‘Harry Potter and the Cursed Child’ cast reveals how Victorian-era magic powers Broadway’s biggest play in Seattle

The six-time Tony Award-winning play “Harry Potter and the Cursed Child” has conjured its way to the Pacific Northwest, opening a three-week engagement at Seattle’s Paramount Theatre through Sept. 12 as part of the production’s first-ever North American tour.

The show, which Forbes called “one of the most defining pop culture events of the decade,” is the highest-grossing non-musical play in Broadway history. Now, a touring cast is bringing the wizarding world to cities across the continent, and Seattle audiences are responding with what the actors describe as collective gasps of wonder.

Nick Dillenburg, who plays Harry Potter, said the production’s magic relies not on CGI, but on old-school stagecraft that traces its roots to another era entirely.

“This is old school magic. It’s like Victorian-era sleight of hand,” Dillenburg told “Seattle’s Morning News.” “We made a quarter disappear our first day of rehearsal. We’re doing it for real.”

Dillenburg said the creative team deliberately chose practical illusions over high-tech effects, a decision that turns everyday objects into vehicles for imagination.

“In the first scene, it’s set up to be a train station full of suitcases, and those suitcases become other things,” he said. “John Tiffany, the original director, thought that once we get home and those kids want to take the suitcases out of the closet and recreate what they saw, they could do that at home too. So it’s really trying to fire on your imagination.”

Harry Potter and the Cursed Child’s synopsis

The play picks up where the epilogue of “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows” left off, with a 37-year-old Harry dropping his middle son, Albus, at the Hogwarts Express. It explores the fraught relationship between a father haunted by his past and a teenager struggling to forge his own identity under an enormous shadow.

“Harry starts off as a dad who wants to be his son’s best friend and be liked, and it never really works out, does it?” Dillenburg said. “All the adventures, but now just into a 37-year-old who has some, we joke around, but childhood trauma. He’s trying to live through 22 years of peace and calm until the play begins.”

Adam Grant Morrison, a 2024 graduate of Oklahoma City University who plays Albus Severus Potter, said the role has been “the thrill of my life.”

“He’s kind of angsty, he’s a little frustrating at times, he’s got a bit of a temper, but he is a warmhearted kid who is finding his way in the world, especially with a very large shadow being cast by his father,” Morrison said of his character. “The entire journey of the play for him is just about finding where he fits in the world and how to reckon with his relationship with his father.”

Morrison said the production’s illusions require ongoing rehearsal with an illusions associate throughout the run, but the payoff is unmistakable.

“Every single time some of these tricks happen, there’s a collective gasp or collective awe throughout the audience that you can feel tangibly,” he said. “It is genuinely one of the highlights of getting to do this show. Getting to feel that kind of wonder from not just the kids but the adults and the people who I think didn’t expect to be as wowed as they are.”

For Dillenburg, whose credits include the film “Fly Me to the Moon” and Broadway’s “The Real Thing,” the scale of touring presents its own challenge.

“We sort of joke around. We’ve done a couple hundred of these now, casting spells. Everything just sort of becomes second nature after a while,” he said. “The Fox in Atlanta is 4,500 seats. So we’re trying to make sure that everybody can have a great experience no matter if they’re sitting in the front row or the last row.”

“Harry Potter and the Cursed Child” runs at the Paramount Theatre through Sept. 12, with performances Tuesday through Sunday. Tickets are available through www.stgpresents.org.

Manda Factor is the host of “Seattle’s Morning News” on KIRO Newsradio. Follow Manda on X and email her here. 

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