Harry Potter and the Cursed Child

I think
The most perfect theatrical experience

I have ever seen in play form

Engaging
Exciting

Plot driven

Moving

Well executed and staged

That's exactly what I'm seeing on Twitter. People really loved it as a play, but are a bit doubtful on welcoming this story as part of the Potter canon... interesting. Makes me even more anxious for my shows to come!

The first casualty of previews has been announced, to no suprise probably. So many people I overheard asking what previews were about. I said to them it means you may see things people will not see in future performances.

the film adaptation probably won't happen for another decade partly because WB has the Fantastic Beasts trilogy but also theyll want the original cast to be the same age give or take a few years plus the producer will want to have a few stage productions up and running first

Announced where? Aaargh. So conflicted. I want to know but don't want to know spoilers haha.

Cool, thanks. Just found it. Great.

How similarly does the Friday Forty operate to, say, schemes like the NT's Friday Rush or the Donmar's Barclays Front Row? Is it one of those where it's worth hanging on for another half hour in case things fall or are dropped from the baskets of the people who get through first, or is it its own beast?

The best option seems to be to hold on until it tells you all tickets are sold. It seems to have built in the potential for tickets being dropped from baskets. You stay in the queue until everyone has paid I think.

People all over Twitter are posting the link to the dailybeast which has a full plot summary. Now the consensus seems to be that the story is terrible fan fiction and laughable though I have no intention of clicking and finding out. Does the story come across better on the stage? They've alway said that it was done as a play for a reason as it wouldn't work as a book or movie

The story comes across much better on stage. I've seen the hysterical posts and, yes, they do make it sound like bad fanfic. I can think of two possible reasons for that:

- Most of them were written by people who haven't seen the show and have got their information second or third hand from social media. They're not getting any of the dialogue, character, or any of the many other things that make up the story as a whole, just the bare bones of the plot written up rapidly by someone who has only just seen the show and is still giving their immediate impression. Which leads on to ...

- The eighth story wasn't originally planned, the book plot was tied up well, and the only way to tell a new story was going to be to unpick a bit of that somehow. On top of that there was SO much hype that the play was never going to live up to most people's high expectations immediately. I was unsure on Thursday night, but having had time to think there's one point I have an issue with but otherwise I'm happy with it. The Tumblr and Twitter posts, however, were written straight after the show, in the knee-jerk "freak out" period.

There's also possibly an element of people who know they're not going to be able to see it being relieved to be able to jump on the "Well, it's laughably bad so I don't want to see it anyway" train, even subconsciously. It'll be interesting to see how it changes as more info gets out from more performances and once the script is released.

"There's a wizard school and our hero is an orphan who is the super special chosen one who eventually defeats the evillest wizard in the world using the power of love."

She's got a point, you know.

Just got in from Part 1.

I agree with a lot of what people have sai already. It's all done very well. Both cast and technical stuff are excellent. It's also running pretty smoothly. I'd change one or two little things but people in the spoiler thread seem to really like one element that I thought didn't go down so well with tonight's audience so will be interesting to see what others think.

On that note I feel like the spoiler thread needs to be in two parts! I've read some stuff there but had to stop to avoid seeing part 2 spoilers, so can't post thoughts.

Seatswise, we have E10 and E11 which are great. Nelly - I didn't try out your seat but from where I was sitting it looked like the back of the stalls would be ok. I don't think the overhang will affect too much.

I think some people have already said this but I would not want to read the script before watching the show. It's very much designed to be seen. The ending of Part 1 in particular was epic and I can't see it coming across the same in writing.