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<\/a>The stunning Pantages ceiling. Photo by Karen Salkin.<\/p><\/div>\n
My friend Marc and I attended the show on what my mother would refer to as \u201ca plain little Wednesday night,\u201d and\u2026the place was absolutely packed! I didn\u2019t notice an empty seat anywhere! And now it\u2019s easier than ever before to see it because there are many deals on tickets, including for Mother\u2019s Day, so this is the time to take advantage of them. All the deets are on their site, the link to which is at the end of this review.<\/p>\n
Even though the Pantages series is usually made up of Broadway musicals<\/em>, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child<\/em> is a Broadway play<\/em>. A Tony Award-winning one! There is<\/em> a ton of movement on stage, especially twirling of the Hogwarts capes, along with inter-scene auxiliary music, but there are no songs nor dancing, per se. However, with so much else going on during its three full hours, it does not feel like the musical<\/em> aspect is missing. At all.<\/p>\n Now, as for the Harry Potter<\/em> franchise, I\u2019m far from an expert. But I know that this story is not one of the series of books, and was created for the sole purpose of turning into this play, although the author of them, J. K. Rowling, has referred to it as “the eighth Harry Potter<\/em> story.\u201d<\/p>\n Photo by Matthew Murphy, as is the one at the top of this review.<\/p><\/div>\n Since I\u2019m always honest, I have to admit that I am not a Harry Potter<\/em> fan; I read the first book in the series, Harry Potter and the<\/em> Philosopher’s Stone<\/em>, when it was the \u201cin thing\u201d for grown-ups to do back in the day. And then I saw the movie version of it when it came out four years later. And that was enough of the boy wizard and his world for me. But I had heard good things about this<\/em> show, and I always want to see every<\/em> Broadway offering, so I figured I should give it a shot. And I\u2019m glad I did; I didn\u2019t want to be the only one left-out!<\/p>\n If you are<\/em> a Harry Potter fan, this show\u00a0is a must<\/em>. And if you\u2019re not<\/em> an aficionado, I suggest you still<\/em> see it to observe all of the very special visuals. Harry Potter and the Cursed Child<\/em> presents perhaps more of them than any other play I’ve ever seen. I won\u2019t tell you about them in specific so that you can experience the surprises for yourselves, but let me just say that it might actually make you believe in magic, after all.<\/p>\n Someone sitting near me in the audience told me that he was tired when he got there, and, knowing the length of the show, he figured he would close his eyes for a bit and just listen. But when he heard us all oohing and ahhing from what we were witnessing, he realized he had to keep his eyes peeled to the stage, so he wouldn\u2019t miss anything.<\/p>\n A fun effect. Photo by Matthew Murphy.<\/p><\/div>\n Because my own Harry Potter<\/em> education began and ended with that first story, (there are now seven books and even more movies, and, of course, this stage play,) I also have to admit that I was a bit lost* in this story where time travel is paramount, but I just went with it. I felt a bit like Mr. X does when he watches one of my CW series with me\u2014there are a lot of characters and it\u2019s a tad hard to keep all their stories straight if you\u2019re not a regular viewer. So, if you join me in my Potter world nescience, perhaps you should study-up a bit before you go. (I learned afterwards that there\u2019s a resource on their site below that will give you a refresher course.) *[Note: When I was performing a bit of the scenario for Mr. X while I was writing this review, I realized that I understood much more of the action than I had originally thought that night!]<\/p>\n The “ghosts.” Photo by Matthew Murphy.<\/p><\/div>\n But I really do feel the story doesn\u2019t matter as much as the impressive illusions and fabulous special effects. Marc and I sat in the second row center, and still could not see how they were done. As a matter of fact, he\u2019s still<\/em> asking me if the giant hanging \u201cghosts\u201d were actors, puppets, or something else. I\u2019ll never tell. (Because I actually do not know!)<\/p>\n Harry Potter and the Cursed Child<\/em> features a big cast of very<\/em> committed actors. They all sell every word of their complex dialogue, and they make the action fun and interesting. And they must be really in shape with all the running around they have to do; it\u2019s a very physical production. They were totally a unit who were in it together, which is actually the way an ensemble should<\/em> work. The only individual thing I have to say about any of them is that John Skelley really does<\/em> look just about exactly as we would imagine the grown-up Harry Potter to look, which I really got a kick out of.<\/p>\n Much of the cast, with the grown-up Harry Potter in the center. Photo by Matthew Murphy.<\/p><\/div>\n About that aging of the familiar characters\u2014in case you don’t know, this story takes place nineteen years after the last book, with a grown-up Harry who is married to Ginny Weasley, and they have a teen-age son, Albus. That\u2019s all you need to know going in.<\/p>\n And there\u2019s a lot of humor. At one point, a character says, \u201cLet’s go to the Forbidden Forest,\u201d to which another one replies, \u201cOh good, nothing bad ever happens there<\/em>.\u201d That\u2019s my favorite line of the show.<\/p>\n John Skelley and Emmet Smith playing father and son. Photo by Matthew Murphy.<\/p><\/div>\n But Harry Potter and the Cursed Child<\/em> is not simply about teen-agers and wizardry and effects and humor. And the good guys winning. It took me a few days to realize that the fraught relationship between a grown-up Harry and his teen-age son Albus is a deep<\/em> storyline. Parents and children, am I right? I<\/em> didn\u2019t get along very well with my own father, but after he passed, I read his old journals, and I saw the magic words in one of them. I had gone cross-country from Brooklyn to LA as a teenager, and went back home to visit a few times a year. On the night I went back to LA after my second visit, he wrote, \u201cSad to see the pest leave.\u201d I\u2019ve been living on that ever since. So remembering that made me appreciate Harry and Albus\u2019 complicated relationship after the fact.<\/p>\n This could be YOU! Photo by Karen Salkin.<\/p><\/div>\n There\u2019s also one funny<\/em> thing this show reminded me of. A few years ago, I came upon Mr. X watching a British movie\u2026with the subtitles on! I asked him why he needed them when the actors were speaking English<\/em>! So he showed me the film without<\/em> the captioning, and I realized that\u2026I could barely make-out a word they were saying! So that happened to me on a much smaller scale in this also-British play. I understood only about a quarter of the dialogue. But I promise\u2014it really doesn\u2019t matter in this one. The visuals are more important than the script.<\/p>\n My only<\/em> problem with Harry Potter and the Cursed Child<\/em> is that, at a full three hours, it\u2019s way too long. No one besides Marc and I seemed to mind, though, and I understand that it\u2019s pared-down from the two-part, six-hour original British (and then Broadway) production. But I still suggest not being hungry or tired when you see it. You don\u2019t want your Muggle-ness to be obvious!<\/p>\n You have just about ten more weeks to see it, so remember to check-out the deals to be had, and go enjoy the show. And one little tip\u2014it was pretty cold in there when we saw it, so maybe dress in layers.<\/p>\n Harry Potter and the Cursed Child<\/em> running through June 22, 2025<\/strong> HARRY POTTER AND THE CURSED CHILD To all the people who have been asking me if I\u2019m ever going to review the presentations at the Pantages again, (I haven\u2019t done so since the pandemic,) I\u2019m happy to report that I\u2019m back at it! The occasion of my long-overdue return to the iconic Hollywood theatre was<\/p>\n<\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a>
\n Pantages Theatre 6233 Hollywood Blvd.<\/strong>
\n 800-982-2727 www.broadwayinhollywood.com<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"