The Cursed Child is the latest show to schedule its return to New York City stages alongside other recent announcements for The Book of Mormon, The Lion King and Wicked, and the delayed debut of The Music Man.
In a statement, producers Sonia Friedman and Colin Callender called Broadway’s reopening “an unprecedented moment in theatre history.” They shared that they were “delighted” to announce the debut of a re-imagined show “audiences can see in one afternoon or evening.”
“Given the challenges of remounting and running a two-part show in the U.S. on the scale of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child and the commercial challenges faced by the theatre and tourism industries emerging from the global shutdowns, we are excited to be able to move forward with a new version of the play that allows audiences to enjoy the complete Cursed Child adventure in one sitting eight times a week,” Friedman and Callender said.
Broadway had been shut down since March 2020, following a mandate from Gov. Andrew Cuomo to help slow the spread of COVID-19. In May, more than a year after theatres went dark, The Broadway League and the governor announced that theatres could return to full capacity starting Sept. 14.
In their statement, the producers noted that while “the global shutdowns were awful and devastating on so many levels,” they provided the opportunity to bring their award-winning creative team back together and work to create “a new single part version of the play that would be a compelling theatrical experience in its own right.”
The producers went on to describe their work reshaping the show, which had been the longest-running two-part play in Broadway history, as a “wonderful process of rediscovery” and one that will continue to deliver on “all the amazing magic, illusions, stagecraft, and storytelling set around the same powerful narrative.”
The play is based on an original new story by J.K. Rowling, Jack Thorne and John Tiffany and is written by Jack Thorne and directed by John Tiffany. It acts as a stage sequel to Rowling’s original best-selling Harry Potter books and originally debuted in London in 2016 before opening on Broadway in 2018.
Rowling, in a statement, shared that “collaborating on Harry Potter and the Cursed Child has been one of the great joys of my professional life.”
“While no one would wish for what has happened over the last year, it has given Jack, John and the first-class creatives who first breathed life into the production the opportunity to revisit the play and to find a new way to frame our story — with amazing illusions and some exquisite new staging — all the while keeping our original story intact.”
Rowling’s statement follows a personally tumultuous year for the author and producer, beginning with Rowling’s public support over social media of a researcher who was fired for transphobic comments. Several months later, she published a Twitter thread in which she commented on a website’s use of trans-inclusive language while discussing menstruation.
“People who menstruate. I’m sure there used to be a word for those people. Someone help me out. Wumben? Wimpund? Woomud?” she wrote.
While some Hollywood actors and figures came out in support of Rowling, including former Harry Potter star Ralph Fiennes, both tweets sparked a swell of social media backlash from members of the LGBTQ community. It also earned a response from Universal Parks and condemnations from LGBTQ media nonprofit GLAAD and other various Hollywood LGBTQ figures and allies.
Among them were other cast members of the Harry Potter films, including the actor behind the titular character, Daniel Radcliffe.
“Transgender women are women,” wrote Radcliffe. “Any statement to the contrary erases the identity and dignity of transgender people and goes against all advice given by professional health care associations who have far more expertise on this subject matter than either Jo or I.”
This article originally appeared in THR.com.
