Hey internet,

Thanks for all the new subscribers and for the amazing feedback. I’ve read every message and it means a lot. Appreciate you all! Now, on to Harry Potter:

I’m a Ravenclaw. That doesn’t have anything to do with this review, but I felt it apt to mention.

I recently saw Toronto’s production of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, produced by Mirvish. I’d put off seeing this show for a while, mostly because I read the script and I strongly disliked it, but also because I’m a big Harry Potter fan and I didn’t want to be disappointed.

But, alas, it was my friend Sarah’s 30^th birthday (hi Sarah), and tickets weren’t too expensive, so I thought why not. I’d also heard that the show is better live than in the script, and (to cut to the chase) that’s certainly true.

If you haven’t read the play, I’ll provide a quick synopsis. Harry, Ron and Hermione are all grown up and they have kids. Harry’s son Albus Severus Potter (a name that garners many friends) is sorted into Slytherin, and becomes best friends with fellow Slytherin student Scorpius Malfoy, Draco’s son. They steal a time turner and keep jumping back in time and messing things up, creating alternate timelines and whatnot. That’s pretty much the pertinent info you need.

Before I go into discussing the live show, I’d like to touch briefly on my critique of the book of the play. I’ve tried not to dive too deeply into my Harry Potter nerddom, but apologies in advance. It’s important to note, though, that J.K. Rowling did not write the play; it was written by Jack Thorne and John Tiffany and Rowling “approved” of the plot. Hey, I’d approve it too if it meant I get royalty cheques. But it’s effectively glorified fanfiction. Which leads me into my first point:

1. The characters we know and love don’t sound the same as they do in the books. Harry felt like a caricature of himself, Ginny and Ron serve as useless side characters, and Hermione was smarter than they made her in the play.
2. The play feels like the writers want to show off all they know about Harry Potter by stuffing various characters and references to the books into the play, sort of like the finale episode of a long-running show. Most of them are irrelevant to the main plot.
3. The lead characters are Scorpius and Albus, except they’re not. If you look at Tony Award/Olivier nominations, the actors playing Harry are eligible in the best leading actor category, and Scorpius/Albus for best supporting. But the plot revolves around the kids – their growth, their shenanigans – as it should. It’s the new generation: let’s let the new characters find their footing.
4. Time turners make no sense in the play, which is unfortunate because 90% of the play is traveling back and forth in time. It’s repetitive and lazy. There was a reason time travel existed in one book and then promptly never came back – because time plots are complicated. In the novels, time exists as a continuous loop, so if you jump back in time and make something happen, it was always supposed to happen and always will – a pretty fatalist approach. This conveniently avoids the messiness of multiple universes. In the play, they didn’t follow J.K.’s lore and time does not exist in a loop, so every time the boys go back in time, they mess something up (e.g. un-existing one of themselves). That’s silly and it’s not accurate to the books.
5. The Toronto/Broadway production was cut down from 2 separate evenings to 1 super long 3.5 hour play (the London version is still 2 shows). The fact that they could cut 1.5 hours and I couldn’t recognize what had been cut should tell you something about the writing in general. This isn’t a German opera…let’s edit, people.
6. There are lots of other things that bugged me, but I’ll stop here. I thought this Youtube documentary did a great job of outlining many of the issues, so if you feel like entering a Harry Potter rabbit hole, check it out.

Ok, thanks for listening to my Ted Talk. Back to the show itself:

The cast. When I opened my playbill, I saw a comically large number of understudy replacements. Granted, the cast is quite big to begin with, but this was something else. I’ll add a photo of the substitution paper slip below for dramatic effect:

I wasn’t too disappointed because I didn’t really know any of the actors (apart from two – will discuss shortly). Understudies often add a new energy to the show since they play the roles less often, so it can be exciting to see them perform. I was a little let down to not see Sara Farb perform (she plays Delphi, who is a stupid character and telling you why would spoil the plot, so…just take it at face value). I’ve seen Sara in a couple of shows around the city (The Humans, Fun Home), and she gives off this super cool, effortless vibe. I’ll have to catch her next show. Anyway…

The cast was great. I thought everyone put full effort into their performances, even if some of the British accents were a bit iffy. No judgment on this front, though. In grade nine, I played French street urchin Gavroche in Les Mis with an inexplicably terrible cockney accent. Why did I make that choice? But back to Harry Potter: the cast gave it their all. Every single person. During the dance sequences (dance = shuffling along with a wand and swishing robes dramatically), performing magic, saying the ridiculous lines – they fully committed. Had they not thrown themselves head-first into the material, this play could have been a farce that wasn’t in on the joke. The show was joyful, playful – what it should be. And I didn’t feel like I “missed out” by seeing so many understudies, because the caliber of acting talent was so high. A few performances of note (though, truly, everyone was great):

• Thomas Mitchell Barnet as Scorpius Malfoy was undeniably the star of the show. This is partially due to the fact that this character is the best written and the most fully formed, but I found Thomas’ characterization to be captivating. I looked forward to his scenes.
• Kaleb Alexander as the Sorting Hat/Bane. This was the second actor I would’ve been disappointed to miss, because I knew Kaleb as a teen, and it’s heartwarming to see nice people be successful. (We taught a theatre program together, but I doubt he’d remember me). His Sorting Hat performance in the show was downright dapper. Kaleb donned a smart suit and (what I believe is called a) bowler hat, and he holds that hat on top of the students to “sort” them into Hogwarts houses. This choice allowed the show to stray away from campiness. His performance as the satyr Bane was also very suave…at least as suave as a man dressed as a half-goat with another man playing his legs can be.
• Andy Pogson as Harry Potter – or, as I cheekily referred to him as – “hot Harry.” I looked up this actor online, and offstage he certainly looks quite different and leads a different lifestyle than dark wizard hunter HP (Andy lives in the country and sells jam), but with the hair and the scar and the glasses…it almost made up for the fact that the character as written was sucky.
• Raylene Harewood as Moaning Myrtle/a bunch of smaller parts – her performance felt very lively, charismatic, and she had pretty hair. (As evidenced by the point above, I’m a shallow person).

Though the show was long, it didn’t feel like it dragged on toooo long until it got to the second half, where the plot keeps repeating itself. Nonetheless, this show has one thing going for it: the magic.

The special effects in this show were incredibly fantastical. I especially loved the time travel effect, which created a sort of psychedelic wave-pattern across the entire stage. The dementors were also super cool – they were played by aerialists that would fly over the stage and audience. Very creepy. Loved it.

So, my overall review: it was a good time! The script sucks, but the actors certainly didn’t, and the fangirl in me loved the special effects and seeing spells come to life in front of my eyes. If you like Harry Potter, I’d go see it. It’s not high art, but it’s light and fun and sometimes that’s what’s needed. And the Ed Mirvish Theatre has lots of bathrooms, so the line moves pretty quickly. So, magic and ample intermission bathroom break access.

Harry Potter and the Cursed Child is playing at the Ed Mirvish Theatre until July 2, 2023. Pretty good rush tickets are available almost every day at this link.