Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, a two-part stage play written by Jack Thorne and based on the beloved fantasy series by J.K. Rowling, is coming to America. After its successful initial run at the Palace Theatre in London that began over the summer, the play will open on Broadway at the Lyric Theatre in spring 2018. As Vanity Fair reports, producers Sonia Friedman and Colin Callender are working with Rowling and the Ambassador Theatre Group to bring the show to the Lyric, which is scheduled to undergo a multi-million dollar renovation that will turn it into the “bespoke home” for Cursed Child.
Demand for tickets will likely be sky-high, not least because the remodel will convert the 1,900-seat theater into a more intimate 1,500-seat house. “The remodeled Lyric will include a smaller auditorium redesigned to the specifications of the Harry Potter and the Cursed Child team, as well as an adapted proscenium and stage that can house designer Christine Jones’ glorious set without swamping or compromising director John Tiffany’s brilliant staging,” the producers said in a joint statement.
As anyone who has read the rehearsal script already knows, Cursed Child picks up where the epilogue of Deathly Hollows left off, with the grown-up Harry Potter dropping his son Albus off at his first year of wizarding school. The events of the two plays take place 19 years after the events of the Harry Potter book series, with the focus on Albus and his friend Scorpius Malfoy, the son of Harry’s former nemesis Draco.
While we wait for Cursed Child to arrive in its newly customized theater, read our thoughts on why a film version of the play may or may not work. Warner Bros. is hoping to launch a new Cursed Child film trilogy by 2020.
