Latest news with #HarryPotterandtheCursedChild
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Magical music of ‘Harry Potter' will come to life at Springfield Symphony Hall
SPRINGFIELD — The magical music of 'Harry Potter' will be performed live at Springfield Symphony Hall on Oct. 25 at 4 p.m. 'The Magical Music of Harry Potter: Live in Concert' will feature soundtracks from the franchise's eight-film run, as well as music from 'Harry Potter and the Cursed Child,' all performed by the Magical Film Orchestra and Choir. The concert will include songs composed by legendary film composer John Williams for the first three films — 'Hedwig's Theme,' 'Double Trouble,' 'Aunt Marge's Waltz' and 'Witches, Wands and Wizards,' among others. Other titles to be featured include 'Hogwarts' Hymn' by Patrick Doyle, 'Dumbledore's Farewell' by Nicholas Hooper, and 'Lily's Theme' by Alexandre Desplat. The live show will be enhanced with lights and lasers, to make the performances feel like you're truly stepping foot into Hogwarts. To make the evening especially magical for 'Harry Potter' fans, a special guest from the 'Harry Potter' films will be in attendance — just who that special guest is will be announced at a later date. Tickets to 'The Magical Music of Harry Potter: Live in Concert' at Springfield Symphony Hall go on sale Friday at 10 a.m. MGM Rewards members receive exclusive presale access on Thursday. Tickets can be purchased on MGM Springfield's website. Read the original article on MassLive. Solve the daily Crossword
UPI
12-07-2025
- Entertainment
- UPI
Noma Dumezweni: Timing for 'Murderbot' is 'absolutely perfect'
1 of 3 | Noma Dumezweni and Alexander Skarsgard star in "Murderbot," now streaming. Photo courtesy of Apple TV+. NEW YORK, July 12 (UPI) -- Harry Potter and the Cursed Child and The Undoing actress Noma Dumezweni says the themes of hope, community and acceptance in her futuristic sci-fi series, Murderbot, are relatable and important in 2025. "I have the joy of playing Dr. Ida Mensah from the Preservation Alliance," Dumezweni, 55, told UPI in a recent Zoom interview. "You can be whatever you want. We don't align ourselves with the polities of the Corporation Rim, which are all different planets, owned by corporations, and the timing for the show is absolutely perfect. It feels like right now." The adaptation of Martha Wells' novella stars Alexander Skarsgard as the titular, partly organic, security unit cyborg, which finds a way to override its "obey" function and think for itself as it is assigned to guard a group of free-spirited scientists led by Mensah (Dumezweni) and Gurathin (David Dastmalchian). Dune and Dexter: Resurrection actor Dastmalchian, 49, described his character as an "augmented human." "Though he is a human, he has a portal so he can connect to data through computer systems both through bluetooth technology and through cables," Dastmalchian explained. "He is an analyzer, a data analytic specialist. He's able to process large streams of data and store data and run it through his computation, so he's on the lookout for any anomalies, always on the lookout for making sure everything stays straight in alignment," the actor added. "He's very, what we would call, 'Type A.'" And that occasionally puts him at odds with the hippie scientist community he finds himself a part of. "It's wild," Dastmalchian said. "I'm right in the middle of this free-loving, socialistic [group]. We've got throuples over here. Oh, my God!" Dumezweni called Gurathin a "wonderful bridge between Murderbot and the Preservation." "They know what that world is, but they understand what the possibility of this world is, so therefore Gurathin's cynicism towards Murderbot is called for, but, for Mensah, [she is like]: 'No, we're all good. Let's try and find out what else we have in common." "He has a healthy dose of skepticism," Dastmalchian chimed in. The actor said the scripts by Paul and Chris Weitz expertly blend entertaining storytelling with important social issues. "It's the gift of great writing and being around an ensemble of great artists," Dastmalchian said. "You play it straight. We're never looking for the laugh. You're never looking for the sci-fi moment, the drama moment. You're playing the intention of the characters, their relationships to one another in the given circumstances and all the amazing, extreme mise-en-scene that comes with building a world like this is just all the fun." Dumezweni also credited Wells with creating such a dynamic, colorful world in the first place. "These stories are so clearly what we are creating and what Paul and Chris have created for us to be part of and that's the joy," she said. "From the well of Wells!" Dastmalchian added. Jon Cho, Jack McBrayer, Clark Gregg, Sabrina Wu, DeWanda Wise, Akshay Khanna, Tattiawna Jones and Tamara Podemski co-star. Season 1 is now streaming on Apple TV+. The show has already been renewed for Season 2.
Time Magazine
01-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Time Magazine
The Writer of the Stranger Things Play on Working on Season 5 at the Same Time
It should come as no surprise that Stranger Things, the wildly popular Netflix show that premiered in 2016, now has a prequel. But in an unexpected twist, the new saga is not a television series or movie but a Broadway play. Stranger Things: The First Shadow serves as an origin story for Henry Creel—better known as Vecna (Jamie Campbell Bower)—a major antagonist who is introduced in Season 4. Like Millie Bobby Brown's Eleven, Henry was born with telekinetic and psychic abilities and was subjected to cruel experiments by Dr. Brenner (Matthew Modine), a scientist intent on harnessing those powers. But unlike Eleven, Henry chose to channel his connection to the Upside Down for evil rather than good. But The First Shadow offers a sympathetic backstory for Henry before he became a killer. Set in 1959 Hawkins, Ind., the story follows a young Henry as he attends high school alongside teenage versions of familiar characters like Joyce Byers and Jim Hopper. Much like a season of the beloved show, the play serves up a long mystery—as well as some jokes, high school drama, and deep dives into nerd culture—as the citizens of Hawkins attempt to understand why people around them keep dying. Though longtime Stranger Things writer Kate Trefry had never written a play before when she agreed to take on First Shadow, the creators of Stranger Things—twin brothers Matt and Ross Duffer—were adamant that the stage production needed to mimic the tone and style of the series and align with its mythology. They believed only someone from the Stranger Things writers' room could effectively bridge the world of the streaming series and the live show. Working from a story she co-wrote with the Duffers and writing vet Jack Thorne (Adolescence, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, Enola Holmes), Trefry crafted the script for The First Shadow while co-writing the fifth and final season of the Netflix phenomenon. The hope was to create a live experience that deepens the story of the final season of the show—set to premiere in three batches this fall and winter—without revealing any major spoilers. After premiering in London in December 2023, the show moved to Broadway in April 2025. Louis McCartney, who played Creel in both productions, was nominated for Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Play. The show was nominated for a handful of other Tonys, and won a special award for the show's jaw-dropping special effects. We talked to Trefry about how she dealt with a constantly changing Season 5—which was still being edited—and the surprising popularity of those demogorgon plushies. With something like Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, your co-writer Jack Thorne was writing a prequel based on a completed text. What were the challenges of writing a prequel to a show that is not done yet? It sounds like everything was changing even as you were writing the play. It was trying to create a past for something whose future was not finished yet. It was really hard and a unique writing challenge. It needed to be something that agreed with everything that happened in Season 1-4 but also enhances Season 5—without giving away anything that happens in Season 5. And also you can't have needed to see the play in order to understand Season 5. It was this tiny keyhole to fit the story into. I was working on Season 5 and the play at the same time, so I was able to massage both sides to try to make them both as satisfying as possible. But it was probably too much. I never thought about anything else. How did you become the writer of the play? It was crazy of them to choose someone who had no playwriting experience. I had only ever worked on TV shows. But the goal was to make a play that felt like the show, and the only way to do that was to have someone who writes for the show work on the play. I don't think that anybody could come in from outside the show and understand the tiny nuances, not only of the mythology and the characters but straddling the upcoming season, being up-to-date on how things were changing moment to moment. The end of Season 5 would change between the morning and afternoon of a single day. And I was embedded in both places. Did you run into any problems with Season 5 changing? There was one thing I can't talk about. We actually sort of snuck it in the play. If you know what you're looking for you can see it. It's still there. Vecna doesn't show up as the Big Bad of this franchise until Season 4. When did he emerge as a character that the writers thought merited an entire play dedicated to his backstory? We had so many conflicting ideas for him. There was a lot of debate: Is he like Michael Myers—like inherently bad? Is he Damien from The Omen—like an evil boy under the influence of the Mind Flayer in a way that we don't understand yet? Who is the puppet master and who is the puppet? We had so many debates in the writers' room about what kind of Big Bad he was that it was easy to say, let's write an entire story answering that question. I would describe the audience as not your typical Broadway audience. People were screaming every time an easter egg was revealed. People were trying to film the play. It was like being at Disney World. I happened to see Denzel Washington and Paul Mescal in their respective plays in the few weeks before I saw First Shadow and those movie stars were not eliciting wild reactions quite like this. What is it about the show that provokes such an ecstatic response? It's funny, actually, that you say that. The girl who plays Eleven, obviously this is her Broadway debut. She's nine years old. And when she comes out on stage for a few minutes people stand up and start clapping and screaming, which is not the usual reaction to a debut Broadway performance. It's a lot of things. The audience skews really young and really green. The last statistic I heard was I think 65% of the people who come to The First Shadow have never been to a Broadway show before—excuse me, have never been to a play before. Wow. And so people are being introduced to the medium for the first time through the lens of a show and a piece of IP they really like. I think the response you saw is the pure shock and pure joy of seeing something performed live for the first time. If you've been watching stuff on your computer your entire life, and then you go to the theater and all of the sudden, action is happening and you can't figure out how it's happening because we have this spectacular illusions team getting into your brain—that's pretty visceral. It's pretty primal. I think that's a huge part of it. I think the other thing is, we've seen delays with Season 5 of Stranger Things with COVID and then the writers' strike. It goes on and on. I think people are excited to be stepping back into the world again for the first time in years. I saw the show dozens of times in London and New York, and it's the same whether you go to a Wednesday matinee or a Saturday night. It's the same level of absolute chaos. And it's wonderful to see kids coming with their parents and grandparents who have maybe never seen Stranger Things. It's an amazing way to introduce a new generation to theater. I saw that they were selling Demogorgon plushies. I don't know that I would want to fall asleep holding that thing. My kids have one, and they also have the breakable Prancer cat [a cat that unfortunately suffers the wrath of Henry Creel and has its bones broken in the play]. Oh! It's quite twisted. I did not know the show skewed so young. Obviously as the characters have matured, the show has gotten scarier over time. What is the demographic you were writing for when working on Season 5? Is it the same age group as almost a decade ago when the show began? And is it the same demo you were writing the play for? That's such a good question because I was writing the play at the same time as Season 5, so I conflated those audiences, for better or worse. Think of Season 1 as The Goonies. Over the seasons we've sort of aged up with the actors and audience into those high school years. So the show and now the play is kind of like, maybe a dark PG-13, like an 80s PG-13. Freshman and sophomore year of high school are, to me, a turning point for so many of us. Your identity is solidifying. So if you are going to tell the story of someone becoming evil, going through the major emotional crossroads that happen through puberty, the play can't be about 11-year-olds. It has to be about 15-year-olds. I also think people underestimate kids. I have a six-year-old, and she's like a teenager. I don't think you should take your six-year-olds to the show, but I've certainly seen them at the show. I think 10, 11, 12, is kind of the sweet spot, even if the show is about 14, 15, 16-year-olds. My toddler is only interested in older kids. Yeah my three-year-old is always copying the six-year-old, so I have two teenagers. They both call me, 'Bruh' now. I didn't realize that 'bruh' was still part of the cultural vernacular. Their generation is bringing it back. So I actually am pregnant with our second right now and during the opening scene of the show, which involves all these flashing lights, fog, and intense music—all part of a cinematic set piece involving a World War II ship—the baby was going crazy in my belly. How early in the process did you know you wanted to open the play with the sort of stunt that might appear on the TV show? From the jump. I didn't know how to write a play because I had never done it before. And they were like, 'Don't write a play. You don't know how to do that. Write the show.' Every season of the show starts with a cold open that introduces a supernatural element. Then we go into the mundane world of the everyday, and we explain how those things are connected to each other. So the idea of doing the Philadelphia Experiment [a fabled event from World War II in which the military made a ship disappear from the radar and supposedly transported it to another dimension] is something that we've talked about in the writers room for years. That conspiracy theory was top of mind. So when they threw down the gauntlet for me and said, 'Write whatever you want to write, and we'll figure out how to stage it—maybe we won't, but we'll try to make it feel like a TV show,' I was like, 'Okay, what about a real battleship on stage that disappears and goes to another dimension? You asked for it. Here you go.' And it's Stranger Things so we want people in awe. The play ends with the little Netflix 'Next Episode' button popping up on the stage. It felt very on brand for Netflix. Are they thinking about the play as a proof of concept for future stage productions? No. There were no strings attached, no expectations. I had pretty much complete creative control of what the story was. If there was any studio meddling, nobody ever came to me. They just kept saying yes.
Miami Herald
30-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Miami Herald
‘Harry Potter' Stars' Surprise Reunion Has Fans ‘Literally Screaming'
It's been over 20 years since Jason Isaacs and Tom Felton made their onscreen debut as dastardly father-son duo Lucius and Draco Malfoy in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets - but as a recent appearance proved, the actors are still just as close as ever. In a clip shared to TikTok this week from the Funko Fundays fan event in Hollywood, Isaacs, 62, was being interviewed onstage when Felton, 37, approached sneakily from behind. Of course, as soon as they audience spotted Felton they started screaming, prompting a surprised Isaacs to spin around and welcome his movie son with a warm hug. "Hi dad," Felton said, grinning. "I was going to see him this afternoon, I don't need to now," Isaacs joked, his arm still around Felton. "I told him I was golfing," Felton quipped. Fans in the comments couldn't get over the sweet "family reunion," with one person admitting they "literally screamed when Tom called Jason 'dad' UGH YES." "I apologize for my absolute freak out scream," added someone who was at the event. "But is there any other proper reaction to seeing this live?" "I love their relationship," another commenter gushed, with somebody agreeing, "their bond is unmatched," "That was sweet. No hesitation in that hug," yet another fan declared. This isn't the only time the bond between Felton and Isaacs has been adorably apparent to fans. After it was announced earlier this month that Felton will be reprising the role of Draco in Broadway's Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, Isaacs showed his support on Instagram, writing, "Can't wait, son. That'll be me in the front row with something in my eye," per Variety (later adding on X: "Tickets booked for November"). Related: Legendary Child Star, 77, and 98-Year-Old Mom 'Look Like Twins' in Recent Pic Copyright 2025 The Arena Group, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Time Out
25-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Time Out
Duke & Roya
Photograph: Courtesy Jeremy Daniel | Duke & Roya Jay Ellis ( Insecure ) and Stephanie Nur ( Lioness ) play an unlikely couple—he's a hip-hop superstar, she's an Afghani translator working in Kabul —in a new drama by Charles Randolph-Wright ( Blue ). Warren Adams directs the NYC premiere, whose cast also includes a pair of formidable stage vets, Noma Dumezweni ( Harry Potter and the Cursed Child ) and Dariush Kashani ( Oslo ). Wed, Jun 25, 2025 Thu, Jun 26, 2025 Thu, Jun 26, 2025 Fri, Jun 27, 2025 Sat, Jun 28, 2025 Sat, Jun 28, 2025 Mon, Jun 30, 2025 Tue, Jul 1, 2025 Wed, Jul 2, 2025 Thu, Jul 3, 2025 Show more By entering your email address you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy and consent to receive emails from Time Out about news, events, offers and partner promotions. 🙌 Awesome, you're subscribed! Thanks for subscribing! Look out for your first newsletter in your inbox soon! Discover Time Out original video
