You need look no further than the lower-level lobby of the Nederlander Theatre to understand the enduring magic of Harry Potter, the boy wizard who saves the world in J.K. Rowling’s seven, mega-selling “Harry Potter” novels.
In lines even longer than the one for the ladies room, dozens of witches and wizards — a sea of elaborate cloaks, pointed hats and regalia signifying the books’ Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry — bustled with broomsticks and wands at Thursday night’s official opening, waiting to take selfies in front of various HP-related backdrops. The theater’s main lobby scene resembled nothing so much as the giddy, midnight hordes of thematically attired Potter fans who turned bookstores into late-night parties as the tomes were released between 1997 and 2007.
Does “Cursed Child” warrant the same amount of adoration and excitement? Yes-ish. The Tony Award-winning play is at times convoluted, repetitive and saddled with dialogue that wouldn’t pass muster in a freshman playwriting class. (“Now we’re on the roof of a train! It’s scary!”)
It is also packed with mind-boggling illusions, riveting choreography, an immersive, hypnotically atmospheric score and a cast that sells the story with such skill that it doesn’t matter if you don’t know Harry Potter from Pottery Barn. With a script by Jack Thorne, director John Tiffany (Thorne, Tiffany and Rowling are credited with creating the original story) shapes a production rich in theater’s most magical superpower: creating a sense of genuine wonder.
“Cursed Child” is the eighth Harry Potter story, beginning when the books’ iconic evil-fighting trio — Harry, Hermione Granger and Ron Weasley — are adults long-graduated from the magical Hogwarts, where the bulk of the novels and this play’s stories unfold.
Grown-up Harry (John Skelley) and his wife Ginny (Trish Lindstrom) have a teenage son, Albus Severus Potter (Emmet Smith) at Hogwarts. Hermione (Ebony Blake) has married Ron (Matt Mueller) and is raising a daughter, Rose (Naiya Vanessa McCalla).
Albus hates Hogwarts and really hates being the son of its most famous wizard, but finds a fast friend in Scorpius Malfoy (Aiden Close), son of Harry Potter’s infamous schoolboy nemesis, Draco Malfoy (Ben Thys).
The action kicks into high gear after Scorpius and Albus hatch a scheme to use a magical Time-Turner to save the life of Cedric Diggory (Caleb Hafen), a Hogwarts student who was killed during part of Harry’s battle with Voldemort (Nathan Hosner) back in the day, and whose evil doings threaten the world in “Cursed Child” as they did in the books.
As anyone who has read the ghost story “The Monkey’s Paw” knows, messing with resurrection is a bad, bad idea. And as anyone familiar with the “butterfly effect” knows, changing even a tiny detail — in this instance, that of a Quidditch game — can have ripple effects of untold magnitude. Albus and Scorpius learn this the hard way, drawing their parents into an epic magic-off between good and evil. Adding to the mystery is the presence of Delphi Diggory (Julia Nightingale), who befriends our two young heroes — but does she really?
The spectacle on stage is nonstop, worthy of a world beyond the universe of muggles. Jamie Harrison’s illusions — which include, but are not limited to, wand battles, levitation, flying, telekinesis, shape-shifting and conjuring/throwing fire so intense you can feel the flames’ heat in the audience — are a stunning display of just how far theater technology has come. That falling chandelier that had everyone gobsmacked back when “The Phantom of the Opera” first landed here way back in 1990? It seems like a Home Depot can lamp by comparison.
Christine Jones’ marvelous set of gothic arches and rolling staircases contains secrets within secrets, a seriously convincing people-eating bookcase among them. And when the flying “dementors” scream down from above to suck the souls and the bones from those who would dare to oppose Lord Voldemort, it’s a scene of terrible beauty that will haunt you in the best possible way.
And while the plot twists in on itself toward the end — there’s perhaps one too many wand fights/time-travel excursions — the extraordinary merger of sound, lighting and movement design (respectively by Gareth Fry, Neil Austin and Steven Hoggett) is transporting. Particularly effective are the scene changes, when caped figures swirl and fly to tell stories within the story. Imogen Heap’s immersive score propels the action along like a sonic riptide.
Finally, “Cursed Child” benefits from Chicago’s Larry Yando, the veteran stage actor who is usually two blocks west this time of year rehearsing as Scrooge at the Goodman Theatre. He’s triple-cast here as the seemingly malevolent Severus Snape, the god/ghost-like Albus Dumbledore, and Cedric’s father, the bereaved, broken Amos Diggory. He transforms with actorly alchemy so effective it feels — like much of the production itself — enchanted.