Hi! I'm Ellie, and I love Harry Potter. Like, I love Harry Potter. I spent most of my childhood sitting by myself in a corner reading the books, and I spend a lot of my adulthood doing the same.
So when I found out that J.K. Rowling was releasing the EIGHTH story in the form of a play, and it was opening in London, where I (blessedly) live, I knew I had to see it.
yes, harry potter and the cursed child tickets ARE going on sale in twenty minutes. yes, i AM having a tiny little meltdown in the office.
It was an incredibly stressful process that included a pre-queue, a queue, and a fight to the death*. But I eventually got tickets for the opening night(s), and I could not have been happier.
it's 100% possible that i'm going to cry at work
*OK so this is a lie.
OK, here's the deal with Cursed Child. It's a sequel to the series, set 19 years later, and follows Harry's son, Albus Severus. It's also in two parts – I saw the first part on Tuesday and the second part on Thursday.
Before any of that, though, I made a pilgrimage to the Palace Theatre in London to see the front of house. It was beautiful.
My tickets arrived at my house about a week before the performance. They were beautiful too.
When it got to the actual day, I legitimately could not wait for 7:30. After work, I ate ice cream for dinner, and made my way directly to the theatre, where there was a really damn long queue.
What I have learned from this process: I am really, really good at waiting patiently in queues while I am, in fact, screaming on the inside.
When I finally got into the theatre, I joined yet another queue to buy merch, because I am incapable of stepping away from a Potter-themed gift shop when I see one.
AND THEN IT WAS TIME FOR THE PLAY ITSELF. And, look, I'm not going to spoil it – I don't want to get anywhere near J.K. Rowling's bad books – but it was amazing.
Imagine you're sitting in a room full of die-hard Potter fans, watching the first ever public viewing of a story we've been waiting for for almost nine years. Just the ~experience~ of being in that room full of people gasping, screaming, and laughing along was incredible.
After the performance, everyone was handed one of these badges on their way out of the door.
There's no doubt that the worst part of this whole experience was the wait for part two. Because I saw the show during previews, I had to wait almost two whole days to see the second part. 😭😭😭
At the moment (during previews), you can either see Part 1 on Tuesdays and Part 2 on Thursdays, or both parts on a Saturday. When it opens officially, you'll be able to see both Parts 1 and 2 on Wednesdays, Saturdays, and Sundays, or see Part 1 on Thursday and Part 2 on Friday.
After the struggle of waiting, though, I decided that the wait actually made it ~better~. There were a lot of things to think about after Part 1 ended, and seeing Part 2 immediately afterwards would have been overwhelming and emotionally draining af.
I didn't think it was possible, but Part 2 was even more emotional than Part 1. I laughed, and I cried, and I laughed and cried at the same time, and at one point, I was terrified.
not many things can make you laugh and cry simultaneously. @HPPlayLDN is one of them. #CursedChild #KeepTheSecrets
I was still emotionally drained when I woke up the next morning.
I'm not allowed to spoil anything for you, and I wouldn't even if I could. But let this speak for itself: Today – the day after I saw Part 2 – I was looking for ways to get more tickets.
FYI, the Friday Forty is a kind of Cursed Child ticket lottery. Every Friday at 1pm, they release 40 tickets for each of the following week's shows. You get placed in an online queue and picked at random to buy tickets for a significantly lowered price.