Massive demand for ‘Harry Potter’ play tickets in London snags website
J.K. Rowling, author of the “Harry Potter” novels, has co-written the story for a sequel to the books and films that will unfold onstage at London’s Palace Theatre starting in June 2016. Demand swamped the system when advance tickets went on sale Wednesday.
“New Harry Potter” are the magic words in the British theater right now.
Advance tickets for a two-part Potter stage play -- way-in-advance tickets, since “Harry Potter and the Cursed Child” won’t begin previews until June 7, 2016 -- went on sale Wednesday, and the extraordinary demand caused things to go awry in a way that was a headache for would-be online buyers, but probably a delight for the show’s producers.
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The Telegraph reported that tickets for the first three months of performances at London’s Palace Theatre, through Sept. 18, sold out within an hour. However, some buyers who thought they’d scored seats learned that the system had lost their purchases, and couldn’t get back in to try again.
The thing is, advance tickets weren’t even on offer yet to the general public. Only folks who’d signed up on the show’s website for a chance to buy “priority” tickets could put in an order starting at 11 a.m. Wednesday, London time.
The general ticketing free-for-all starts Saturday, when anyone can go on the website to buy.
The show is a sequel to J.K. Rowling’s phenomenally popular “Harry Potter” novels and their film versions. It’s based on a story by Rowling, Jack Thorne and John Tiffany; Thorne wrote the script and Tiffany will direct.
Producers recommend that the two parts, each equivalent to a full-length play, be seen on the same day or consecutive days.
According to the show’s website, the action is set 19 years after the novels and films left off. Harry is now “an overworked employee of the Ministry of Magic, a husband and father of three school-age children.”
Harry’s youngest son, Albus, will be a protagonist who “struggles with the weight of a family legacy he never wanted,” while pop Potter “grapples with a past that refuses to stay where it belongs.”
Why two parts? Because, we’re told, of the “epic nature” of the tale.
The staging promises not to be static, even apart from any flying that may be involved. Director Tiffany and “movement director” Steven Hoggett were the team behind the kinetic stage production “The Black Watch,” about the history of a fabled Scottish army regiment. They also teamed up for the more intimate storytelling of the stage adaptation of the rock ‘n’ roll fable “Once.”
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