Reviews are out for “Harry Potter and the Cursed Child.”

“Harry Potter and the Cursed Child” is a two-part West End stage play written by Jack Thorne, J.K. Rowling and John Tiffany.

The story is set nineteen years after the events of “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows” and follows Harry Potter, now a Ministry of Magic employee, and his younger son Albus Severus Potter.

That’s all I’m going to tell you because after each performance ushers pass out buttons urging the audience to #KeepTheSecrets

Here are the reviews, scroll down for official “Harry Potter and the Cursed Child” photos and more.

The Guardian’s Michael Billington writes: “John Tiffany, as director of this pair of two-and-a-half-hour plays, has masterminded a thrilling theatrical spectacle.”
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The Telegraph’s Dominic Cavendish: “Much of the first half is taken up with their developing bromance, and Albus’s determination to try to prove himself by using an illegal “time-turner” to change the outcome of the fateful Triwizard Tournament (as recounted in The Goblet of Fire) that resulted in the death of dishy Cedric Diggory.

The second half deals with the knotty ramifications of the pair’s meddling.
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The Independent’s Jack Shepherd:”For many, this version of Harry – whose fathering skills are rather awful and whose arrogance is at times unflattering – will be jarring to fans at first. He’s not perfect, and that’s what makes him so great; this turbulent father/son relationship is entirely captivating and particularly emotional towards the end.”
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The Chicago Tribune’s Chris Jones: “Heretical as this may sound, I walked out of the theater quietly lamenting that the movies ever were made.

Tiffany, Hoggett, and, not least, the set designer Christine Jones and magic persons Jeremy Chernick and Jamie Harrison collectively make the case that it is the theater that more naturally expresses the Rowling gestalt beyond the page.”
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Entertainment Weekly’ James Hibberd : “Author J.K. Rowling, working with London theatre veterans Jack Thorne and John Tiffany, have delivered a production that’s as spectacular as it is ambitious, stuffed with special effects and twists that had a preview audience gasping, Cursed Child is a story that doesn’t play it safe with the Potter canon and will change how fans see certain favorite characters forever.”
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Wall Street Journal’s Kate Maltby: “Mr. Tiffany’s production rises above this morass of complexity, thanks not just to Mr. Clemmett’s and Mr. Boyle’s performances, but to the emotional depth Mr. Tiffany draws out of Ms. Rowling’s first-generation characters.

As Harry, Mr. Parker fleshes out every inch of our old hero: Harry’s short fuse is back—worse now that he’s parenting a teenager”
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Variety’s Matt Trueman: “It’s Boyle, though, who really stands out, and his Scorpius is bound to be a new fan favorite, a lovable geek with wits as quick as his voice is screechy.”
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The New York Times’ Ben Brantley: “Its plot is built on a fantasy that most of us indulge from early childhood: What if we could rewrite our own histories?…This production captures Ms. Rowling’s sensibility even more persuasively than did the special-effects-driven films.”
Brantley creeps on Twitter.

Of course there are lots of cool souvenirs.

My favourites are the patches, one from each of the four houses.

Visit the official website HarryPotterthePlay.com

Photos by Manuel Harlan