Nishchal Patel

Fantasticly played out on stage. The fast paced continuous scene changes and storyline is great although it follows the classic, clichéd, done a hundred times, time travel routine where changing details of the past effect the current future. At times it felt rushed, and at other times it felt like time stood still (not sure if it was actors forgetting their lines). Actreses who played Hermionie Granger and Moaning Mertel deserve mass credit for the eay they portrayed and switched between their characters, whilst other actors were mild at best, and some were just really bland, i.e. the young child Harry Potter, which I'm sorry to say, felt like watching a primary school play. I loved how they captured so much of the essence from the film set, which brought small smiles of reminiscance as you watched, however.., these guys either really missed a trick (excuse the pun) or simply felt this was purely a money making machine with no genuine wish to please their audience. Having seen similar plays and musicals and the incredible props and scene sets, this play lacked lustre. There was a huge opportunity to create that magical world of Harry Potter but instead we were given a handful of cheap magic tricks and simple sets. Corners were cut, e.g. a scene at the end shows the cast at a graveyard and they had dry ice run across the stage with black suitcases propped around to represent tombstones. The moving staircases scene was brilliant yet moved around by stagehands dressed in black with no intention to hide or cover them up. I've seen lower budget plays and musicals that this play came on par with. Felt really sad when stall tickets reach £360 and they skimped on what could've been a truly magical experience. Maybe I just had high expections given the theater and ticket pricing, but when you've seen performance, stage sets and props used in the likes of Back to the Future for example, it's a fair ask. Don't want to destroy it for anyone that hasn't been, it really is a fantastic play. Just feel it could've and should've been so much better. They really missed and opportunity here. For those reasons, it scores an average 3 stars from me.