The play will receive its world premiere in London’s West End on July 30, 2016, so be prepared for Harry Potter mania to set back into our culture.
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The story is set 19 years after the seventh and final book in the Potter series, which have collectively shifted more than 450 million copies since 1997 and been adapted into eight films. There’s also an illustrated edition of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets coming in October and the November release of the Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them movie, with a screenplay written by Rowling.
The story is about Harry, now all grown up and joined the Ministry of Magic. All Indigo and Chapters stores across Canada are looking forward to hosting Midnight Magic, an evening of magic, wizardry and extended store hours, on Saturday, July 30th so that fans can get their hands on the long-awaited script book first.
On July 21, hundreds of Potter fans descended on NYC’s SoHo neighborhood to put on a “Muggle Mob” in celebration of the release of the eighth book.
The play is drawing a markedly younger-than-usual theater crowd, and London’s theater world hopes it may bring a new generation to theatergoing, much as the novels inspired countless kids to love reading.
Patrons can come dressed as their favorite character from any of the books, participate in a trivia contest for the most correct answers, purchase raffle tickets, take a photograph with a life-size Professor Snape at the photo booth, make a wizard wand, make a house pin and win door prizes. Books can be pre-ordered at the bookstore or by calling 508-627-8463. A spokesperson from Barnes & Noble said in a statement that they expect it to be their biggest selling book of the year. Prime members can place their pre-orders at Amazon.com.
Even though the bookstore started charging visitors €3 past year – which they recoup if they make a purchase – sales have mushroomed 300 percent.
It’s people in their twenties who appear to be the largest group at numerous theatre previews.
Dorothy Butler Children’s Bookshop in Auckland says it has also had strong interest.
When approached by The Stage, the script’s United Kingdom publisher Little, Brown Book Group declined to reveal how many copies it had produced for the first print run.
Burns said the impending release appears to have sparked renewed interest in the original series from readers of all ages.
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This is the same reason that the North American print run is smaller than initial printing was for Deathly Hallows.
