I don’t know if you’ve heard, but the script for Harry Potter and the Cursed Child is bad. Like, really bad. And yet, I still flew to New York and saw it on Broadway.
You guys. The show is so good.
The acting really does make the whole thing so much better. A lot of lines that seemed flat or off in the script were delivered so well and made it work so much better than it ever did on paper. The characters come to life and become far less flat, and Scorpius in particular1 was so well acted and portrayed. The screaming was a choice that I am totally behind, and his interactions with Albus and the other characters was fantastic.
Even the adults, while I don’t agree with a lot of the script decisions, were well done and I loved the way they were portrayed. They managed to retain enough of their book-selves in the portrayal that it didn’t feel too strange while I was watching.
And the special effects! There were some great magic sections in this show. It wasn’t just the wands lighting up, but the transformations of characters from one to another, to quick changes, to characters appearing from nothing, to that absolutely fantastic time travel effect. The sound and lighting are things I don’t normally think of when I’m watching a performance, but they did such a good job with the whole production.
The thing I expected the least were the dance numbers. No singing, but there was a bit of interesting choreography, and the fact that almost every robe swish was punctuated by this sound effect and, well, I really loved it.
It is a very long show, though. We were up in the nosebleeds, but for about 5 hours of show, $100 is not bad at all. We could see everything, even the pool that appeared on stage for part of the show. Honestly, it was such a good show. If you’re anywhere near Broadway, even if you didn’t much care for the script, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child is still a show worth checking out!
- was my favourite! [↩]