Theater Talk

Harry Potter and the Cursed Child
Harry Potter and the Cursed Child director John Tiffany and movement director Steven Hoggett discuss creating the blockbuster show with librettist John Thorne and J.K Rowling. Gordon Cox of Variety co-hosts with Susan Haskins.
TRANSCRIPT
>> HASKINS: Coming up on...
>> HOGGETT: It's an incredibly
precious event, "Harry Potter,"
and if we've got it wrong,
you can't put lights around it
and then hopefully push it up.
It would have just died.
>> HASKINS: You could
spoil it easy.
>> HOGGETT: It would be
forgotten about.
We'd have been rinsed.
It would have been quietly,
to where nobody remembered it.
♪
♪
>> HASKINS: From New York City,
this is "Theater Talk."
I'm Susan Haskins,
and with me this week is my
guest co-host Gordon Cox,
Theater Editor ofVariety.
Welcome, Gordon.
And this week our focus is
"Harry Potter
and the Cursed Child,"
the most anticipated play
of the season.
It was a smash hit in London,
where it won nine
Olivier Awards, and it has just
opened on Broadway with the
London production in tact.
Our guests are the show's
co-creator and director,
John Tiffany, and the
movement director,
Steven Hoggett.
Both John and Steven are old
hands at creating theater on
Broadway.
And they first made their mark
here on Broadway with their 2011
Tony-winning show, "Once,"
and have gone on to do
so many things.
So, we are taping this
while this show is in
rehearsals and previews,
and I haven't seen it.
But I invited Gordon here,
who went all the way to London
last year, and knows the score.
So, Gordon?
>> COX: So, John and Steven, as
I understand it, this project
came about when the producers,
Sonia Friedman and
Colin Callender, approached
J.K. Rowling, who'd been
sort of besieged with offers
to create the next
chapter of "Harry Potter,"
whatever that is.
Convinced her to do it,
and then you were brought on
board on the project?
I know that you were sort of at
the top of their wish list for
people they wanted to work with.
>> TIFFANY: Well,
that's what they tell me.
[ Laughs ]
>> COX: Well, yeah. Exactly.
>> TIFFANY: Well, actually,
Joe had been approached about
adapting --
>> This is Jo Rowling.
>> Yeah, yeah. Sorry, guys.
Jo. J.K. Rowling. Yeah.
>> COX: She's "Jo" to her fans.
>> TIFFANY: She'd been
approached about adapting the
books as musicals,
and she just said no to all of
it -- or as stadium shows
or as kind of theme-park events.
And she said no to everything.
And then Sonia and Colin
had approached her, met with her
in Edinburgh, and they'd kind of
got her into conversation about
Harry as an adult, and how do
you deal with the fact that, for
11 years, you didn't know that
anyone loved you and that you
were orphan and you had a
horrible, horrible life,
and how that kind of affects you
when you become an adult.
And at that point,
they brought me on.
And I think originally
they were imagining something
a bit smaller than we've
currently got now,
with 40 actors.
>> HOGGETT: The whole to-do.
>> TIFFANY: Yeah, two parts and
a purpose-built theater.
But I started to talk about how
we might move the story on.
>> HASKINS: And the writer...?
>> TIFFANY: Jack Thorne.
>> HASKINS: Jack Thorne.
>> TIFFANY: Yeah.
Jack and Steven came on board
immediately, and we started to
talk about actually starting
from where the last book ends,
which is a chapter called
"19 Years Later,"
the epilogue where Harry and
Ginny are at the
Hogwarts Express, about to send
their middle child,
Albus Severus Potter, to
Hogwarts for the first time.
So we thought that we would
start there and then move on.
>> HASKINS: So when did you
start in on these meetings
between Jack and John and Jo?
>> HOGGETT: I was actually here
in New York when John rang me.
I was working on
"Rocky" at the time.
I was in tech, and it was dark.
And I was cold. It was freezing.
And I was a bit glum,
and John said,
"I've been asked to work on
'Harry Potter.'
What do you think about it?"
I said the word "yes"
before the sentence ended.
[ Laughter ]
And then I realized that John
was, "Okay. Let's,"
and he put the phone down.
And I suddenly was like,
"Ooh. What have I
just thrown him at?"
So, I remember doing a very
quick watch of the films again.
And it was about six months
later, towards the end of the
year, and you'd already started
to talk to Jack about some of
the things in the plot.
And then we had a workshop.
That was 2013.
So it wasn't until 2014 that we
got some workshop time.
>> TIFFANY: Yeah.
>> HOGGETT: And some space
to start making material.
>> COX: Were you fans
before this?
How well did you know the books
and/or movies?
>> HOGGETT: I thought
I was a fan.
Until the fans turned up.
>> COX: [ Laughs ]
>> TIFFANY: Yeah. Yeah.
>> HOGGETT: 'Cause the fans are
devotional, and I do not
count myself as being as
knowledgeable as any of those.
>> TIFFANY: I think you
had to be of a particular age,
didn't you?
If you were 11 when that first
book came out -- and, you know,
which 11-year-old doesn't think
that they're leading the wrong
life, and don't want a letter to
come from an owl to tell them
they really should be going to
Scotland to train to be a wizard
or a witch, you know?
But we were just a little bit
older, a couple of years...
>> HOGGETT: Yeah,
just one or two.
>> TIFFANY: ...when the first
book came out.
But I'd actually met Jo when --
My first-ever job
was in Edinburgh, at the
Traverse Theatre,
which is a new writing
theater there.
And I was an assistant director.
And the Traverse was one of the
first places in Edinburgh to
sell cappuccinos.
And so it had a brilliant café,
and I was in there quite a lot
meeting actors and writers.
And I kept seeing this woman
with a pram that sat writing,
and we got to saying hello to
each other --
>> COX: No.
No, I don't believe that.
Is that true?
>> TIFFANY: Honestly.
Totally true.
>> COX: [ Laughs ]
>> TIFFANY: Got to saying hello
to each other.
She would sit with a cappuccino
for like three hours, writing,
as it turned out,
"Harry Potter and the Philoso--
Sorcerer's Stone," here.
And then I realized, about 18
months later, when the first
book came out, that it had been
J.K. Rowling.
>> HASKINS: Well, when you met
her, did she tell you
what she was doing?
>> TIFFANY: No, no.
Actually, now and again she'd
say, "Do you mind if I...?"
I was like, "No, no, no."
I thought -- yeah.
I was worried she was writing a
play, a terrible play that she
would try and make us put on.
[ Laughs ]
>> HASKINS: Well, did she strike
you, in those conversations, as
this extraordinary mind?
Or you were just taken...?
>> TIFFANY: I mean, it was just
literally a greeting,
and I would just say,
"You're absolutely fine.
You stay there
as long as you want."
She wrote that first book
in three cafés in rotation.
>> COX: So "Harry Potter"
wouldn't have happened without
you, is what you like to say.
[ Laughter ]
>> COX: I think that's right.
Yeah, exactly.
>> HOGGETT: Couldn't have wrote
it without a cappuccino.
>> TIFFANY: I think she'd have
written it anyway.
[ Laughter ]
And so when we met again in
2014 and she recognized me --
obviously I knew who she was --
but she went, "Oh, we've met
before, haven't we?"
And I kind of recapped the
story, and she was like,
"Oh, okay."
So that was a lovely way in.
>> HASKINS: In the description
of -- you're working together
with Jack Thorne and
J.K. Rowling on this story --
you say, "Well, we just let our
imaginations run wild.
We just let it go
wherever it went."
Then you came --
Were there places in the script
where you went, "How are we
going to realize that?"
Or were you just good with
everything?
>> HOGGETT: No, most of it was,
"How are we going to do that?"
Most of it was, I think.
But in some ways -- I think
certainly the way that Jack
has confidence, certainly, in
John's vision of things,
and the way that I might
implement performers.
I mean, John, you kind of just
said, "Jack, just write.
Go for anything."
And as a trio, when they came
back with that first --
Actually, was it the first
20 pages that came first?
>> TIFFANY: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
>> HOGGETT: The first 20 pages
came across.
And just from the get-go, you
just knew it would be
incredibly challenging.
But I had never seen something
like that onstage before.
>> HASKINS: But did you feel
like, "I can do it"?
>> HOGGETT: No.
[ Haskins laughs ]
Abject failure, first of all.
>> HASKINS: Really? Yeah.
>> HOGGETT: I think so.
But also, I think,
because the theatricality of it
was so difficult,
I will say that it saved us from
ever really worrying about
whether we were dealing with
Harry Po-- It was so --
That fear was so large and
prominent, as theater-makers.
I genuinely think that we forgot
that it was "Harry Potter," that
it was this massive filmic event
and this huge literary kind of
canon.
It slight got put on the
back burner because we had too
many things to worry about on
our page.
>> HASKINS: What was your
biggest worry?
>> HOGGETT: That it wouldn't
be magical.
>> TIFFANY: Yeah.
>> HOGGETT: And that we'd have
to resort to something
other than theater.
We said from the get-go that
the reason why we decided a yes
on this is because we had a
vision in our heads where
theater did it best.
And that's something that's
hard to make people believe,
that that's a true comment
or statement.
>> HASKINS: So, what would
theater do best?
>> HOGGETT: The light -- yeah.
>> TIFFANY: Everything.
[ Laughter ]
>> HASKINS: Are there
projections?
>> TIFFANY: Video, no.
Not as -- no.
Not that you would know.
>> HOGGETT: So there's no kind
of
big CGI attempt or anything.
It's all very low-fi.
It's theater. It's principle.
Back to basics.
>> HASKINS: But, now, you have
people flying, am I correct?
>> TIFFANY: Uh, maybe.
>> HASKINS: All right.
You see, I can't give away
spoilers because I don't
know them.
But, now, what did you find
particularly magical?
No spoilers, please.
>> COX: You know, actually,
what I found magical...
First of all, there's one really
cool effect, that I'll
tell you about after this,
that was my favorite thing,
and you proceeded to do it
over and over, and it made me
happy every time.
But what I actually found most
magical was, because you
concentrated on making it so
theatrical, I felt like there
were moments --
My favorite moment is this
entirely wordless -- I don't
even know how it's notated in
the script -- sequence that you
guys call the staircase ballet,
that is a really beautiful piece
of theatrical storytelling.
And it could only exist in
theater.
There is no other medium in
which that story could
be told in that exact way.
And it feels...
It's really struck me as the
kind of show, the kind of moment
where at least one kid in that
audience is gonna sit up and go,
"Wait a minute.
Theater can do this?"
And maybe want to see some more.
>> TIFFANY: Yeah. I mean,
it kind of comes out of
me and Steven and Jack working
together, and Christine Jones,
the designer on
"Let the Right One In," as well.
We've known each other
for a long time.
>> COX: Which is another
unlikely story to adapt into
theater.
That's about vampires.
Child vampires, in fact.
[ Laughter ]
One child vampire.
>> TIFFANY: And there was a
sequence in that where --
Basically, it's the
falling-in-love sequence, where
Oscar, the bullied boy, and Eli,
the vampire, and it's where they
run around the stage between
silver birch trees, kind of
swapping and grabbing off each
other foam bananas, don't they?
>> HOGGETT: Mm.
>> TIFFANY: And it's Jack's
favorite moment
in the whole show.
And so when it came to this
particular sequence, where
things are -- the relationship
is in a dark place for Albus and
Scorpius, who are the next
generation two main characters.
We thought that we'd
give that a go.
I mean, it also kind of taps
into the fact that, you know,
how do you put Hogwarts onstage?
Because it is a magical place,
as Steven said.
But we could smell something,
couldn't we, about suitcases,
cloaks, and staircases...
>> HOGGETT: Staircases. Yeah.
>> TIFFANY: ...that we just
thought was very, very, very
theatrical.
>> COX: The visual vocabulary is
very sparse, we should say.
>> TIFFANY: Yeah.
I mean, tell the crew that.
>> COX: Well, exactly.
It's actually quite a lot.
>> HOGGETT: Check the budget.
>> COX: But it's kept to
a very minimal kind of
palette, I guess.
>> TIFFANY: That's right, yeah.
Because, I mean, you know,
theater is all about suggestion
and imagination and all those
things.
So I knew that Steven would have
great fun with creating Hogwarts
out of staircases that would be
manipulated by actors.
And you did, didn't you?
>> HOGGETT: But that scene in
particular, it was a scripted
scene to start with.
>> TIFFANY: Yeah.
>> COX: With lines?
>> HOGGETT: Yeah.
Both the boys were speaking
during it.
And I think it is that thing
where, if you're working with a
writer, and John is the
director, and with Christine,
and we just sit there,
and we'd watch it.
And Jack was the person
who took away a few lines
after a few runs of it.
And then he took away
a few more.
And then John and I just waited,
and he was shown it a few more
times, and it is that beautiful
thing where he just said,
"Let's get rid of
all the lines."
And it's not like I thought that
would happen, or John put it in
place so that that would be the
event in the end.
It was just, the lines might
have stayed, but they weren't
necessary.
And Jack as a writer is not
gonna let a line stand in the
way of storytelling.
That's not an oxymoron.
>> HASKINS: That's very
generous.
>> HOGGETT: Well, yeah.
But also he gave us those lines,
with which John and I then
started to build a sequence
onstage that's a visual,
physical sequence.
So, you can talk about it till
the cows come home, but
ultimately it's like a cyclical
event that just --
In the end, there's
a version that sits
in front of an audience.
>> HASKINS: Going back to your
producers, Sonia Friedman and
Colin Callender,
who initiated this project,
did they put any
restrictions on you?
Did they say, "Now,
we really need this," or,
"We don't need that"?
>> COX: Or did J.K. Rowling?
>> HASKINS: Yeah, but she was
there in the room
when they were...
>> TIFFANY: No, all they did was
liberate us, all of them.
I mean, Jo and Jack and I,
we spent probably about a year
developing the story.
But alongside that, we were
doing kind of development
workshops, weren't we,
for how we would develop the
language, for how we would --
you know, with suitcases
and cloaks and staircases,
et cetera, for how we might
start to put the
Harry Potter-verse onstage.
And it was actually Colin and
Sonia who, when Jack and I and
Jo, we had the idea for how
part one ends,
which is quite a cliffhanger.
But obviously I won't tell it.
When we had the idea and we
realized we weren't going to be
able to get to that point within
an hour and a quarter or
something, I remember being in a
café in London, and Sonia and
Colin said -- which is kind of
amazing for producers,
knowing that they would have to
deal with this -- went,
"Why don't you do it
in two parts?"
>> HASKINS: Oh.
>> TIFFANY: Which is a
nightmare for them.
But we just went, "Yes!"
[ Laughter ]
>> HASKINS: It's a nightmare
for them in terms of booking
and all these --
>> TIFFANY: It's just an
audience, they're not used to --
Booking. The booking system.
>> HASKINS: I mean, you get
more money, but...
>> TIFFANY: Well, yes.
Well, you know, you can only do
eight shows a week, still.
>> HASKINS: Very true.
>> TIFFANY: So you do
four of each part.
So, I mean, ultimately --
But you also have the headache
of, you know,
Can people buy tickets for
individual parts?
Are audiences going to devote
from 2:00 to 10:30?
Are they going to be happy
to devote that time to a piece
of theater when they're used to
two and a half hours?
All those things.
But, you know, we were really
excited by that, because it felt
like we were really, really
creating an event.
>> HASKINS: So, speaking of
audiences paying for tickets,
you did an incredible initiative
in London to bring in a wider
range of audiences, some at
prices that they could afford,
and you're doing that here.
Can you tell us a
little bit about that?
>> TIFFANY: Yeah, I mean,
we were very, very aware,
weren't we, from the start
that this was an audience who
were used to paying $20
for a book or a cinema ticket.
And so paying $100 was going to
be a shock to them.
And so we wanted to make sure
that those people, that they had
access to the show.
And something like between 65%
and 70% of our audiences so far
in London -- and I think it's
the same here -- have been
first-time theatergoers.
So, and i think that is in part
due to the fact that you can see
both parts for $40.
>> HASKINS: It's 300 tickets
a performance.
>> TIFFANY: 300 tickets.
And also, then, there are
40 seats per show that go in a
lottery every Friday,
the Friday 40,
also for $20 per part.
So you can see five and a half
hours of theater for $40.
That's 340 seats
for every single show.
>> HASKINS: Ah, we like that.
>> TIFFANY: Yeah,
we like that, too.
>> HOGGETT: Yeah. A lot.
>> COX: Was there ever any talk
of making it a musical?
Ever?
>> HOGGETT: Sure.
Some people still think
that we've made one.
[ Laughter ]
>> TIFFANY: Yeah, they do.
>> HOGGETT: It's so strange.
We've never, ever,
ever declared it as
anything other than a play.
I would say that
it operates a bit like a musical
in the way that Jack and Jo
and John have come to it as a
script, and then just because of
the way John and I do work,
it kind of just rolls forward.
There's certain rhythms in it
that are very much like you look
at a musical.
But the only thing I've ever
heard -- one person said,
there's a moment where Harry
walks up the staircase with
Hermione, and she said, "I
thought for a horrible moment he
was gonna break into song."
And I said, "I don't know if
that's a compliment or not,
but I'll take it anyway.
But, yes, I think it --
Because it's on Broadway,
I guess, and it's a big
two-part thing.
Does it herald itself as a
musical?
So we're having to sort of defy
people that.
So there are no songs in this.
There's lots of music.
So we've scored it like a
musical, as well.
Imogen Heap has created hours of
this beautiful score, which has
been amazing to work with that,
as well as another palette for
us to draw from.
But, sadly, no songs.
Well, not even sadly.
There are no songs. It's a play.
>> COX: But it was never even a
topic of discussion?
>> TIFFANY: It would never have
happened.
Jo was very, very, very clear
that she'd turned down every
single offer about turning it
into a musical.
I think she just
doesn't like them.
Which is all right.
Which is fair enough, isn't it.
>> HOGGETT: But also, we
wouldn't
do it if it was a musical,
I don't think.
>> HASKINS: She hasn't seen the
right ones.
But then, there's plenty of
wrong ones, so...
[ Laughter ]
Now, I read that you
cast a fair amount of
Shakespearean actors
in this company.
>> TIFFANY: Yeah.
>> HASKINS: Going back to the
use of the language.
Why was that important?
>> TIFFANY: Because it's
actually incredibly complex.
The language is complex.
What the characters are
kind of dealing with is very,
very complex.
And I wanted it to have
gravitas.
You know, people do look at
fantasy as a genre which is
dismissed easily,
when actually, when you look at
Grimm's tales, Aesop,
Philip Pullman, C.S. Lewis --
Actually, when fantasy works, it
can get to the heart of human
experience much, much deeper
than realism and naturalism can.
And J.K. Rowling certainly
kind of knows that.
But I wanted actors that could
actually take us into that
reality, even though sometimes
they're talking about
pumpkin pasties and
chocolate frogs and
spells and things.
Actually, what they're talking
about is the hell of living.
>> HASKINS: Yeah.
>> TIFFANY: And so Noma, Jamie,
and Paul, who play Hermione,
Harry, and Ron,
they're all very, very kind of
renowned classical actors.
>> HASKINS: I wanted to look
back at the earlier days when
you worked together.
I first became aware of you --
"Black Watch."
>> TIFFANY: That old thing.
[ Laughter ]
>> COX: Speaking of the
Traverse Theatre, right?
Isn't that where that...?
>> TIFFANY: It was in
conjunction with the Traverse.
It was in a drill hole
in Edinburgh.
But yeah, it was first
run at Traverse.
>> HASKINS: And then it came
here to St. Ann's Warehouse
and just blew us all away,
seeing this.
Was that the first time you two
had worked together?
>> TIFFANY: No.
>> HOGGETT: Well, it was
only the second.
We'd worked --
>> TIFFANY: "Mercury Fur"?
>> HOGGETT: We'd done
"Mercury Fur."
>> TIFFANY: Third time.
>> HOGGETT: Third. Yes.
>> TIFFANY: "Straits," "Mer--"
Yeah. Third time.
But the first time we'd been
in a room for the whole
rehearsal process together.
'Cause Steven was always so
busy, I could only get him for
the odd day.
>> HOGGETT: You were quite busy.
You were quite busy.
[ Laughter ]
You weren't short on hours.
>> TIFFANY: No. But it was the
first time we'd sat down and
gone, "Okay, let's create
something" that we've got no
idea what it's going to be.
As opposed to the written
script, where you can kind of
guess what -- you know,
you get a good sense of
what it's going to be.
"Black Watch" was
the first time.
It was terrifying, wasn't it?
>> HOGGETT: It was, yeah.
>> TIFFANY: About three weeks
in, we were like, "What on
Earth are we doing?"
>> HOGGETT: Yeah.
>> TIFFANY: "We've got
no idea what this is."
>> HASKINS: And then at what
point did you realize you were
going to New York?
>> HOGGETT: Well, it wasn't in
Edinburgh, 'cause we were told
it was never gonna tour.
>> HASKINS: Right.
>> HOGGETT: That was very
explicit.
So as a creative team, it was
like, "Go for your lives."
It's unfathomably expensive.
"This will never tour.
It's gonna play three weeks
in a drill hole.
Go for it.
>> HASKINS: Uh-huh.
>> HOGGETT: So, when it got the
New York date, it was well after
it closed in Edinburgh.
>> TIFFANY: Yeah.
Although that first preview,
do you remember?
>> HOGGETT: Yeah.
>> TIFFANY: We kind of went,
"Ooh," because the audience --
Because we did it in Traverse,
which is like the
Edinburgh Tattoo, which had been
to Edinburgh Castle every year
during the Edinburgh Festival,
where the audience sit in two
seating banks, and down the
middle parade military
companies, bands, armies,
et cetera.
And so I'd see that, so that's
what I wanted to create
so that we told our story in the
middle of two seating banks.
Which is why it was so unwieldy,
wasn't it.
>> HOGGETT: Yeah.
>> TIFFANY: But I remember
sitting there with Steven and
just watching the people,
and just stand up and feeling
like, "Oh, wow.
This isn't ours anymore."
>> HOGGETT: Yeah.
>> TIFFANY: Which is a lovely
feeling.
>> HASKINS: Yeah.
Now you're Broadway regulars.
So at what point, then --
Was it with that, or with
"Once," that you started to feel
that Broadway was going to bring
you into their fold?
You'd kind of made it as
Broadway artists.
>> HOGGETT: I don't think
anybody
ever feels like they're a
Broadway artist full out.
I mean, I always think, like
most people, you might get
a tap on the shoulder
and told your time's up,
and you've done very well.
>> HASKINS: [ Chuckles ]
>> HOGGETT: Genuinely.
>> TIFFANY: Or not very well.
>> HOGGETT: Or, yeah, in some
instances, not very well.
I mean, it's very odd for us.
I was...
In lots of ways, there's a
career here, and there's a
career in the U.K., which is --
My point in life an absolute --
you know, "What a charmed life."
It really is incredible.
But I don't ever feel like
you can play to Broadway
in some respects.
And I think you can see certain
shows try to arrive here as a
Broadway show and -- you know,
how many of them, really?
But I don't know if we put our
head above the parapet
for long enough.
I don't think we've spent
enough time outside of a
rehearsal room.
We're very lucky to work
regularly and often.
I'm one of the worst people to
talk about their college year of
theater and Broadway, because
I just don't really have --
For the most part,
I don't have a sense of --
>> HASKINS: Well, that's
probably a better thing.
>> HOGGETT: I think it does help
to a degree.
I think it does help us,
certainly in rehearsal rooms.
We're responsible to a
certain kind of vision
of a piece of art.
And we have amazing producers
on "Harry Potter,"
and they've looked beyond
our rehearsal room.
But we had enough of a problem
just getting that thing on its
feet.
So the fact that it's here on
Broadway is spectacular,
and genuinely, hand on heart,
the pair of us would still say
it was a surprise that something
this big landed here.
So there's nothing, inevitably,
in our minds, so I don't really
think we have a very accurate
or a very good sense
of what it is to be.
>> HASKINS: Do you think there
was something inevitable in your
producers' minds?
>> TIFFANY: About it going to
Broadway?
>> HASKINS: Yes, and --
>> TIFFANY: I think
that was the hope.
>> HASKINS: And also that
they're taking on a brand --
excuse that word.
Excuse that vulgar word.
But that they're taking a brand
which is already a theme park
and making it
legitimate theater.
But still, you'd think there
would be high hopes there.
>> HOGGETT: Yeah, but you
have to remember that it's an
incredibly precious event,
"Harry Potter," and if we've
got it wrong,
you can't put lights around it
and then hopefully push it up.
It would have just died.
>> HASKINS: You could
spoil it easy.
>> TIFFANY: We'd
have been rinsed.
>> HOGGETT: It would be
forgotten about.
Yeah, we'd have been rinsed.
It would have been quietly,
to where nobody remembered it.
>> HASKINS: Well, it'd be
"Harry Potter went too far."
>> HOGGETT: Well, it'd be the
thing you don't put on your CV.
>> HASKINS: [ Laughs ]
>> HOGGETT: You know?
So I think the producers, until
the show opened, they did all
they could to make us as a
creative team make the best
version possible for the sake of
the piece.
>> HASKINS: For the
sake of the work.
>> TIFFANY: I had three very
kind of distinct groups that I
really, really was determined
not to let down...
>> HASKINS: Okay.
>> TIFFANY: ...when I
agreed to do this.
The first one was Jo herself,
because she trusted us with
the next story in the most
successful and popular literary
franchise of all time,
and the next chapter, she allows
to be a stage play for the first
time is kind of incredible.
So that's a real honor and
privilege that we had.
The second group was the fans,
because I became very --
As Steven said, you meet them
very quickly, and it's very
clear that this means
everything to them in some ways.
If you've cleaved to
"Harry Potter" when you were 11,
and all through your teenage
years,
then it's part of your makeup.
It's part of your soul
in some ways.
So you can't let them down.
And the third group was theater
as a -- you know, that we were
taking "Harry Potter" -- we've
read the books.
We've seen the films -- and we
were putting it into our
beloved art form and
telling the story there.
And as Steven said, we wanted it
to be magical, but also
I just didn't want to make
"Harry Potter" boring,
or allow theater to make
"Harry Potter" boring
by not having the ambition,
by not having the scope of the
story, by not having the epic
kind of sweep.
Because I believe theater can do
anything as long as the audience
are connected in the right way.
And so I was very, very aware
all through that there were
those three groups that I
really, really --
That were very precious to me.
>> COX: Can I ask, for the,
say, habitual theatergoers who
maybe are not as familiar with
"Harry Potter," what is your
advice to people coming to see
the show?
How much of the "Harry Potter"
story do they need to know
going in?
>> HOGGETT: I can say this.
I've sent people to the show
before, and I've told them to
read the synopsis of the fourth
film or the fourth book, and
that tended to be enough.
>> TIFFANY: That's quite useful.
>> HASKINS: But if they haven't,
are they gonna be okay?
>> COX: What about
the origin story?
Don't you feel like they need
to know the origin story of...?
>> TIFFANY: That too.
>> COX: ...the Boy Who Lived,
I guess is what I mean.
>> TIFFANY: Exactly.
We explore that quite kind of
deeply through Harry's
scenes, because that's what
he's kind of dealing with.
But I mean --
I'm told by people that have
never, ever read a word of
"Harry Potter" that actually we
tell you enough that you can
dive into it okay, but yeah.
>> HASKINS: So, you can do your
"Harry Potter" homework
or you can just go in cold.
>> HOGGETT: Totally.
>> HASKINS: But audiences
have embraced this show.
As I said, nine Oliviers in
London, and now it's such a
wonderful hit here in New York.
It's such a pleasure
to have you here,
John Tiffany, Steven Hoggett.
And thank you, Gordon Cox.
>> COX: Thank you, Susan.
Thanks, gentlemen.
>> HASKINS: All right.
>> COX: Thank you guys.
>> HASKINS: Our thanks to
Friends of "Theater Talk"
for their significant
contribution to this production.
>> ANNOUNCER: We welcome
your questions or comments
for "Theater Talk."
Thank you.