HARRY POTTER AND THE CURSED CHILD 2021 Previews — Page 4

Finally won the Friday Forty! Going Thursday the 20th (lost for every other show that week though lol). Haven’t seen the show since opening night in April 2018 so I’m very excited to see if I pick up on any of the changes!! Will report back on seats :)

So, I saw a performance early in the reopening run of the NYC cast. I just saw the SF cast, assuming the changes they made in NYC also when into effect in SF.

The SF cast isn't too shabby. Lucas Hall as Draco might have been my favorite of the cast. Even with the reduced lines, he still managed to give his Draco the overall effect from the original version, IMHO.

Steve O’Connell as Ron and Angela Reed as Ginny were also good. It took a little bit to warm up to Benjamin as Albus and John as Harry, but I liked their final scene the most. Still deciding about Jon as Scorpius. I think I liked him overall but his Library scene wasn't my favorite and I kinda compare all the Scorpiuses based on that scene. 😅

In this new version, the Owlery is the scene that doesn't make sense. I thought they might fix it from when I saw the "re-imagined" version in NY but alas, it's still very clunky and the logic isn't there. I would have loved to have seen Brittany as Delphi in the longer version. There were glimpses of brillance but alas not enough material for her/the character to shine.

For the performance I saw in SF, the pyrotechnics did not go off during the battle in the church in Act 2, which made an already lackluster battle even more lackluster. 😅 The sound cues were still there which made it kinda funny to me.

I think the Curran is smaller than both Palace in London and the Lyric in New York (the only other places I've seen the show). The house dementor flew pretty far up, which I was surprised, and the whole house effect (you know which one) was still impressive. As far as audience went, they weren't terrible until Act 2, where random members started making comments out loud. 🙃 It seemed mostly full from where I was in the orch.

I won the Friday Forty for last weekend and my seats were Orchestra B seats 20 and 22, which was 3 row orchestra all the way on the extreme right. However missed very little of the action, and it was a great view! The only negative was that some of the illusions work better from farther back, but besides that it was an excellent seat!

I checked with the official website. Steve Haggard is listed as Harry Potter. I also looked at the Playbill via the Vault. The actors are listed by their principal role or as ensemble (James Snyder is still listed.) There is no mention of an understudy, standby or alternate. Interesting.

Probably will be updated soon since the official statement was just given yesterday?



Patti LuPone FANatic said: "I checked with the official website. Steve Haggard is listed as Harry Potter. I also looked at the Playbill via the Vault. The actors are listed by their principal role or as ensemble (James Snyder is still listed.) There is no mention of an understudy, standby or alternate. Interesting."

“There are important conversations to be had here…”

Like how many times we can talk about how the set of Company breaks down…

Moderator said: "There are important conversations to be had here, but an anonymous theatre message board is not the correct venue."

Perhaps remove the HERE from this sentence?

I think there is a middle ground on how to talk about this situation, and I think the conversations are appropriate. Fans and industry people follow this message board, and I think as long as people are respectful and not salacious, or spreading rumors, a message board could be an appropriate venue to speak about matters like this safely.

Just saw the show for the first time in San Francisco; hopefully not the last! Erik Evan Olson was on as Albus; he was very good!

I am the kind of pedantic nerd who is very annoyed that the program makes no distinction between ensemble members and swings - I assume there ARE off-stage swings but the program just lists everyone under "other roles played by." I've spent most of my downtime today trying to figure out just how many people were onstage during the show!

After digging around actor's websites and instagrams like a total psychotic, I think I've got it figured out for the San Francisco cast; (this does not include the actors who are credited with named roles like the Station Master; Madame Hooch, etc...this is purely people who fall under the "other roles" category):

Ensemble: Chadd Alexander; Ebony Blake; Kita Grayson; Chance Marshaun Hill; Timothy W. Hull; Chanté Odom; Elise Southwick

Swings: John Alix; Nicholas Hylan; Gary-Kayli Fletcher; Melanie Brezill, Erik Evan Olson

Can anyone confirm if this breakdown of the ensemble is correct or if I'm just flailing about in the dark?

The SF Playbill lists all characters - Harry, Albus etc., all the way down to tiny roles like a Ministry Official, the Station Master and the boys who bully Albus at Hogwarts, and then where it would read Ensemble, there is a large section that reads "Other Roles Played By". This includes a number of actors who are not playing named characters, and it is not made clear which of those actors are onstage ensemble members without named roles, and which are offstage swings. For example, it's easy to deduce that at least one of the two actors in the program who are primarily circus artists and aerialists are playing the dementor who flies over the audience at the end of part I, but there's nothing to indicate that for certain. Which, ya know, fine.

There are a total of 12 actors without a named role in the "Other Roles Played By" list. The show posted it's first night back curtain call on youtube, and I was able to count 7 actors in the curtain call who do not have a named role. Some of them were presumably covers, as there was at least one understudy on for that performance. Just trying to figure out how this all works, because god knows it's better than dealing with all my actual problems!

yomerves25 said: "I've always been frustrated that the Dementors are not listed in the Playbill. Does anyone know who plays the Dementors in the current Broadway production, or who the original Dementors were?"

To answer a few questions on here -

I am fairly certain that every single "swing" in HPCC makes an appearance on stage each night. These are often for only seconds at a time, like the Ministry meeting or the Dragon task crowd scene.

As for the dementors, it's a well guarded secret, but the 3 dementors in the pre-pandemic version were played by the cohort of young Hogwarts students/featured ensemble members (I know the track playing Polly Chapman was one of them). Judging by the new additional aerialists they hired for the single-part version, I assume they replaced those actors to give them more time.

ChairinMain said: "I also imagine the swing tracks may also play a major unseen part of some of the stage illusions."

Those are also the featured ensemble, I believe. Swings would be too valuable to rely on for illusions in case they need to go on and have no replacements.

hmmm... I saw it mid orch and thought it was a great view. I wouldn't be surprised if front Dress is FANTASTIC though. Seems like one that could be good to see from above.

So with the Toronto stop about to close, does that mean the US tour has wrapped up just after 2 stops?