In a new profile piece about super-theatre-producer Sonia Friedman, leading up to this weekend's Olivier Awards in London, she admitted that she doesn't expect to be settled with her production of
Harry Potter and the Cursed Child until there are 10 productions worldwide. What this means is that the production team, led by Friedman, is or will be seeking out plans to have the two-part production open in other venues beyond the West End, and Broadway next year.
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The rest is theatrical history, still in the making. So, what next? The show will get a Broadway incarnation next year but Friedman says she won’t be “settled until we have 10 productions around the world”. Will it be like a blockbuster musical? “Yes, but it’s a play, and seven hours in the theatre, so we have to get it right.”
Friedman also briefly mentioned the first time she met author J.K. Rowling at her Edinburgh home, and how they bonded over loss of parents:
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She had been in tears when she knocked on J K Rowling’s door in Edinburgh, readying to make the big pitch; her father had lived in the neighbouring street. “I’d been thinking, ‘If only my dad were alive now, perhaps he’d finally be proud of me’.
So, I talked a lot about him when we first met. We didn’t talk about merchandise and box-office. I talked about what I wanted an audience to feel. I said, ‘I think this needs to be about a dad who doesn’t know how to be a dad’.”
Harry Potter and the Cursed Child is up for a record 11 Oliver Awards for Sunday's show, including Best Play and several acting accolades.