Harry Potter and the Cursed Child Reviews: What the Critics Say

It opened at the Palace Theatre in July 2016 and went on to become the most awarded play in history: nine Olivier Awards including Best New Play, and six Tony Awards including Best Play. The reviews are the reason.

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The Critics' Verdict

Four five-star reviews from The Telegraph, The Stage, The Independent and WhatsOnStage. The Times gave four and three-quarters, choosing that number as a joke about Platform 9¾. The Guardian gave four.

The Telegraph's Dominic Cavendish is the one worth reading if you are undecided, because he arrived expecting to be unimpressed. "I went into the Palace Theatre a sceptic," he wrote, before concluding that "British theatre hasn't known anything like it for decades."

The Stage called it "a truly game-changing production" and made the point that answers the obvious suspicion about a Harry Potter stage show: "It earns its place on the stage, feeling distinct from both the books and the screen adaptations."

What the Reviews Praised

The magic, above everything. Not one review failed to lead on it. Variety summed up why it works: the world is created "not with high-tech wizardry, but through the rough magic of theater." Everything happens live, in the room, twenty feet from you.

The stagecraft that makes it possible. The Guardian singled out a pile of suitcases becoming the Hogwarts Express and staircases that "move as nimbly as Fred Astaire" (4/5). WhatsOnStage described the moment it stopped resisting: a witch prowling along the roof of that train (5/5).

The story, once people got past expecting a spin-off. The Times: "It's not the movie of the book. It's the real deal, live in front of you, so much better than any film could be" (4¾/5).

The two boys at the centre of it. Albus Potter and Scorpius Malfoy, and the friendship between them, which almost every review picked out as the thing that gives the spectacle something to stand on.

Where Reviews Were Mixed

Two things came up more than once, and both are fair.

The female characters get less room than the male ones. Three critics said so independently. The Telegraph put it plainly: "the male roles are far better fleshed out than the female ones."

And the plot is long and complicated. This is the recurring note. The Guardian called the story "convoluted". The Times said "there are mazes that are more straightforward". The Daily Mail's Quentin Letts, the least impressed of the lot, admitted there were "moments I could have done with a glug of gurdyroot infusion to keep me alert".

That criticism matters more now than it did then. The two-part version, running about five hours, played its last performance on 20 September 2026, and a new one-part production of 2 hours 55 minutes opens on 9 October. The thing critics queried is the thing that has been shortened.

Worth adding that Letts, the grumbler, still forecast "a hit probably for years", and it has run for ten.

Audiences agree with the critics. The show scores around 90 out of 100 across roughly a thousand public ratings, and has held that for a decade.

Is Harry Potter and the Cursed Child Right for You?

You will probably love it if you know the books, if you like being genuinely fooled by a piece of stagecraft, or if you are looking for something a family with children of eight and up can all enjoy without anyone pretending.

You will still enjoy it if you know nothing about Harry Potter. Some critics doubted that in 2016. We think the show explains itself, and you will follow it.

You might want something else if long and intricate plotting is not what you want from a night out. It is still a shade under three hours, and it is dense.

Call us on 020 7193 9050 if you are not sure which date to book.

Book Harry Potter and the Cursed Child Tickets

The one-part production opens 9 October 2026 and is booking into June 2027.

Our prices are all-in: the price you see on the seating map is the price you pay.

Full times, cast and seat advice are on our Harry Potter and the Cursed Child tickets page.

Book tickets • Call us on 020 7193 9050

Sources

The Telegraph · The Times · The Guardian · The Independent · The Stage · WhatsOnStage · Evening Standard · Daily Mail · Variety · New York Times · Chicago Tribune