The Broadway and West End hit, “Harry Potter and the Cursed Child,” has opened for an extended run at that gorgeous icon of Art Deco, the Hollywood Pantages Theatre.
This creative imagining of “what ifs” in the life of the adult Harry Potter, last seen vanquishing the mortal enemies of Hogwarts, including Voldemort, he who must not be named. Harry survived, married Ginny Weasley and is still best friends with Ron Weasley and his wife, Hermione Granger. They are very busy with their grown-up jobs, well, except for Ron who still runs the family joke shop. They are now the establishment and tasked with maintaining order so that all residents will remain safe and sound, something they fought so diligently for in the past,
Harry wants only the best for his son Albus Severus, named after his two Hogwarts heroes, both of whom died saving him from Voldemort. This would be a heavy burden for anyone to carry, but even harder for Albus, who is struggling with his identity as the son of the savior. Albus resents his father and his father’s achievements. He’s nothing like him. Albus struggles with his schoolwork and is not in the least athletic. Father and son see each other differently, not the least because Albus is suffering from a massive case of teenage angst and resentment, something that is greatly exacerbated when he is shoved onto the magical train to Hogwarts with the Weasley’s daughter Rose. First order of business—making friends—easier for Rose than for Albus. Finding an empty carriage, they encounter Scorpius Malfoy, son of Harry’s old school nemesis Draco Malfoy. Scorpius is as unlike his father as Albus is from Harry. Even less athletically skilled than Albus, he also suffers from a massive lack of self-confidence, lack of friends and the inability to be quiet when silence is called for. Of course, they become best friends, much to the chagrin of their respective fathers.
Albus’ desire is to be assigned to Harry’s old house at school, Gryffindor; his nightmare is that the Sorting Hat will choose Slytherin Hall, home of his father’s school enemies, for him instead. Harry told Albus to wish very hard for the house he wants, and the Sorting Hat will hear him. Dad was wrong again. It didn’t. Slytherin it is, but at least Scorpius will be there too.
Photo by Matthew Murphy
Life is difficult for Albus. The students know all about his father, and the remaining professors have set a high bar for him. It doesn’t help that Harry visits too often. Albus sinks deeper into his resentment. He wants to be himself, whatever that is; he wants to make a grand gesture; he wants to have friends. All of this seems hopelessly out of reach. Learning more about Harry’s feats, he discovers that for Harry to live another student, Cedric Diggory, had to die. It is Cedric’s cousin Delphi who tells him of the circumstances. Convinced of the injustice of it all, fueled by his antipathy toward his father, he enlists Scorpius to help him devise a plan.
They need a Time-Turner, an instrument that allows its user to teleport back in time, but they have been outlawed since the Battle of Hogwarts and all remaining Time-Turners were destroyed. All but one, apparently, because the Ministry has found one and, rather than destroying it, has hidden it away. Stealthily spying on the ministers, Albus is elated to discover that this device exists and enlists Scorpius to go on a mission with him. They will steal the Time Turner, find Cedric and change the circumstances so he doesn’t die, thus saving him.
Any aficionado of time travel, and you don’t have to be one to foresee this future, is well aware of the ripple effect that changing one event in the past has on the present. And thus “Harry Potter and the Cursed Child” is on its merry way.
With plenty of adventure for the rapt preteens in the audience, and believe me, there were lots of them, and subtext for the older members, this is basically a story of adolescent angst and teenage conflict with a controlling parent. Something has to give or catastrophe will ensue.
What this play, by masterful playwright Jack Thorne (“The Motive and the Cue”), based on an original story by J.K. Rowling, John Tiffany and Thorne, does best is segue nicely from 20 or so years in the past to the present while breathing believable life into characters you knew and loved from the books and creating their new, realistic offspring with their own “worldly” problems in the present. The stakes are high, the possible consequences chilling and the mischief of immature teens is believable. The stage effects, very magical indeed, rely on light, movement and sleight of hand, much like a show at the Magic Castle. There are rigged props and unseen wires that dangle the actors like puppets and robes and actors are whisked off and on before your eyes. It’s quite entrancing and always surprising. Sometimes the actors stand still as the stage circulates, and sometimes it is the actors that glide in well-choreographed movement that flows seamlessly. It’s all quite mesmerizing.
The acting is fine all around, but the young man who plays Scorpius, Aidan Close, is the standout, becoming more a focus than was probably intended. His development from awkward to more self-confident (but still incredibly gawky) is heartwarming in ways that the others fail to achieve. Harry (John Skelley) and Albus (Emmet Smith) are a bit too one-note.
Not working to advantage, from a viewer’s standpoint, the stage at the Pantages is quite large, more than three times wider than the stage of the Lyric Theatre in New York or the Palace Theatre in London where it premiered. This expanse eliminates a sense of intimacy, necessary to make the audience feel as if they were part of the show and the action, or at one with the characters. The play is long, almost three hours including intermission, but this is an improvement over the version I saw when this play was presented in two parts, the first being two hours and 40 minutes and the second, two hours and 35 minutes. When the producers had to shut down during the pandemic, they realized that the play needed to be cut down, not just because Part II was almost superfluous, but also because it was so expensive. In 2018, I paid £125 for each part. The play was overburdened and condensing “Harry Potter and the Cursed Child” into a single evening’s entertainment benefited both the story and the audience.
Be forewarned, however, this play is almost incomprehensible unless you’ve read the books. My husband was totally unacquainted with the “Harry Potter” saga; he didn’t even know who Voldemort was, so a quick cheat sheet was necessary at intermission. He very much appreciated the effects but was lost with the story. It is a shame that the producers didn’t think to provide a summary of the story in the Playbill. I retrieved my program from the Palace Theatre, and the first few pages reprised the books and gave an excellent glossary to the ancillary characters mentioned in the play, from Death Eaters to the Ministry of Magic, from Muggles to Mudbloods and portkeys to Bellatrix Lestrange. In London, one pays for the programs but even so, the Playbill of the Pantages was remarkably short on information. Surely they could have sprung for another couple of pages for summary information. Unbelievable as it may seem, there are actually people out there who never entered Harry’s world before this. Unknown to me there is a website— Harry Potter Resources—that explains it all.
Whether before the show, at intermission or when leaving, take the time to gaze at the double ceiling laden with Art Deco adornments with a huge chandelier and sculptural triangles meant to evoke sunrays. The grand lobby is even more impressive both above your head and beneath your feet. There are painted panels and faux Egyptian statues throughout. Truly deserving of its landmark status, its beauty is sure to rub off on this young generation of theatergoers after they see this imaginative story of a grown-up Harry Potter struggling with the adolescence of one of his children.
Now playing through June 22, Tuesdays through Sundays. Check the Broadway in Hollywood website for times and discounts.
Hollywood Pantages Theatre, 6233 Hollywood Boulevard, Los Angeles.
