Harry Potter Cursed Child - One Show

[Zeppie2022]

Posted: 1/2/24 at 10:05pm

Has anybody seen this show when it was two shows (2 1/2 hours each) and the current one show (3 1/2 hours)? I was wondering what was cut and how does it affect the play. I saw it on the West End (2018) when it was two shows which we saw on the same day. 

[dramamama611]

Posted: 1/3/24 at 12:18am

I'm sure there are threads on this since it happened when it opened back up after the shut down over 2 years ago. 

[TotallyEffed]

Posted: 1/3/24 at 3:02am

I regret to report that the shortened version is absolutely dreadful and had perhaps the worst audience I've ever encountered on Broadway. The play has never been very good but shortening it just highlights how weak the script is. If I hadn't seen the original (a few times), I'd have no idea what was going on. I only went because I got a comp.

 

Seeing the legendary Stephen Spinella as Snape was a delight as always.

[Dreamboy3]

Posted: 1/3/24 at 8:51am

The 2 parter was perhaps too long but the one partner is condensed too much and I agree makes it hard to follow though I loved the revised ending. I felt that Spinella wasn’t having any fun in the role. He can be spectacular so this was a disappointment. 

[Zeppie2022]

Posted: 1/3/24 at 9:08am

"I'm sure there are threads on this since it happened when it opened back up after the shut down over 2 years ago."

I tried the search but did not see anything about it, maybe I missed it. That being said, the BWW world is not going to end if there is one now.

[Zeppie2022]

Posted: 1/3/24 at 9:09am

"I regret to report that the shortened version is absolutely dreadful and had perhaps the worst audience I've ever encountered on Broadway. The play has never been very good but shortening it just highlights how weak the script is. If I hadn't seen the original (a few times), I'd have no idea what was going on. I only went because I got a comp. "

Ok. If possible, could you give me one example of something missing that made it worse. 

[MrsSallyAdams]

Posted: 1/3/24 at 9:34am

I read the 2 part and attended the 1 parter. They cut the dream sequences and flashbacks, focusing on the journey of Albus and Scorpius. The opening scenes were rough as the actors raced through montages and exposition. Things improved when the script settled down and let the characters have a conversation. The understudy for Harry was underwhelming but actors James Romney and Brady Dalton Richards did lovely work as the two leads.

The new script also increases the LGBT subtext. Spoilers:

 

Click Here To Toggle Spoiler Content

Changes in the second half include swapping discussions of their "friendship" to "love," removing Scorpius's crush on Rose, and having Albus tell his father that Scorpius is "the most important person in my life." Romney and Richards played the Albus/Scorpius relationship as a romance. Romney played that last speech as a coming out scene. It's still vague enough that replacement actors could choose to ignore it. 

 

Updated On: 1/3/24 at 09:34 AM

[RippedMan]

Posted: 1/3/24 at 10:12am

Were any of fhe effects cut? Its coming fo Chicago for 5 months so will likely see it. 

[jpbran]

Posted: 1/3/24 at 10:32am

Going from 2 to 1-part didn't seem to lose any of the effects, stunts, etc. But for a "touring" production, it's still anyone's guess what's gonna be lost. A fair bit of the "magic" could be difficult to replicate without the extensive modifications done to the sitdown productions' theaters. 

[RippedMan]

Posted: 1/3/24 at 10:51am

I do wonder. It’s here for 5 months so I’d imagine they’d keep some of the stage stuff but won’t modify the theater. 

[Jonathan Cohen]

Posted: 1/3/24 at 11:30am

MrsSallyAdams said: "The new script also increases the LGBT subtext."

I saw the two parter when it first debuted in previews at the Lyric (so it's been a while). The main thing frustrating me about that version is a LGBT relationship is clearly at the center of the story, and it's never directly addressed.

It's interesting to learn the subtext is clearer in the new version, but why isn't it just the text? Broadway isn't a Florida public school... you can say gay. 

[MrsSallyAdams]

Posted: 1/3/24 at 1:32pm

I'm guessing keeping it a "close male friendship" lets them appeal to conservative tourists. Actor Anthony Boyle has said in interviews that the original cast did not play it as a romance. While later actors explicitly state that they did. It reminds me of the discourse about the homo-romanticism in Disney's Luca. 

[Zeppie2022]

Posted: 1/3/24 at 5:55pm

Thanks to the posters who have provided some detail regarding the shortened show versus the two shows.

[kdogg36]

Posted: 1/3/24 at 6:24pm

Jonathan Cohen said: "It's interesting to learn the subtext is clearer in the new version, but why isn't it just the text? Broadway isn't a Florida public school... you can say gay."

I'm going to channel Jay here a bit, but isn't this potentially attributable to J.K. Rowling's (at best) questionable record on LGBT issues? We all know about her disgusting opinions about transwomen. In addition, despite trying to retcon Dumbledore's sexuality with a tweet, she created zero LGBT characters in about a million words of prose in the original book series (while Philip Pullman had at least one same-gender pairing in his contemporaneous book series). I can see her hand in the desire to keep Albus and Scorpius' romance in the realm of subtext.

Updated On: 1/3/24 at 06:24 PM

[Zeppie2022]

Posted: 1/3/24 at 11:29pm

"I'm going to channel Jay here a bit, but isn't this potentially attributable to J.K. Rowling's (at best) questionable record on LGBT issues?"

The difference is "Jay" made his comments about her in a thread regarding the difficulty of staging this show on tour which has nothing to do with her personal views.  You are making a point that is fine because it is relevant to the actual content of the show.

[Tag]

Posted: 1/4/24 at 7:02am

JK has little to no involvement with the stage show (except for collecting her cheques).
Her contributions to the script were only to the Dumbledore scenes.

[Dreamboy3]

Posted: 1/4/24 at 9:10am

As another poster noted, there are text changes. It’s not subtext at all. It was the one improvement from the original.

[Fosse76]

Posted: 1/4/24 at 10:49am

I think it works better as just the one part. It was heavily bloated as a two-part play. The beginning is rushed a bit, but I'd seen the original version so many times that I couldn't honestly say if it's noticeable to anyone who wasn't familiar with it before the cuts. 

[chrishuyen]

Posted: 1/4/24 at 2:05pm

Some other specific cuts: the original choreographed scene when they get to the retirement home where Amos lives with all the wacky effects showing the "magicalness" of that place is cut and all of the kids (Hugo and Lily and young Harry in the dream) are cut.

This is the thread from when it opened back up again as one part, so might have more information: https://forum.broadwayworld.com/readmessage.php?thread=1126813

[ColorTheHours048]

Posted: 1/4/24 at 2:55pm

The script has never been very good and mostly a vehicle for some heavy fan service and pretty spectacular effects work, but at least having it in two parts gave it room to breathe. I saw the one part version a few weeks ago with a friend who wanted to see it, and we were both bored out of our minds and cringing at the script. The magic just doesn’t wow when it’s BOOM BOOM BOOM one right after the other.

Also, act two has virtually no exciting visual elements outside of the black light reveal, which has less impact when it doesn’t come before an intermission after you spent the entire first part in the theater. And the less said about that dud of a final battle (really, the Delphi character in general), the better.