“Harry Potter and the Cursed Child” Celebrates Opening Gala with Red Carpet!

Although preview performances of the play began last month, today, July 30, marks the official opening of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child on London’s West End! To celebrate, a red carpet was rolled out in front of the Palace Theatre, where guests included Mayor of London Sadiq Khan and the author of Harry Potter herself, J.K. Rowling.

The London Evening Standard covered the event, at which J.K. Rowling expressed her delight that fans had been following her wishes to #KeepTheSecrets about the play:

They’ve been amazing, they’ve been incredible, and you know what it is? It is the most extraordinary fandom, so I’m kind of not surprised they didn’t want to spoil it for each other, but I’m so happy we got here without ruining it.

Mayor of London Sadiq Khan, who admitted that he is a “big fan” of the Harry Potter series, thanked J.K. Rowling for ensuring that the play’s premiere would be in London:

What’s important is that the world premiere is here in London, and we should be really proud.

John Tiffany, the director of Cursed Child, echoed Rowling’s thoughts on #KeepTheSecrets, comparing plot spoilers with opening Christmas presents in November, asking,

Why would you do that?

The opening gala of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child comes hours before the midnight release of the script book for the play, though it looks as though fans who aren’t in London won’t have to worry. When asked if the play would be heading to Broadway, J.K. Rowling responded,

I’d love it to go wider than that. I’d like as many Potter fans to see it as possible.

In an interview with Deadline, Colin Callender, one of the play’s producers, also hinted at a possible transfer to Broadway:

Obviously we hope to come to Broadway. And there are Potter fans all over, so where else we go and when and how, I genuinely don’t know yet. But hopefully it will have a life and will be able to seen by people all over the world. Obviously that’s tomorrow’s conversation and not today’s.

Callender was also asked about the possibility of “live broadcasts of the play into cinemas.” He explained,

No, there have been absolutely no discussions about that whatsoever, and now that you’ve seen it you’ll know that part of the power of this is the experience of seeing it live, and seeing the magic performed live. Sitting there thinking, How on Earth did they do that? Part of the conversation in the intervals has been people debating how a sleight-of-hand trick was pulled off, and that’s part of the fun of the show. Not even my kids know the secrets. I haven’t even told them, and they’ve seen it 10 times already.

You can watch a video of J.K. Rowling on the red carpet below:

Would you see Harry Potter and the Cursed Child on Broadway? Are you excited to read the script? We’d love to hear from you in the comments!