Harry Potter fans rejoice, as the eight installment in the thrilling children’s series has finally opened on the West End at the Palace Theatre to rave reviews. Based on a story by creator J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child takes place nineteen years after Deathly Hollows ended. The two-part play is written by Jack Thorne, with direction by John Tiffany.

It was always difficult being Harry Potter and it isn’t much easier now that he is an overworked employee of the Ministry of Magic, a husband and father of three school-age children.

While Harry grapples with a past that refuses to stay where it belongs, his youngest son Albus must struggle with the weight of a family legacy he never wanted. As past and present fuse ominously, both father and son learn the uncomfortable truth: sometimes, darkness comes from unexpected places.

Jamie Parker (Harry Potter), Norma Dumezweni (Hermione Granger), and Paul Thornley (Ron Weasley) lead a company of 42.

The production released a block of 250,000 tickets on August 4th for the second half of 2017, which have all already sold out.

Now the question remains: will U.S. fans get to see their favorite wizarding hero take the Broadway stage? Producers have all but confirmed that the show will transfer some time as early as 2017, possibly in a Shubert house yet to be announced. Personally, I think they should take the massive 1860+ Lyric Theatre, currently the home of Cirque du Soleil Paramour.

Not that I hold a bias or anything.

But I’ve also started reading the text, which has just been released in stores, and while it’s great, it just isn’t the same as seeing the magic of Tiffany’s direction with your own eyes. Tiffany is one of my all time theatrical directors, having seen Once, Let the Right One In, and The Glass Menagerie. That combined with Steven Hoggett’s movement and choreography, with music by Imogen Heap — I weep in awe just thinking about it.

Last fall, the production faced some backlash when Olivier winner Dumezweni joined the cast as Hermione Granger, originally played by Emma Watson in all eight films. Diehard, entitled fans must have misread every single book, as her race, confirmed by Rowling, is never specified. Then again, let’s be real, of course she had a white Hermione in mind.

The show, again, received backlash this week after the book release with fans enraged that it’s, in fact, a script and not a novel, and that it reads like fan fiction.

Despite all the nontroversy, Harry Potter is, once again, taking the world by storm, and it’s only getting started.

For tickets, visit Harry Potter and the Cursed Child.

Tony Award-winning actress Phylicia Rashad will return to the Mark Taper stage in Head of Passes, a powerful, deeply moving new drama about family and the power of faith by playwright Tarell Alvin McCraney (The Brother/Sister Plays). Directed by Tina Landau, Head of Passes begins performances on September 13 and continues through October 22, 2017. The opening night is set for September 24. Additional casting has yet to be announced.

Family and friends are gathering to celebrate Shelah’s (Rashad) birthday under the leaky roof of her home at the mouth of the Mississippi River. But an unwanted birthday party and unrelenting rains are only the first challenges in this contemporary parable inspired by the Book of Job in which unexpected events turn the reunion into the ultimate test of faith and love. As her world seems to collapse around her, Shelah must fight to survive the rising flood of life’s greatest challenges in this poetic and piercing new play.

Head of Passes,which took home two Lucille Lortel Awards for Lead and Featured Actress in A Play, was last seen at The Public Theater in New York, where it received rave reviews. New York Times theater critic, Ben Brantley praises Rashad’s performance saying, “…Ms. Rashad gives the impression that she could definitely hold her own on Shakespeare’s blasted heath. Portraying a sorely tested Southern matriarch, she can be found railing against God and the elements with a harrowingly Lear-like rage.”

Tickets for the Mark Taper Forum’s 50th season are currently available by season ticket membership only. For information and to charge season tickets by phone, call the Exclusive Season Ticket Hotline at (213) 972-4444. To purchase season memberships online click here.