Sonia Friedman: the new Cursed Child is “like stepping into a Ferrari... you put the pedal down and off you go”

We caught up with Sonia Friedman, producer of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, at the gala for its new one-part version to talk about turning a five-and-a-half-hour epic into a three-hour story, what the change reveals about the play, and where she hopes it will be in ten years.

Sonia Friedman was standing outside the Palace Theatre just over ten years ago, when Harry Potter and the Cursed Child opened as a two-part play. This October, the producer was back for the gala of the reimagined one-part version, which tells the whole story in a single evening.

A journey a decade in the making

Colin Callender, Sonia Friedman, Jack Thorne and John Tiffany pose together backstage, arms around each other's shoulders, in front of a dark carved wooden panelled wall. — *The people who’ve brought the Cursed Child to the stage: Colin Callender, Sonia Friedman, John Tiffany and Jack Thorne (from left to right)*

The one-part version isn’t new to everyone. It opened in New York a few years ago, just after the pandemic, so for Friedman it was only a matter of time before it came to London. “It has been a long journey,” she says.

She’s quick to credit the people who made the change possible. “I’m very, very proud of everybody on the creative team, the whole company, the technical teams, who’ve pulled off this extraordinary feat,” she says, of taking a play that ran for around five and a half hours and delivering it in around three.

From a Rolls Royce to a Ferrari

The cast of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, photo by Manuel Harlan — *The cast in the reimagined one-part Cursed Child. Credit Manuel Harlan*

Friedman has a ready analogy for how the two experiences differ. “The two-parter was like sitting in a Rolls Royce and going on a long, luxurious journey,” she says. “This version is like stepping into a Ferrari, and you put the pedal down and off you go.”

She’s careful not to rank them. “Both experiences are amazing. Both are premium and wonderful, but they’re very different. But also the same.”

Two boys, two complicated fathers

*The new cast of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child. Photo by Matt Crockett*

What excites her most about the new version is where it puts the focus. The two-part play gave audiences time to sit back and reflect on Harry’s backstory. The one-part version, she says, is “about driving forward and looking to the future and the next generation.”

That brings Albus and Scorpius to the front. “It allows us to focus on the boys, their story, their story of coming to terms with who they are, understanding that being a son of a complicated parent isn’t easy,” Friedman says. She’s especially fond of the friendship at its heart. “The relationship between Scorpius and Albus in this new version is really beautiful, and it’s been the joy of this experience watching those characters grow.”

The fathers have their own journey too. “Draco’s son and Harry’s son, and watching them as fathers grapple with, as they see it, their tricky sons, and as the tricky sons see it, their tricky dads,” she says. “I love the fact that dads and sons and families come together, and they hold hands, and they go on a journey together, and they come out slightly changed.”

Ten years from now

Asked where she sees Harry Potter and the Cursed Child in a decade’s time, Friedman doesn’t hesitate. “Well, I hope here,” she says. “It’s a universal story,” and between that, the stagecraft and the imagination her creative team put into it, she believes it’s timeless. “Because it’s set in an alternate universe anyway, it will never go out of date. It will always be relevant.”

She points to what the play is really about. “We will always need to understand the power of friendship. We will always need to understand what it is to lose someone. We will always need to understand how you deal with loss and grief, and we will always celebrate the courage of young people.”

Her conclusion is simple. “I think it will always be around.”

Bringing the magic

For the last question, we asked how it feels to have played a part in bringing so much magic into people’s lives. Friedman’s answer is short: “I love it.”

Watch the full interview here

Book tickets to Harry Potter and the Cursed Child at the Palace Theatre here