“Harry Potter and the Cursed Child” Creators Discuss the Magic of San Francisco

Harry Potter and the Cursed Child has achieved remarkable success across the globe. The stage play’s Curran Theatre, San Francisco premiere is fast approaching. The creators of the show, writer J.K. Rowling, playwright Jack Thorne, and director John Tiffany, have reflected on just how meaningful the American city is to the magical story.

Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling said that she adored the architecture of San Francisco and found this to be inspiring as she hatched ideas for the wizarding world, naming Alcatraz as a point of reference for the similarly named wizarding prison, Azkaban.

A big thing, which I have actually said before, but ‘Azkaban’ is a combination of ‘Alcatraz’ and ‘Abbadon,’ which is an old word for hell. I squeezed those words together. The idea of the rock in the middle of the ocean was directly inspired by a visit to Alcatraz.

With San Francisco preparing to welcome Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, set 19 years after the events of the Harry Potter book series, in October, the show’s creators have emphasized the inherent magic of the city. Tiffany in particular commented on the appeal of bringing the production to San Francisco.

The Curran is an absolutely stunning, very old theater in San Francisco. It’s a city of magic. It’s got the trams, it’s got that beautiful bridge, it’s got a mist that constantly hovers over the bay. […] There are some incredibly rooted diverse communities in San Francisco, very different [from] New York, very different [from] Melbourne. It will be wonderful to […] tell our story to those audiences.

Tickets to see Harry Potter and the Cursed Child in San Francisco are on sale now via the play’s website.