A little over a month ago I wandered through the streets of London and saw the Palace Theatre all dressed up in a Harry Potter Theme for the cursed child. I tried to buy tickets, but the earliest date to see the “eight book” in it’s original form would have been around Christmas. So imagine my surprise when a friend of mine asked on Facebook if anybody is interested in tickets, because someone else couldn’t make it. I jumped at the chance and didn’t realize that I would get ticket to the very first public preview!

To be clear about my background, I am not a hardcore Harry Potter Fan. I didn’t care about the books until I saw the first movie and really liked it. I grew up with Bibi Blocksberg and Krabat and Harry Potter is like a mix between the two written for a generation that is younger than I am. But then I listened to the fantastic german audio books and since then I could agree that the Harry Potter universe is a great place that I would love to spend more time in.

So yesterday was the big day and I was sick. Food poisoning. I laid in bed 24 hours, just sweating it out just to be able to stand for this epic opportunity. So after a couple of showers and some medication I made my way to the Palace Theatre and let me tell you:

IT WAS SO WORTH IT!

The Palace Theatre itself feels like a place where magic happens. I don’t really know what I expected from a Harry Potter theatre show, but it sure wasn’t what I witnessed. I saw magic.

Just as J.K.Rowling asked I will refrain from posting spoilers and I didn’t take any forbidden pictures during the performance, only pictures of the stage before and after. But I have to give one example that wowed me already in the very first minute. Since this is a scene that was already in the movies and the seventh book it’s not really a spoiler. So Harry and Ginny are bringing their two sons to the train station at King’s Cross, they start running towards the wall with their luggage and SWOOSH! Suddenly out of nowhere they are in capes. A complete outfit change in the blink of an eye. The whole next two hours and forty minutes were filled with such stage trickery and effects, which is why I can really recommend every Potter and theatre fan alike to go and see it, even if the story will be known to all when the screenplay releases or when they turn it into a movie down the line. The performance is the key here and seeing magic happen in front of your eyes is sooooo much better than watching some CG in a movie. Maybe it’s even better than imagining it while reading, because for some seeing is believing.

Another thing worth mentioning is how great the stage turned from one scene to another, background characters turned into stagehands, capes were swooshed and made props appear/disappear and I guess magnets under the stage moved things in and out of place “magically”.

The first part of the story ended in a giant cliffhanger, which has me all giddy for a surely epic conclusion tomorrow. Will there be more cameos? More stage trickery? More surprising effects? More great story telling? If the first part has taught me anything, then it will surely be a YES to all of them.