Broadway Licensing Group Acquires Rights for ‘Harry Potter and the Cursed Child’

Broadway Licensing Group, Sonia Friedman Productions, Colin Callender and Harry Potter Theatrical Productions have announced a partnership to bring “Harry Potter and the Cursed Child,” the award-winning play, to high school and secondary school theatre programs worldwide starting in 2024. 

“We are delighted to be working with Broadway Licensing Group so that schools around the world can stage their own productions of ‘Harry Potter and the Cursed Child,’” say  Friedman and Callender, producers, in a joint statement. “We’re very proud that over half of the play’s audiences worldwide have been first-time theatregoers. With this schools’ version, we hope to broaden that audience even further by introducing younger generations to the magic of live theatre. We can't wait to see how students embrace their creativity and bring the magic of the wizarding world to life on their school stages. It’s extremely exciting for us all.” 

“Over 25 years ago, the Harry Potter book series inspired a generation of new readers,” says Neil Blair, producer, J.K. Rowling's agent and founding partner, The Blair Partnership. “Making ‘Harry Potter and the Cursed Child,’ the eighth story in the Harry Potter series, available for school productions around the world will inspire that same creativity, imagination, play and storytelling through the medium of theatre, and we couldn’t be more thrilled.” 

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Broadway Licensing Group is in development with the show’s original creative team, including playwright, Jack Thorne, director, John Tiffany, producers, Friedman and Callender, and with sign-off by J.K. Rowling, to adapt the script for high school and secondary school theaters, including a new, shorter runtime, as well as new creative techniques to convert the highly technical wizardry of the original production into magic and spells that schools can achieve no matter their budget sizes and socioeconomic backgrounds. 

“When I was developing ‘Harry Potter and the Cursed Child’ with the creative team, one of our founding principles was that the magic, illusions and special effects should have their roots in storytelling techniques that could be achieved when playing at home or in school,” says John Tiffany, director. “This might involve borrowing your teacher’s winter coat to act out the effects of taking Polyjuice Potion or raiding the loft for suitcases to create the Hogwarts Express. So, opening the world of ‘Harry Potter and the Cursed Child’ up to schools is thrilling and feels like the natural next step in our journey.” 

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“We are honored to be the worldwide amateur licensing home of ‘Harry Potter and the Cursed Child’ and we are prioritizing the release of the title to the educational theater market,” says Sean Cercone, founder, chief executive officer, Broadway Licensing Group. “We hope the impact of bringing this beloved world to life on school stages will drive a renewed commitment to nurturing the arts in our schools, ensuring every student has the opportunity to experience the transformative power of theatre. Providing students with the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to not only see characters like Harry and his son Albus, but to be them.”