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Harry Potter and the Cursed Child will move into Broadway in 2018 with a unique new look

Harry Potter and the Cursed Child will move into Broadway in 2018 with a unique new look

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Hamilton is about to get some major competition

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New Harry Potter Play Previews To A Thrilled Audience
Photo by Jack Taylor/Getty Images

Ever since Harry Potter and the Cursed Child opened on London’s West End, US fans have wondered when the show would make the jump across the Atlantic. We finally know where it will run, and have a general idea of when.

This morning, the Lyric Theater confirmed on Twitter and Facebook that Cirque Du Soleil will be vacating Broadway’s Lyric Theater in April 2017. According to Deadline, the US production of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child will take its place on Broadway in 2018.

‘Harry Potter and the Cursed Child’ is the eighth part of the saga

Harry Potter and the Cursed Child has been billed as the eighth installment of the Harry Potter saga. Set two decades after the end of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, it follows the children of Harry Potter, Ron Weasley, Hermione Granger, and Draco Malfoy as they attend Hogwarts and deal with the legacies of their parentage.

Deadline reports that the theater will be completely renovated in preparation for the production, reducing the current 1,900 seats to 1,500. Producers Sonia Friedman, Colin Callender, and J.K. Rowling noted in a statement that the work will “include a smaller auditorium redesigned to the specifications” of the play, which features extensive special effects. While both UK and US productions will share the same designer, Christine Jones, the US version is expected to have “a distinctive new aesthetic from the London version,” according to Pottermore.

The US version will look slightly different from its UK counterpart

The Lyric Theater has a questionable recent history with big-budget projects. The theater has been home to several high-profile flops, such as 2010’s Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark. The Bono / The Edge musical ran into numerous production troubles and eventually closed in 2014. According to the New York Post, several other major theaters groups had “hotly pursued the show, offering up their best theaters.”

The production has been an enormous success in London: early ticket sales topped $50 million prior to the show’s debut this summer, while a hardcover edition of the script was published in August, landing on the best-seller lists. A batch of 60,000 tickets released last month sold out in 15 minutes, and another round will be released in “early 2017.” The play will likely provide the smash hit Hamilton with some stiff competition, which has seen ticket prices soar due to try and deter scalpers.

Meanwhile, the London version of the play will continue to run through February 2018. There’s no word on when the play will open on Broadway in 2018, nor of who will make up the cast.