Harry Potter and the Cursed Child on 25 November broke the Broadway record for biggest gross earnings in a week with $2.4 million taken in. The record the play broke was also held by Cursed Child in June of this year ($2.3 million). The interview highlights below, though filmed while Rowling was in New York to highlight the last Crimes of Grindelwald trailer’s release, was only published yesterday. It is, for the most part, pablum. You can read the transcript of the interview highlights here.
Rowling was much more forthcoming in an interview she did with her Cursed Child collaborators last year. You can read the transcript of her September 2017 interview here.
Having only read the play, I’m not a fan of Cursed Child — it’s hard to accept, frankly, that it is a Potter story over which Rowling exercised more than veto power — except for the fact that it is bringing non-theater goers into Broadway and London theater seats. Potter Pundits I admire who have seen the play, though, have important things to say about it, much of it in admiration; four of them chatted with Katy McDaniel and me about the experience of Cursed Child on this ‘Reading, Writing, Rowling’ podcast.
I mortgaged a kidney to get tickets and plan to see it when I visit my family in New Jersey at Christmas. (I very much hope there isn’t a travel problem, as I fly out the day before). I understand that it is very different as a theatrical experience: that even people who have hated the playtext have loved the play. This does not surprise me, as I teach theatre, and try to impress on my students that even the best-written playtext is only the skeleton of a full “play” meant to be experienced in performance.
So far, my only worries about the text include:
1. I cannot believe that Cedric Diggory would have become a Death Eater under any circumstances.
2. Having a child is an entirely different type of “immortality.” In fact, arguably, to have a child is to understand that there will be someone who will go on after you die, and that it is your earthly job to nurture that person and then to pass on. It’s directly opposed to trying to live forever oneself. I can’t see Voldemort trying it, or even considering it. What if his child were to be a more powerful Dark Wizard than himself?
3. I really, really, really hope there is some kind of Wizard artificial insemination. Ugh.
“I can’t see Voldemort trying it, or even considering it. What if his child were to be a more powerful Dark Wizard than himself?”
This is a widely held and reasonable view…which can be harmonized with the text by positing that Delphi was conceived via horcrux, and is a Voldemort incarnation rather than offspring.
I have tickets in April! I am looking forward to it, even though I take issue, not so much with the script itself but the claim it is “canon.” The whole opening scene in Kings Cross is different from both the books and the movies.
But, at least it gives us an explanation of why the Death Eaters kidnapped Florean Fortescue. Bellatrix was obviously craving pickles and ice cream,
Haha Louise!! I’m also seeing it soon – at the end of January! I have mixed feelings about it so far since my only exposure is the script and reviews/social media. I’ve heard experiencing it in a theater is pretty amazing. Some of the complaints people have is the way certain characters are portrayed – I’ve seen remarks such as “Harry would never…”. And in certain instances I beg to differ. I was also thinking about the beginning scene in Kings Cross and how it is different from the last chapter of DH. “All was well” is definitely not portrayed!!