Review: HARRY POTTER AND THE CURSED CHILD at Paramount Theatre

Dear Readers, when discussing the play “Harry Potter and the Cursed Child”, currently playing at the Paramount Theatre, we need to consider things in two time frames, B.C. and A.C., Before Covid and After Covid.  B.C. the show was only in select places such as New York, London, and San Francisco, and was a two-show experience (either on two successive nights or in the same day for a matinee and evening).  A.C., where we obviously are now, the show is still in London, New York, and elsewhere, and is also touring the country (hence being here in Seattle), and is a condensed one show affair, clocking in at almost 3 hours.  I managed to see it B.C. in both New York and San Francisco.  So, how does B.C. compare to A.C., and how is the show on tour?  Well, it’s still a spectacle, only a little less spectacular, and it feels like less of an event and more of just a show.  But we’ll get into that.

The play from J.K. Rowling, Jack Thorne, and John Tiffany, picks up just where the books and the movies leave off.  It’s 19 years later and Harry (Nick Dillenburg) is married to Ginny Weasley (Abbi Hawk) and they’re about to send their youngest son, Albus Severus Potter (Adam Grant Morrison) off to Hogwarts for the first time.  Once on platform 9 ¾ they meet up with the family, Ron Weasley (Matt Harrington) and his wife, Hermione Granger (Rachel Leslie) who are sending their young daughter Rose (Nadia Brown) off for her first year as well.  On the train, Rose is insistent on sitting with the right people, but Albus chooses to sit with someone considered definitely the wrong people, Scorpius Malfoy (David Fine) son of Harry’s nemesis Draco Malfoy (Ryan Hallahan).  But Scorpius is the least Malfoy kid you could imagine.  He’s kind, and sweet and extremely awkward, and he and Albus become best friends.  Over the years their friendship grows but in their fourth year the boys get involved in a scheme to … well I can’t say.  But it involves a time turner.  I’ve already said too much, but hijinks ensue.

The story for me is a bit of a rehash of what came before.  But then it would be when a time turner is involved.  It definitely has its moments and some funny lines but still, a rehash.  It’s still in the world of Harry Potter and if you enjoy that world, you’ll enjoy this one.  However, then we get back to B.C. vs A.C., A.C. feels rushed, as you might expect when they went from around 5 hours of show down to 3.

There’s also the spectacle of the show.  There is some gorgeous stage wizardry going on here from objects and people flying about to fireballs shooting across the stage.  It’s incredible.  But here we need to compare a sit-down show like in New York or London, to a touring show like this.  At the sit down shows they completely redo the entire theater to create this magical world.  Even the lobbies are more magical.  But you cannot do that with a tour which led to two of my favorite jaw dropper moments I saw in New York to be all but completely missing here.  I really cannot explain what they are lest I reveal the secrets, and I’ve sworn not to do that, but for those that have seen it elsewhere you’ll know one is at the end of Act One (or night one when I saw it) and the other involved some magical writing.  I was so excited to see these again and, (womp womp) they didn’t happen. 

And I do want to call out the cape-ography as I call it.  While changing set pieces and setting up magic there’s a lot of movement pieces where ensemble members swoop around the stage waving their capes and cloaks every which way.  When it was over a two-show experience it was interesting.  But when cramming it all down into one, it feels superfluous and overdone.  And if they wanted to trim some more time down, this could be a great place to start. 

But you say, “Jay, I’m so glad you had a good time in New York.  But how is THIS production?”  Yes, I’ve rambled on, but I wanted to give context.  The cast is wonderful, as you would expect.  Morrison and Fine have excellent chemistry together as the two new buddies and you just want to protect them from the bullying they inevitably get.  Especially Fine as the adorably awkward Scorpius and his hysterical outbursts.  Dillenburg makes for a wonderful adult Harry, as a dad out of his depth with a teenager trying to find himself.  And I must call out Mackenzie Lesser-Roy (on the night I saw) as the mysterious Delphi Diggory. 

And if you’ve never seen the other incarnations, then the effects and magic will be amazing.  My theater companion found them fantastic.  But if you have seen the other, this could be a disappointment, and you may want to stick with the memories you have. 

So, my verdict and rating with my three-letter rating system are in conflict.  As a A.C. touring show when compared to a B.C. sit down show, I’d give this a MEH+.  But looking at it from the lens of a lone A.C. show, I give it a slightly better YAY-.  I still feel it’s rushed and the cape-ography could be toned down.

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