Harry Potter and the Cursed Child

I think it's more the length of the preview period that's the issue here, and I can understand why. The whole point of a preview is to try out in front of an audience the aspects of a script that need to be tried out in front of an audience. If your script is so iffy that it takes weeks of trying things out to get it right then you're in the wrong business. Similarly if you're fixing technical issues during previews: those are things that can be sorted out without an audience and there's no excuse for inflicting them on the audience.

I'm not quite sure why Harry Potter is doing this. It's not as if the production would struggle to meet its break-even point without gimmicks.

There is going to be two editions of the script which are the Rehearsal Edition which is out on the 31st July and the Collector's Edition which likely include all the revisions at a later date. I assume the script books are in the process of being made and published so they can't make any revision to the Rehearsal script books.

You can make (not too complicated) revisions up until fairly late in the publishing process, and I believe the Collector's Edition is due to contain production pictures, so it's not *wholly* unfeasible that the Rehearsal Edition could contain updates of things ironed out in early previews. I was just brainstorming possible reasons for the extended preview period, I'm sure I could keep going if I really wanted to.

Agree with all Baemax's thoughts.

I'd also guess that part of the reason for the extra long preview period is to try and promote the #keepthesecrets idea for as long as possible. While there's a press embargo they can try and shroud it in secrecy, whilst keeping up a healthy social media buzz.

Think back to the days of the HP books when you had to try and read it as fast as possible to avoid spoilers. Clearly that's much harder with the advent of Twitter etc, but they seem to have turned this around to their advantage. Fans are happy that they don't gets spoilers and the producers/JK get lots of media attention without any focus on the actual content of the play. Just calling something secret automatically ramps up the excitement. Which makes for a great atmosphere before the play even starts (and potentially allows the audience to overlook any shortcomings because they've already been swept up in the magic).

And you can rely on the hardcore Potter fans to shut down anyone (including the press) who tries to defy JK herself and spoil it for others. It may still be hard for the critics to go to town on it once it opens, especially if nothing has leaked throughout previews. Reviews will have to be pretty generic or risk the wrath of fans. Which is fine for a glowing review. But if reviews are negative, they'll struggle to back up what they're saying without being accused of spoiling something for the army of fans who are waiting patiently to see it.

I've just talked myself into concluding that it's a brilliant marketing ploy.

I muted Baz very quickly last night, he was definitely saying more than I was happy with. Guess I'll just be waiting until Friday mornings for his theatre news now, rather than waiting up on a Thursday night for it to filter through Twitter.

Speaking as a production editor, we'd really rather people didn't make late revisions!

The production schedule will depend on a million and 1 things, and I do journals rather than books so don't know what the print lead-time normally is, but given the number of books they need to print and the number of places they need to ship them to it would not surprise me if it's going to press in the next week.

Ok so I cant make it to Part 2 tomorrow. If anyone is midlands area and can get to Warwick to pick the ticket up you are welcome to it.

So sorry you aren't able to make it after all. No post office still open? I'm sure my friend would love it but I'm not coming to get it.

Edit: oops, it's later in the day than I thought.

So glad you probably have someone, hope they are ready to jump into the middle of the story with hopefully some explanation from you. Shame you won't get to see part 2 till September now, hope the wait doesn't feel like forever.

Will do if I see a lost looking person in your seat. Good luck with getting tickets again for before September, you managed the day before yesterday so hopefully you succeed again.

The fact that Warner Bros has set a Harry Potter Global Franchise Development Group makes me think the brand is likely to remain a money spinner for a very long time

feeling fairly confident about being able to stay spoiler free for the next week until the 16th/17th performance.. So excited to see it.