Yesterday, at London’s Palace Theatre, I experienced something quite magical, and that was just watching the audience. Harry Potter And The Cursed Child had finally arrived, and what was going on up on stage was simply extraordinary.
Where Hodge does elect for difference is in the manner of playing. No low-key, slow boil quiet broiling here. No, the parts are played with vigour, brasher than you would expect to see on an English stage or one that thought Pinter was wrapped in mothballs. The result is the sexy edge is more angular, the stakes are higher, the comedy quite a bit funnier. All deliberately so. It reaps rewards often, but perhaps best of all in the sequence where the theft of underwear is discussed, or the body in the bed is remembered or the show tunes are so badly serviced. This is brave on Hodge’s part looked at one way; looked at another, it is simply just doing it.
There are shreds and patches of key songs, which, like Wagnerian leitmotifs, bind the whole experience, make it less a concert and more a pop/rock/r&b opera. “What’s it all about, Alfie?” is a key theme, appearing constantly throughout and, in a simple way, it provides the intellectual underpinning to the experience. Riabko and Selzer ask what Bacharach’s music is all about and shows you their answer. Emotionally complex, beguilingly catchy, intensely human, and tuneful in an all pervading kind of way.
It has been announced that Harry Potter will come to the West End Stage in Summer 2016 in a new play entitled Harry Potter And The Cursed Child. The play will be based on an original story by J.K Rowling, Jack Thorne and John Tiffany, the play by Jack Thorne will open at the Palace Theatre. Rowling has already stated that the play will not be a Potter prequel. Little else is known about the play but Jack Thorne made the following Twitter comment “Re Harry Potter, can’t say anything, other than playing in jk_rowling‘s sandpit is the greatest honour & the greatest fun”. Harry Potter And The Cursed Child will be directed by John Tiffany with movement by Steven Hoggett, with set designs by Christine Jones, costumes by Katrina Lindsay, lighting by Neil Austin, music by Imogen Heap, sound by Gareth Fry and special effects by Jeremy Chernick. Tickets … Read more
