie scoring. In simple but effective stagecraft, suitcases - emblematic of this great journey - form gravestones and speeding trains: the extraordinary conjured from the ordinary. How many future theatregoers, and theatre-makers, will this show inspire? Thousands of first-timers are already pouring into the Palace. Rowling and her team have given the industry an incomparable gift, just as the author did for literature.

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