Is ‘Harry Potter and the Cursed Child’ cursed in the U.S.? After constantly selling out shows in London, and winning an Olivier Award, the Broadway production is struggling. It opened last year and earned the Tony Award for Best New Play, but ticket sales are down 50%. Last week, for the first time, ‘Cursed Child’ ticket sales grossed less than $1 million. ‘Cursed Child’ ticket sales on Broadway peaked in January and have been on a steady decline ever since.
Now in all fairness, ticket sales on Broadway are down across the board, with high-profile shows like ‘Mean Girls’ and ‘Frozen’ also experiencing slumps, and with Broadway ticket sales overall down 7%. The average Broadway ticket now costs 47% what it did at this time last year. And ‘Cursed Child’ suffers because it is a two-part play (meaning you have to go see the first and second halves separately) and the fact that it is a play, and not a musical, so no catchy songs to sing along to. The show is very elaborate in other ways, with lots of stage magic, stunts, and special effects.
Reportedly, producers invested $35.5 million to bring ‘Cursed Child’ to life on Broadway– making it the most expensive non-musical play– banking on the assumption that it would have as healthy a run there as it did in London’s West End. But now, ticket prices are being slashed (once again, in keeping with other shows, which are also suffering), which makes recouping that large investment even more difficult.
Written by Jack Thorne, based on a story he wrote with J.K. Rowling, and John Tiffany, ‘Harry Potter and the Cursed Child’ is set 19 years after ‘The Deathly Hallows’, and depicts Harry as the adult Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement at the Ministry of Magic, and the father of a young son, Albus Severus Potter, who is attending Hogwart’s for the first time.
Here is the trailer for the show:
Have you seen ‘Harry Potter and the Cursed Child’? Would you recommend it?
Source: The New York Times
