Harry Potter and the Cursed Child

Play (2016)
Based on an original new story by J.K. Rowling, Jack Thorne, John Tiffany
A New Play by Jack Thorne
Directed by John Tiffany
Emerson Colonial Theatre
Theater District, Boston
November 9 – December 20, 2025

Movement Director: Steven Hoggett; Set Designer: Christine Jones; Costume Designer: Katrina Lindsay; Composer and Arranger: Imogen Heap; Lighting Designer: Neil Austin; Sound Designer: Gareth Fry; Illusions and Magic: Jamie Harrison; Music Supervisor and Arranger: Marin Lowe; Video Designers: Finn Ross, Ash J. Woodward

With Adam Grant Morrison (Albus Potter), David Fine (Scorpius Malfoy), Nick Dillenburg (Harry Potter), Ryan Hallahan (Draco Malfoy), Julia Nightingale (Delphi Diggory), Matt Harrington (Ron Weasley), Katherine Leask (Professor McGonagall, Professor Umbridge), Rachel Leslie (Hermione Granger), Erica Sweany (Ginny Potter), Josh Bates (Cedric Diggory, James Potter Jr., James Potter Sr.), Larry Yando (Albus Dumbledore, Amos Diggory, Severus Snape), Nathan Hosner (Voldemort)

If you thought the comprehensive narrative in the seven Harry Potter books was complex, try this one on for size. It is now 2017, seventeen years after the end of the last of the seven volumes, and the focus is now on Albus Potter (Adam Grant Morrison), Harry’s (Nick Dillenburg) teenage son, who goes off to Hogwarts and meets Scorpius Malfoy (David Fine), the son of Draco Malfoy (Ryan Hallahan), Harry’s fellow student and nemesis throughout the seven volumes. Somewhat to the chagrin of his father, Albus and Scorpius become close friends. They both encounter various challenges at Hogwarts, the first of which, for Albus, is that he gets assigned to Slytherin, the academic house that he specifically did not hope to be in. His father was in Gryffindor and Albus desired that, but, oh well, now he’s stuck exactly where he doesn’t want to be. But that’s only one of his problems.

Both boys are bullied and, among other things, a rumor starts that Scorpius is the son of Lord Voldemort! Terrible. In any case, Albus and Scorpius are jazzed to prove themselves when Amos Diggory (Larry Yando), father of the unfortunately deceased Hogwarts student and contemporary of Harry – Cedric Diggory, killed on Voldemort’s (Nathan Hosner) orders – poses a request. Amos asks Harry to use the so-called Time-Turner to go back and save Cedric, but Harry refuses. Overhearing this, Albus gets the idea to do it himself and enlists Scorpius in the venture. Oh boy! They get hold of the Time-Turner and start messing around with history, which turns out to be a real problem. In an alternative future, they discover that all kinds of things have got bollixed up as a result.

Along the way, Albus and Scorpius encounter the whole Hogwarts team: Ron Weasley (who now runs a wizardry store), Hermione (who has become head of the Ministry of Magic), Headmistress (at least in the regular time order) Minerva McGonagall (Katherine Leask), and Snape (the omnipresent Larry Yando). Be assured that Albus and Scorpius learn their lesson and that the problems of father-son relations are front and center.

It would take a minor dissertation to recount all of the narrative details that show up in this very involved, though highly entertaining show. The original production – aired in London in 2016 – was created in two parts and extended for an additional couple of hours overall. Here, in the single-performance, pared-down version, one gets a kind of Cliffs Notes version of the original, which makes some of the complicated narrative squeal by in dense-pack formation. Be that as it may, if one rides the surf of details and does not get too confused by the endless time-knots and eddies of betrayal and fidelity, one can have a wickedly good time at this show.

The production values are superb and highly entertaining.

Notable among these are the various trompe l’oeil illusions that come fast and furiously. Characters magically don Hogwarts robes in the blink of an eye. Another character disappears through a slot in a phonebooth. Hats float in the air. Broomsticks levitate. Water appears to fill the stage. It’s all fantastically done, and, on its own, makes for a charmingly stunning event.

As well, the choreography by movement director Steven Hoggett is strikingly good. Every last gesture of the large cast is carefully scanned and delivered, and the result is transfixing. Large swaths of characters lean, tilt, bend and bounce in unison and the overall effect, though not exactly in dance form, is wonderfully satisfying.

Though there is plenty of music in the show, it is not a musical per se. But the music by composer and arranger Imogen Heap, music supervisor and arranger Marin Lowe and sound designer Gareth Fry is inventive and captivating – not a boilerplate version of show music by any means, but original, lyrical and compelling.

The main performances are, overall, decent, with Adam Grant Morrison as Albus giving a very steady and heartfelt version of his character, sweet, vulnerable and pitted in adolescent conflict with his star-studded Dad. As Scorpius, David Fine has the most dramatic and vivid performance, with a great deal of sass and fun interlaced. The relation between the two boys is at first fraught, but its tenderness comes through strongly, an interesting evolution of the familial trends in the epic.

As Harry, Nick Dillenburg gives a warmly sympathetic performance, and as Draco, Ryan Hallahan, with flowing blond hair, serves ably as his old foil and counterpart. Other characters – Larry Yando as Snape and Katherine Leask as McGonagall – bear strong physical relations to their cinematic antecedents, while Rachel Leslie as an African-American Hermione, departs from Emma Watson’s original look.

Overall, this is a very fun show, though, for almost anyone who is not a devoted Harry Potter scholar, the story line will likely feel overwhelming. But there are plenty of magical stage moments to keep the seven year olds, and the seven year olds in all of us, magically entertained, and some beautiful dance-like movement and music to touch the more subtle sensibilities.

– BADMan (aka Charles Munitz)