Matthew Murphy
If you’re a fan of the ‘Harry Potter’ book or film series, you may have found yourself wondering what happened to the characters after the end of the original series, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (2007), but for years that was all left to the imagination as She Who Shall Not Be Named really had no plans to follow Harry and friends as adults. Enter Jack Thorne and John Tiffany, who worked with her to craft a new tale beginning in 2013 but not for a new novel. Instead, the story was being created for the stage. Harry Potter and the Cursed Child — which was adapted into a novel and is now considered the eighth ‘Harry Potter’ book — debut in the West End in London on June 7, 2016, followed by a Broadway production that opened on April 22, 2018. The London production won a record breaking nine Laurence Olivier Awards including Best New Play, and the Broadway production won six Tony Awards including Best Play (no, this is not a musical). Both productions also won awards in the technical categories — Scenic Design, Costume Design, Lighting Design, Sound Design — and Best Director (John Tiffany). All well earned and deserved. Productions have been mounted around the world, and in September 2024 the first North American tour began in Chicago. The show is now at its third stop, the National Theatre in Washington DC.
If you’re not fully immersed in the ‘Potterverse’, you may want to at least watch the movies before seeing the show to bring yourself up to speed on some of the plot points. It’s important to know who’s dead and who’s alive following the Battle of Hogwarts as several of the iconic characters to figure into this story. Harry Potter and the Cursed Child takes place 19 years after the Battle of Hogwarts that saw the destruction of the evil wizard Voldemort, who had been responsible for the deaths of Harry Potter’s parents (he was the real target but survived, obviously). Now Harry is grown with a wife, Ginny (Weasley), and two boys, the youngest of which is on his way to study at Hogwarts. It’s not bad enough that the boy is saddled with the last name of Potter, but his father has also burdened him with the first name Albus, as in Dumbledore, the late headmaster of Hogwarts and Harry’s mentor and father figure. Albus board the Hogwarts Express with Rose Granger-Weasley, daughter of Hermione Granger and Ron Weasley, now married. Looking for a seat, they bump into a rather strange boy who offers them sweets, and he reveals his name to be Scorpius Malfoy, son of Harry’s childhood arch enemy Draco. Rose wants nothing to do with the boy, but Harry is drawn to Scorpius and it isn’t long before they become fast friends.
The plot really kicks into motion when Albus overhears his father speaking with Amos Diggery, accompanied by his niece Delphi, begging Harry to use a Time-Turner to prevent the death of his son Cedric. Harry refuses, but as he and Albus are not on the best of terms, Albus decides he will steal the Time-Turner, with the help of Scorpius and Delphi, to do what his father would not. The boys learn the hard way that messing with time can cause a lot of problems, including erasing Rose (because her parents never got together) and then Harry, and altering the timeline so that Voldemort survived and the world was ruled by black magic. It comes to Scorpius to try to right the wrongs, and he does get Harry back, but they both learn that Delphi is not who she claims to be, and she has her own agenda that puts all of their lives in danger. The boys, their parents, Hermione and Ron all need to work together to defeat Delphi’s plan and save the world and restore the timeline even if it comes at a painful cost.
That’s just the basics of the plot which is a maze of information and characters that either appear in the show — Headmistress McGonagall, Professor Snape, Dolores Umbridge — and those who don’t, like Neville Longbottom, Nagini and Belatrix Lestrange. Some of their fates are changed drastically as the boys continue to mess with time, causing a butterfly effect the moment they save Cedric. For the uninitiated, it’s a lot of information and you may be lost without even the most basic information from the novels/movies. I, myself, only know the movies — and I’ve only seen them all once when they were first released — but I did not feel lost at all. The writers have done a great job of making this show accessible to those even mildly aware of the ‘Harry Potter’ universe. What is interesting is that the show originally started out as a two-part production that audiences could see on the same day or at two separate performances over two nights. About two hours of content have been removed to bring the show down to a run time of just about three hours, but it doesn’t feel like anything is missing. The opening scene feels a bit chaotic though with a lot going on before Harry, Rose and Scorpius arrive at Hogwarts, but once the characters and relationships are established and the kids begin their quest, it all settles into a nice rhythm.
That rhythm is helped along by an outstanding — and very large — cast. As the adult versions of the classic characters, John Skelley (Harry), Alexis Gordon (Hermione), Matt Harrington (Ron), Trish Lindstrom (Ginny) and Ben Thys (Draco) all do outstanding work bringing the characters to life without doing imitations of the movie actors. There is also an amusing scene where Harry, Rose and Scorpius use a transformation spell with Delphi turning into her Hermione, Albus turning into Ron, and Scorpius turning into Harry — all right before your eyes — giving the actors playing adults a chance to act like children for a few moments. Skelley and Thys also have a really eye-popping fight scene that finds them and objects around them levitating above the stage, in some wild positions, in a real demonstration of stage magic (and it isn’t done with wires). Their old enmity hasn’t waned over the years, and it’s only gotten worse at this point because Draco wants to know why Harry has forbidden Albus to hang with his best friend. (Part of that is the whole time travel fiasco, but also there is the question of Scorpius’ parentage, with rumors having persisted for years that the boy is actually Voldemort’s son.) All of these actors just do some great work making the characters come to life and feel authentic.
Matthew Murphy
Emmet Smith as Albus, and Aidan Close as Scorpius are excellent, both playing characters with very different personalities, Albus is reserved but has an undercurrent of anger because of his name — something compounded when he is not sorted into the expected Gryffindor house like his father, but rather into the Slytherin house with Scorpius (which overjoys the boy). He and Skelley have a very tense moment where some terrible, hurtful things are said, which perhaps is the motivation for Albus to prove himself as he has nowhere near the same abilities his father had at his age. But Smith shows Albus maturing and becoming more sure of himself, able to hatch a plan to let his father know what’s happening and that he needs help. He really does end the story as a completely different person than when it starts. On the other hand, Close is completely manic as Scorpius right from the beginning, making one wonder if the boy has all of his marbles. He also has the pressure of his name bearing down on him, but the rumors of who his father may be are harder for him to deal with — how could he be Voldemort’s son if he has a nose?! — making him appear to be completely mentally unstable. But as he and Harry, and then he himself, travel through time, Close calms Scorpius down, to the point that he and Albus have moved from opposite points and have found a nice middle ground where they balance each other out. Now, there is also an undercurrent between the characters that is never made explicit or hits you over the head, but with the sensitive writing and the performances of the two actors, it is pretty clear that there is something more between them than a deep friendship (and even Rose comments on it at the end of Act 2), and their hug at the end speaks volumes (because Scorpius is not a hugger). Some audience members may take issue with this, but it’s not completely overt. You can read into it what you want.
Naiya Vanessa McCalla also does a nice job as Rose, even though she (literally) disappears for the bulk of the show, and Julia Nightingale is also terrific as Delphi, another character who has to change her personality from the sweet niece looking to help her uncle get his son back, to the show’s villain putting everyone — and the world — in mortal danger. Several actors also play double or triple duty with multiple roles including Caleb Hafen, Katherine Leask, Zach Norton and Larry Yando (we won’t reveal all of the characters to prevent spoilers — as per the warning in the Playbill). Everyone from the main players to the supporting cast, as well as the ensemble who move props and do some amazing choreography (one scene involves ‘stairography’ as they do a delicate dance with two staircases as Albus tries to avoid Scorpius after Harry tells him they can’t be friends). This is a very demanding show in many ways for the cast and they are all up to the task.
Matthew Murphy
As mentioned, the show has won many awards for its technical aspects, as it should. The costumes are faithful to what was seen in the movies and many of them have little built in extras for some of the show’s special effects. The costuming for the Dementors stands out in particular as the three creatures float in from above the stage, the flowing fabric so lightweight that it feels like you’re looking at some kind of CGI effect, but it’s real. Totally amazing. Along with the Dementors comes some truly amazing wire work that glides them slowly out of the wings and at one point down to the stage to pick up two ‘dead’ characters and fly them back off stage. There’s also a scene with Harry, Scorpius and Cedric ‘underwater’ and another with Delphi as she flies down and back up on wires that are pretty much invisible which helps sell the illusion, making you believe these characters are truly flying about the stage like Aladdin’s magic carpet. The effect is also aided greatly by the lighting and production design. The back wall of the set never really changes, or only has some slight alterations and it is lit subtly when necessary and sometimes a black curtain comes down, so all of this goes miles into hiding the ultra-thin wires. The actors are always lit, generally from above the stage with lights that follow their movements. The lighting in general is very moody and atmospheric. As the wall never moves, various set-pieces are wheeled on stage by the ensemble from the aforementioned staircases, to various doorways, Albus’ bedroom (at home and school), Harry’s and Hermione’s offices at Hogwarts (Harry is the Head of Magical Law Enforcement and Hermione is the Minister of Magic), a magical bookcase (which actually inhales and spits out a couple of characters), a maze, a forest, a cathedral and more. Unlike a lot of traveling shows, nothing here looks cheap. This is all Broadway-quality material. The show is filled with various illusions and special effects, and one of the coolest is the ripple effects when the character time travel, which makes it appear like that back wall and any other pieces of the set are rippling like you’d see after tossing a rock in the water. It’s so cool and so simple, but it is totally effective. The sound effects that accompany the ripple adds to the visual effect, and sound is also used for dramatic purposes from behind the audience (one particularly heartwrenching moment comes in Act 2 as Harry has to watch his parents die). Did I forget to mention the fire effects? Yes, real fire because I could feel the heat from my seat. Very cool, very bright, very hot! Everything about this is of the highest quality and majorly impressive.
As a theatre-goer and someone familiar with the origin of the two-part show, I was a bit concerned that this truncated version would lose some coherence but I’m happy to say it does not. It tells a solid, complicated story that takes the characters and the audience down different timelines, so it is a show you have to be willing to pay attention to (heed Jude Law’s voice before the show starts and put away your muggle devices). Hardcore Potterphiles should be very happy with the show, and even casual fans or people who have only seen the movies are sure to enjoy this truly magical production.
Harry Potter and the Cursed Child runs about 2 hours 55 minutes with one 20 minute intermission. The production is suitable for ages 8 and up. The show starts promptly at the designated time, and there will be a short hold at the beginning of Act 2 for anyone not back in their seats after intermission.
Harry Potter and the Cursed Child runs through September 7 at Washington DC’s National Theatre. Other cities on the schedule include Providence, Columbus, Boston, Durham, Orlando, Atlanta, Minneapolis and more. Visit the official website for more information. Use our Ticketmaster link to purchase tickets.
Harry Potter and the Cursed Child at The National Theatre Begins July 8, 2025
Harry Potter Theatrical Productions
Check our Ticketmaster link for ticket availability.
