Opinion: How did 'Harry Potter and the Cursed Child' bewitch the West End?

As Harry Potter and the Cursed Child celebrates its 10th anniversary in the West End, Marianka Swain examines the show’s spellbinding power, global reach, and extraordinary legacy.

Summary

• Harry Potter and the Cursed Child turned 10 on 31 July 2026
• The show created the 'event play'
• The play set a new record at the Olivier Awards with 11 nominations and nine wins

It was in July 2016 that I took my seat in the Palace Theatre, excited but also nervous. Like many audience members, I was a lifelong fan of the Harry Potter book series – I had grown up with Harry, Ron and Hermione, secretly wishing I too might receive my letter from Hogwarts – and hoped that this new West End stage production, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, might capture just a tiny bit of that magic.

When the actual play began, I was astonished, thrilled, and, yes, utterly enchanted. Not only were all my favourite characters and settings there (the Hogwarts Express! The Ministry of Magic!), but new people who soon had a hold on my heart, particularly adorable misfit Scorpius Malfoy, as well as a fresh, exciting adventure. I was also dumbstruck by seeing spells performed live in front of me, transformations done with the flick of a wand.

I am certainly not alone in my elated response: the show has since run for 10 years in London, and celebrated its landmark anniversary in July. It set a new record at the 2017 Olivier Awards, with 11 nominations and nine wins, has expanded to numerous other countries, and continues to enthral audiences. It is so much more than a great theatrical production: it is a global movement.

The potential was always there for this to be an international hit, but success in a new medium is never guaranteed. All credit then to the team behind Cursed Child, particularly producers Sonia Friedman and Colin Callender, who patiently developed the idea with author JK Rowling, and brought on board serious theatrical talent: director John Tiffany, already a Tony Award winner for musical Once, and rising-star writer Jack Thorne, who had adapted vampire tale Let The Right One In for the stage.

All of the Cursed Child creative team have since gone on to have stellar careers, with this play proving a wonderful platform. Thorne is now the multi-award-winning writer who captured the zeitgeist, and a massive Netflix audience, with acclaimed TV drama Adolescence, as well as adapting His Dark Materials and Lord of the Flies for screen.

Cursed Child further illustrated the vital contribution of a movement director, thanks to Steven Hoggett; his subsequent work includes The Ocean at the End of the Lane and Sweeney Todd on Broadway. The production also wouldn’t be nearly as wondrous without the illusions by Jamie Harrison, who repeated the feat with another West End hit, Stranger Things: The First Shadow.

That latter show might not have been possible without the success of Cursed Child, which essentially invented “the event play”. It was incredibly rare back then to witness that level of excitement – the theatrical equivalent of a Marvel movie, with fans travelling thousands of miles to see the magical world of Harry Potter brought to life on stage. Even more impressively, audiences honoured the producers’ plea to “keep the secrets”: no one wanted to spoil the experience for someone else.

Of course, fans in other countries soon had Cursed Child coming to them as the show expanded to numerous regions, beginning with Broadway, in 2018, where it won six Tony Awards. It has since travelled to Australia and Germany, Canada and Japan, its core messages – about family, friendship, identity, and acceptance – proving truly universal. Such a remarkable, ambitious international rollout, with the show travelling so far afield and even being translated into different languages, is usually reserved for juggernaut musicals rather than plays.

Cursed Child is an important part of the continuing appeal of Harry Potter, alongside the books, film adaptations, and, coming up soon, a new TV version. It has also worked wonders in terms of bringing new audiences (of all ages) to theatre: it’s the perfect introduction to a medium imbued with unforgettable storytelling magic. Within this room, we can conjure up anything, from wizards and witches to boundless imaginative worlds. That has been a revelation for many who previously assumed theatre just wasn’t for them, and felt welcomed in through Cursed Child.

Fantastic actors have led the show, many of them getting a well-deserved boost in profile, including original West End cast members Jamie Parker, Noma Dumezweni, Sam Clemmett, and Anthony Boyle. More recently, fans were incredibly touched by the return to the franchise of Tom Felton, who played Draco Malfoy in the movies. He is currently starring as the adult Draco on Broadway, which he described as a meaningful “full-circle moment”.

Cursed Child has also admirably responded to its audiences and adapted accordingly. In 2018 this two-part play was reimagined as a one-part production for Broadway, and this autumn the West End show will follow suit. That should increase accessibility and allow even more people to experience the magic – an important development for such a universally beloved story.

I raise my goblet to this spellbinding show and wish it another 10 years – or more – of theatrical enchantment. Mischief managed!

Book Harry Potter and the Cursed Child: Both Parts tickets on LondonTheatre.co.uk

Book Harry Potter and the Cursed Child: One Part tickets on LondonTheatre.co.uk

This article first appeared in the August 2026 issue of London Theatre Magazine.

Photo credit: Harry Potter and the Cursed Child in the West End. (Photos by Manuel Harlan)