One is already a dramatic blockbuster in London; the other is a musical blockbuster in the making. There are no sure bets in the theater, but the stage adaptations of “Harry Potter” and “Frozen” are two that you can take to the bank. Uh, make that Fort Knox.Shows that live up to expectations are rare. But “Harry Potter and the Cursed Child” opened last month in the West End to rave reviews and overwhelming box-office receipts. A quarter of a million tickets were snapped up within hours of being put on sale and scalpers are getting thousands of pounds for each ducat over the list price. Since the production is virtually sold out well into next year, the multitude of fans will have to settle for reading the script of the two-part drama, which was released on July 31, the day after the London premiere.That too is a hot-seller, with millions bought within hours of its release — unsurprising for a series of books about a boy wizard that, from 1997 to 2007, has sold 450 million copies. The new play is written by Jack Thorne from an original story concocted by Thorne, J.K. Rowling, and John Tiffany, who directs the production designed by Christine Jones. The story picks up 19 years after the events of “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows,” the seventh book in the series, with the eponymous hero as the overworked Head of Magical Law Enforcement and now a husband and father of three school-age children. The family legacy falls on Harry’s youngest son, Albus Severus, whose exploits are followed over the course of the five-hour-plus drama.“A blaze of outrageous enchantment” is how Ben Brantley, the chief critic of the New York Times, described “Cursed Child,” adding that the drama was “a kind of magic that is purely theatrical yet somehow channels the addictive narrative grip of Ms. Rowling’s prose.”So when are the wizards likely to alight on Broadway? According to the New York Times, the producers Sonia Friedman and Colin Callendar conceded that Broadway was always in their sights but that no timetable has as yet been established. They will be meeting with theater owners this fall to discuss which house will be lucky enough to become the residence for a production that will light up the Great White Way for a long, long time. Insiders are predicting it could well be part of the 2017-18 season.Meanwhile, Disney’s musical stage adaptation of “Frozen,” the 2013 animated film that took in a gross of over a billion dollars and won two Oscars, hit a bump on its road to development. Alex Timbers, the wunderkind director (“Here Lies Love,” “Peter and the Starcatcher”), was recently let go as part of the creative team working on the show. Thomas Schumacher, the president of Disney Theatrical, issued a statement expressing angst over the move:“Making tough calls when creating a new Broadway musical is never easy, but this was especially painful,” he wrote. “Alex Timbers is one of the most exciting and innovative directors I know, and we’ve proudly worked with him from my support of the early development of ‘Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson’ through our work together on ‘Peter and the Starcatcher.’ Though we have chosen to go in another direction with this role, we are committed to seeing ‘Frozen’’s tremendous theatrical potential brought to life on stage.”Dismissals of artists while a show is in development are not unprecedented, though they can be costly. (Depending on the contract, directors, writers, and even designers often continue to exact royalties from future productions.) Jason Moore (“Avenue Q”) directed the early development of “The Book of Mormon” until he was replaced by director-choreographer Casey Nicholaw. And Disney fired the entire creative team of “Aida” after the 1998 tryout in Atlanta opened to dismal reviews and technical problems. Director Robert Falls and designer Bob Crowley then led a new team to Broadway and international success for the show in 2000. Disney still expects to premiere the musical version of the blockbuster in Denver in August 2017, with an official opening on Broadway in the spring of 2018. The show features music and lyrics by Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez, who took home the Oscar for the ubiquitous “Let it Go,” and a libretto by Jennifer Lee, who was the film’s screenwriter and co-director.Could Casey Nicholaw be waiting in the wings to take over the direction of “Frozen”? His track record is nearly peerless with three shows currently running on Broadway: “Something Rotten!” and the smash hits “The Book of Mormon” and “Aladdin,” the musical version of Disney’s 1992 animated film.
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