INTERESTING FACTS ABOUT THE EPIC SHOW AND VENUE
Harry Potter And The Cursed Child: Parts One And Two made its world premiere in London in July 2016 at the Palace Theatre and opened at New York’s Lyric Theatre in April 2018. Both productions continue to play to soldout houses.
The epic show is the most awarded play in theatre history, having won 24 major theatre awards in the UK and 25 in the US.
HPATCC is the most awarded production in the history of the UK’s Olivier Awards winning a record-breaking nine trophies: Best New Play, Best Director (John Tiffany), Best Set Design, Best Costume Design, Best Sound Design, Best Lighting Design, Best Actor, Best Supporting Actor and Best Supporting Actress.
It also won for Best Play at the 72nd annual Tony Awards and took honours in Direction of a Play (John Tiffany), Scenic Design, Costume Design, Sound Design and Lighting Design.
In the first six months of performances in London, 60 per cent of audiences for the London production had never been to the theatre before. Fifteen per cent of those first-time theatregoers have since gone on to book tickets for another play and those numbers are growing.
The Society of London Theatre reported that more than 15 million poeple attended a West End show in 2017, a record high, which had also been attributed to hits like HPATCC.
Melbourne is the home to HPATCC in Australia and the production is exclusive to the Princess Theatre there. Preview performances began on Jan 18 and the official red carpet opening gala was held on Feb 23 of this year.
The Australian production includes a crew of 70 and a cast of 42, led by Gareth Reeves as Harry Potter, Lucy Goleby as his wife Ginny Potter and Sean Rees-Wemyss as their son Albus Potter. Also in the cast are Gyton Grantley as Ron Weasley, Paula Arundell as Hermione Granger and Manali Datar as their daughter Rose Granger-Weasley. Rounding up the main characters are Tom Wren as Draco Malfoy and William McKenna as his son Scorpius Malfoy.
Due to overwhelming demand, the production’s booking period has been extended to Feb 2, 2020.
The play’s design team worked with the Princess Theatre to renovate and redesign parts of the building in preparation for the Australian premiere.
The facade of the building features a sculpture of the winged nest with a child inside atop the canopy which represents HPATCC. The nest is 2.5m high and the wings 4m wide with the whole sculpture weighing just under a tonne.
The interior and exterior of the theatre space is also peppered by Harry Potter-themed dragon light fixtures. The famous wizard’s initials are imprinted on the theatre hall’s carpeted flooring as well.
This is the first time since the theatre was built 132 years ago that the theatre’s facade has undergone a complete restoration.
The last time the venue underwent any major work was in 1989 when it reopened with great fanfare on Dec 9 with Les Miserables followed by Phantom Of The Opera.
Phantom went on to smash box office records as the longest-running show ever staged in Australia.
The Princess Theatre is the longest continuously running entertainment site on mainland Australia and dates back to 1854 where it was originally an equestrian amphitheatre.
After falling into disrepair a “new” Princess Theatre was built in 1886 and has since been home to thousands of theatrical productions.
Melbourne is the third city in the world to host
HPATCC, following London and New York. A San Francisco production has also been announced for 2019, along with the first non-English version of the play in Hamburg.
Each Friday, 40 tickets for every performance the following week will be released via TodayTix for some of the very best seats in the theatre at A$40 per Part, per ticket (A$80 total for Part One and Two). These tickets are known as ‘The Friday Forty’. Visit www. harrypottertheplay.com/au/the-friday-forty/ or TodayTix for more info.