Interview: Theatre Life with Emmet Smith

Today’s subject Emmet Smith is currently living his theatre life on tour playing Albus Severus Potter, the son of wizarding legend Harry Potter, in Harry Potter and the Cursed Child. The tour continues its two month engagement at The National Theatre through September 7th.

Emmet’s NY stage credits include Philadelphia, Here I Come! at Irish Rep, Midsummer at TFANA, and Soul Doctor at New York Theatre Workshop. Regional credits include A Distinct Society at Pioneer Theatre, and The Sound of Music at Marriott Theatre.

You might have also seen him in your living rooms on New Amsterdam, Law & Order, and Blue Bloods.

Harry Potter and the Cursed Child is easily on the biggest Broadway shows touring today. Emmet and the entire cast have a daunting task as performers due to the show’s size and complexities. When you see them in action, you will totally understand what I mean.

Emmet Smith is one of those performers who definitely has a passion for his craft which is fully on display in his performance. Harry Potter and the Cursed Child is the perfect family outing for fans of Harry Potter and fans of good theatre alike.

Emmet Smith is truly living his theatre life to his wizarding fullest. Come along on his journey before the show leaves town. You’ll be glad you did.

When did you have an idea that you wanted to perform professionally?

I was around theatre a lot growing up, having a Dad who is a Broadway Music Director. I loved singing, dancing, and acting, but it honestly wasn’t really my goal as a kid to be a professional actor. My friend Joey Farber’s Dad also happened to be a Music Director and was working on a new musical called Soul Doctor that had cast Joey as the young protagonist in its out of town tryout in Florida. It sounded very fun. Joey and I spent a lot of time together between baseball and drumming, so when the show came to New York, they naturally asked if I would audition to play his brother. That summer and those people at New York Theatre Workshop changed my life. Fast forward through middle school, mostly focused on other things (again, baseball and drumming, still with Joey, who is now a musician in LA, where we just stopped on tour and yes, played some baseball and drums together), and by mid-high school I was starting to take theatre more seriously. As was my actual brother, Ian, the biggest influence on me of anyone, three years older, who was auditioning for conservatory programs. He got in and went to Ithaca College for Musical Theatre, and after seeing some of that world through him, I knew it was a path forward that I wanted. So it’s mostly a story of following other people around.

Where did you receive your training?

I went to Northwestern University where I studied Theatre, Music and a smattering of other things. Most influential in my time there was a program called Waa-Mu, a massive student-written musical that gave me my love for Music Theatre writing.

What was your first professional performance job?

Soul Doctor. But I was a kid. What I count is The Sound of Music at The Marriott Theatre in Chicago, one of the best places to work on earth. I played an awkward, angsty Rolf (as well as his alter-ego, Rolfie, who wore glasses to do some furniture moves between scenes). I made some lifelong friends and got to jump over my bike every night in “Sixteen Going on Seventeen”.

How do you best describe your character in Harry Potter and the Cursed Child?

What a loser! (His words, not mine!) Kidding, I love Albus Severus Potter — but with a name like that, he’s bound to disappoint on some expectations. He’s not the protagonist you’d expect from the next generation of this franchise — he’s not whizzing his way through Hogwarts and magicking his way out of trouble left and right — but he has a sneaky way of subverting expectations and saving the Wizarding World his own way. His prideful Slytherin ambition to prove Dad wrong causes quite a bit of mayhem, but he has a good heart, good intentions toward justice, and most importantly, a Best Friend in Scorpius, who helps him out of Harry’s shadow and onto his own path.

Can you please tell us a little something about the show in general?

The website will do a better job than me, but the short of it is it’s 19 years after Harry, Ron, Hermione, Ginny, Draco, and co. have left Hogwarts and they’re now sending their kids off to school. On the train there, Albus Potter meets Scorpius Malfoy, and out of their forbidden friendship an epic adventure ensues. It really is a nonstop feast of magic and storytelling. To me the play is about people’s right to make their own choices. It’s about the dangers of isolation and what that can drive young people to do — but the powers of friendship and love and what we can overcome when we come together despite our own biases and griefs; when we choose courage and love instead of fear and division.

How long was it from first audition to you booking the show?

I first self-taped for the Broadway production in Spring of 2022, in my bedroom using a fan to simulate wind on top of the Hogwarts Express, playing train sounds in the background, wearing pupil attire, the full nine yards. Very extra. But it got me in the room and that summer I went through many rounds of reads, movement calls, and flight calls, before not booking it. I learned a lot that summer though, and knew it was a show I wanted to keep pursuing, so when my agents saw a posting for the tour the following year, we got back in there. A few more movement calls and reads later, I met John Tiffany, Steven Hoggett, and the creative team, and got the yes in the winter of 2024.

Harry Potter and the Cursed Child is probably one of the heavier shows in terms of tech that is touring right now. Can you please talk about how the tech process was in putting this kind of a show together for touring?

Apparently, years ago, the creative team said “we’ll never tour it, it’s too hard”, so it’s frankly a miracle that we’re here. But here we are, with thirteen massive trucks of sets and costumes that travel around the country — in huge part because so many of that original team returned to work on the show for the first time in years and found ways to tour 95% of the spectacle and illusions as they are on Broadway and the West End, while finding new and sometimes more inventive ways to achieve the other 5%. I can’t say exactly what those things are (partly because I still don’t know how some of the illusions work), but the magic is unlike anything you’ve ever seen onstage. John Tiffany told us the original concept for the magic was something that kids could re-create at home — making train cars out of suitcases, doing the Polyjuice illusion using mom’s oversized coat… And while we’ve definitely evolved from that, so much of the magic truly is old school theatrical magic that’s been around for 200 years. I’m a sucker for special effects and pyrotechnics and whatnot, but I think theatre is so special because it requires the imagination of the audience and the actors…to make a suitcase float or become a train or a gravestone; to turn a puppet into a Patronus; to swim in a lake thirty feet above the stage. But that doesn’t just happen. That’s years of creative development plus nightly dedication from hundreds of people that work on the show — people who travel in our company like Cheyenne, my amazing dresser, and people who are local to each city like Wanda, one of the nine local dressers that we pick up in each city (Wanda has been working at The National Theatre since the first national tour of Cats in 1987!) — and every hand is necessary to make the magic look easy for us.

What do you say to someone who isn’t familiar with the Harry Potter books and might have some reservations about seeing Harry Potter and the Cursed Child for that reason?

It sounds like a marketing ploy, but our play really is for everyone, whether you’re coming to the theater in your house robes or without ever having picked up the books. We get to introduce Harry Potter to theatre fans, and theatre to Harry Potter fans, and the feedback from both angles has been amazing. One of my favorite things to hear is “this is my first play I’ve ever seen” from a young Harry Potter fan, who might not have ever come to a show without these stories, but who is now a new theatre convert — it’s really cool to be the first point of contact there. But for muggles who’ve never experienced the Wizarding World, fear not — the play catches you up on what you need to know and takes you through a story new to everyone.

Why do you think audiences gravitate so much to the characters that J.K. Rowling has created for the Harry Potter series?

Sirius Black says it best when he talks about how we all have light and dark inside us. Every character wrestles with their own identity in some way. I think we connect to their journeys of self-discovery as they grow up, in the midst of a community that struggles to understand but eventually embraces these characters’ authentic selves.

What is the best thing for you about touring Harry Potter and the Cursed Child across the country?

The people! Easy. This company is a miracle, and every day is filled with adventure and some new strange culty tradition. We have a secret society founded by one of our swings Kristin Yancy called the Society of Pigeon Racers (if you know, you know). I guess not so secret anymore. But everyone really is game, and I think it shows onstage, because there’s so much trust and love there. I don’t have enough good things to say. They have restored my faith in humanity. Is that strong enough? Doesn’t feel strong enough. The point is, this is the most fun I’ve had doing theatre since I was a kid, and I can’t believe my job is this play with these people every night. Please feel free to follow me at @emmetsmithnyc.

Special thanks to National Theatre's Marketing Manager Abby Berman for her assistance in coordinating this interview.