Reducio! A New, Shorter Version of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child Is Coming to Broadway
(Photo: Matthew Murphy)
A new, shorter version of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child is coming to Broadway. The leaner show, which runs under three hours including intermission, will premiere at the Lyric Theatre on November 12, having made its world premiere in Chicago in September. Broadway rehearsals are underway.
The reworked show brings the runtime closer to that of another spooktacular production opening on Broadway this season: Stranger Things: The First Shadow.
The show's producers say that the show has lost none of its charms. “From the very beginning, we and the creative team have challenged ourselves to find new and innovative ways to bring the extraordinary storytelling and stagecraft of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child to life,” said producers Sonia Friedman and Colin Callender in a joint statement. “We are thrilled that [director and co-writer] John Tiffany, [co-writer] Jack Thorne and the entire original creative team were able to reunite over the last few months to revisit and explore the original material."
Harry Potter and the Cursed Child opened in the West End and on Broadway in 2018 in two parts: Part One was two hours and 40 minutes, Part Two was two hours and 35 minutes. In 2021, the Broadway show was reworked as a single 3.5-hour show. The two-part version is still running in London.
As previously reported, the new Broadway company will be led by Matthew James Thomas as Harry Potter, Sarah Killough as Ginny Potter and Alex Serino as their son Albus Potter; along with Daniel Fredrick as Ron Weasley, Rachel Christopher as Hermione Granger and Ayanna Nicole Thomas as their daughter Rose Granger-Weasley; and Aaron Bartz and Erik Christopher Peterson as Draco Malfoy and his son Scorpius Malfoy. Kristen Martin will play Delphi Diggory.
Based on an original story by J.K. Rowling, Thorne and Tiffany, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child is set 19 years after the events of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, centering around Harry's headstrong son Albus.
