Spotlight on… HARRY POTTER AND THE CURSED CHILD
Photo credit: Getty Images for Harry Potter and the Cursed Child
Harry Potter and the Cursed Child celebrated its 10 year anniversary at London’s Palace Theatre in July 2026, with 2.5million tickets sold and a play that has now been rolled out to nine countries (five still on stage), and audiences of 14 million. It has won over 60 major awards including 9 Oliviers and 6 Tonys and now claims to be the “most awarded show” in British Theatre History. One fan claimed to have seen the London show 570 times!
It’s quite a story and anyone who saw the two-part version, which closed on Sunday (20 September), will tell you it was a very special show. A two-part play with a powerful emotional heart about friendship, love and parenting filled with more special effects than you can shake a wand at, honouring the original books and playing to our need to nostalgically remember our youth and our relationships with our own parents.
To mark the closing of this chapter and celebrate the opening of the one-part version on 9 October, the producers staged an exclusive insight into show at the Curzon Cinema last night (22 September), next door to the Palace Theatre on Shaftesbury Avenue for past cast members, fans and the media. On stage, professionally interviewed by the wonderful Angellica Bell, were producers Sonia Friedman and Colin Callender, along with Jack Thorne (Writer) and John Tiffany (Director), who together recalled the process of creating the show. To add a sparkle of magic to the evening, there was also a special guest- more of that later!
WARNING – the conversation and this article includes spoilers but if you have not seen the show and know the Harry Potter story, we include them because they are fascinating and will make you want to see the show!
The story started in 2014 when the producers met with JK Rowling to persuade her that there was an opportunity to create and stage a final chapter to the story, set 19 years after the famous books and films ended. They asked what the famous trio would be doing now and JK said Hermione would be Minister of Magic; Ron was running the joke shop, Weasley’s Wizard Wheezes; and Harry would oversea the Aurors Office. Having gotten her approval for the idea, they needed a director and writer. John Tiffany was approached who was attracted to the idea of creating a play with real stagecraft and to explore the emotions of the iconic characters. He bought in Jack Thorne to develop the script and put “magic on every page”. He told us that he liked to “write the impossible” and let the creative team solve the staging! Two key moments in the play were critical to get JK’s approval: when Scorpius tells Snape in the multiverse that Harry Potter named his son after him, and when Harry watches his parents James and Lily get killed and does not intervene. Her generous support to the idea was crucial to the plot development.
Photo credit: Nick Wayne
Tiffany explained that he saw the potential for old Victorian illusion to be restaged for a digital world using costume, lighting, sound and design to create spectacle. Yet the first convincing illusion was a simple as piece of organza, a light and a fan to create a dementor. He saw the potential for the cloaks and suitcases to be multi-purposed to add theatricality to the storytelling, although there was a red line - “No Quidditch”.
They agreed that the reason it has been such a success is the storytelling itself. They wanted the audience to recognise the characters but not know the outcome. Two scenes convinced them they had a real play - Albus and Scorpius talking about their friendship in the library and when Harry and Albus sit on the bed and tell each other, “I wish I was not your father” and “I wish I was not your son”. These moments sum up the central theme, and any parent will be moved by those moments even on a second or third viewing.
Before it launched in 2016, there was great secrecy and it was rehearsed under the code name “Pericles”, so that no one would be interested. Scripts were kept under lock and key. However, when the casting was announced with Noma Dumezweni as Hermione, they were shocked by the social media reaction which they described as “ugly”. The groundbreaking casting made them very protective of their star and very proud to see her go on to a successful career in film and TV.
The first night was full of the usual anxiety and the pressure of putting a much-loved franchise on stage but the reaction was more than they hoped for and described by Friedman as “beautiful, pure magic”. Within two years, it had opened on Broadway. Callender was proud of its success there, noting that of “27 current Broadway shows, only five were plays and only two of those were successful”.
The one-parter version was first muted in 2019, and the Covid closure accelerated its development. Thorne and Tiffany were “dragged kicking and screaming” to the idea but the fact that more people would see the show was a key consideration. Thorne was assured by the team that if the one-parter script did not work, they would not do it. Sonia Friedman was more frank in her assessment. “The cost of living has risen 30-40% since Covid” and these rising costs made it impossible to continue with the two-parter without charging much higher ticket prices. A key factor that they are proud of is that the play has developed a new generation of theatregoers with many attending the theatre for the first time, claimed to be as much as 70% in its first year and they see the play as an entry point for developing future audiences.
In the dark period between the Sunday closure on 20 September and the 9 October opening, the producers and Nica Burns, the Palace Theatre owner, are undertaking a rapid refurbishment of the staging, removing ten-year-old lighting and rusted infrastructure and setting the backstage up for the revised eight performances a week. Many props and effects will now be worked each week twice as hard as over the first ten years and so the refurbishment is essential. But it will be a tight schedule with the technical rehearsals for the new version due on stage soon.
Photo credit: Nick Wayne
Sonia assured fans that it is the same show, same story, same magic with just a tighter focus on Albus and Scorpius and many who have seen the three-hour show struggle to identify what has gone from the seven hours plus version! Listening to them describe the show which this reviewer has seen five times with his son James, who has seen the show in Japan, Germany, Holland, New York and Florida as well as the West End, we can attest that it remains one of the best theatrical experiences in the West End. The theme of the play is growing up and as Sonia said, “for a few hours you close the door on the world outside and escape to see two boys and their parents struggle to connect, overcoming obstacles and watch them change - you leave feeling better about the world.”
And so to the surprise guest. Tom Felton, Draco Malfoy in the film franchise, has been playing his older self on Broadway since November 2025, recording the highest grossing weekly box office at the Lyric Theatre, and continues to January 2027. This will be followed in February - May 2027 by Rupert Grint returning as grown-up parent Ron Weasley on Broadway. It was therefore a delight for the fans to see Grint join the creative team on stage and chat about the role and why he is returning now. Tom’s enjoyment and success was clearly a major factor and while Grint acknowledged that he had distanced himself from the franchise in recent years, he was now excited to rediscover the character who was such an important part of his life growing up. He loved the character and felt emotionally connected to him and now he was the right age for the role, was looking forward to the challenge especially as in the play Ron brings much of the humour to the story as well as a caring supportive role.
There was no time for questions and answers from the audience but there was one burning question left unanswered. Why can’t we see Felton and Grint on stage at the Palace Theatre? Some in the audience have already seen the Broadway show and will return to see Grint but what price would they pay to see them on a UK stage? We think the answer is clear from Friedman’s earlier answer, the UK show can’t afford them without a massive increase in prices but surely for a short run they could appear ,and we would pay to see it. Let’s hope that it is the next evolution of the show for 2027/2028 cast! That would be magic indeed.
Nick Wayne
To book for the one-part Harry Potter and the Cursed Child at the Palace Theatre, please click here.
