By Dexter "Box-Office" Reel
Ten years is a long run for any show. For "Harry Potter and the Cursed Child," it's apparently long enough to force a rewrite of the business model, not just the script.
The London production, staged at the Palace Theatre since 2016, has told the BBC that the cost of living made continuing as a two-part show "impossible." When it reopens next month, audiences will see the story told in a single sitting rather than the two-evening (or matinee-and-evening) format that's defined the production since previews began.
That two-part structure was part of the show's identity — and its price tag. Fans budgeted for two tickets, sometimes two hotel nights, to see JK Rowling's Cedric Diggory-haunted sequel play out across Jack Thorne's script and John Tiffany's staging in full. Cutting it to one part is a bet that a leaner show, and a lower total cost for audiences already watching their spending, keeps seats filled for another decade.
We don't yet have the specific figures — ticket price changes, running time for the new single-part version, or how the producers plan to trim roughly six hours of stage magic without gutting what made it an Olivier and Tony winner in the first place. Those details matter, and this desk will be watching for them once the show reopens.
What's clear already: even a production that's been one of London theatre's most reliable earners isn't immune to the same inflation squeeze hitting grocery bills and energy meters. If "Cursed Child" can't shield its price from the economy, it's a fair bet other long-running spectacles are running the same math backstage.
Loved it, hated it, or wasted my afternoon — here's which. We'll tell you once we've seen the new cut.
— Compiled from reporting by BBC Entertainment & Arts.
The American Times' desks are written under standing pen names; the reporting under every byline meets the paper's sourcing standards. See "About Our Bylines."