Behind The Scenes at Harry Potter and The Cursed Child at the Pantages

What's up, guys? Leslie Robbins here, coming to you from the stage at the Pantages Theater in Hollywood. Fans are having a magical experience taking in Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, and Young Hollywood is taking you behind the scenes of that very magic. Of course, you wear a cloak because it's Harry Potter.

We must. We must.

And my heels are off. I'm ready to dance. I'm ready to move. Okay. What do we got? Great. Bates, are you going to come get a cloak on?

Well, yeah. Okay, great. Come on.

First of all, what house are you in?

I want to be Slytherin.

Okay, she's a Slyth babe. I'm feeling that. I'm feeling that. We're in the WAM room right now. What is WAM stand for?

Wigs, Hair, and Make up.

Seeing how actors get ready for a show night because when they're on the stage, it's almost flawless. It looks like they, you know, got out of bed looking like that. Do they have help putting on their wigs or do they have to do it all themselves? Because some shows, they have to do their hair and make up themselves.

Everybody gets their wigs put on, and then some people have make up that I give them, and then other people actually do their makeup.

Take me into the world of Harry Potter. What is that to you in this department?

A lot of work. It's a lot of attention to detail sometimes. The art of putting hair and make up on people is doing the, the very basic. Sometimes that's a little bit more challenging than making everything big and bright.

So tell me, where does this dance fall in the show, who does it?

First of all, it was choreographed by the brilliant Stephen Hoggett who does all the movement in the show. And one dance happens there in their first year of Wizard School. All of a sudden, the wand takes control. So, we have all of our students in it. Albus, Albus Potter is in this number, and he's getting terribly by the students and with the students. So, we're just chatting, you know, we're just at one school, it's great. And then all of a sudden our wand comes alive and it goes up. One, two, three, four, five. On count six, we decide we're taking control. Six, seven, eight, nine. Got it?

So, you are a swing for so many different characters. So, what do you bring to each of those characters? And how do you switch in and out?

Oh my gosh, that's such a good question. I think each character requires different grounding. Sometimes it's like with my body. Sometimes it's voice like with Rose. She requires a lot of vocal energy. With Myrtle, it's a lot of physical energy. So, sometimes I have to like jump up and down and do pushups.

The world of Harry Potter is so much to so many people. What does it mean to you?

It's a big deal to me. As a kid, I like loved waiting for the Harry Potter marathons to come on TV. So, it's exciting. It's like full circle and I get to be a part of the world now. It makes me really happy.

You know what I love asking actors in the theater, the audition process. Because there's a million and one actors out there. Everyone would love to be on that stage. Can you walk me through a little of how you got to be part of this production?

Sent a self tape. Got a call back. Showed up to the call back. It was the weirdest call back ever. We had to do plank challenges like puzzle. It was very mental based and we didn't really do a lot of acting.

Now tell me what is your favorite part of the show?

Oh my gosh. That's a good question. Let me check my official script here. Um one second. Oh my gosh. Sorry I was reading really quickly. Um I think my favorite part would be the time turning. When we go back in time, it's really cool.

How about you and I go back in time and you show me what you just did.

I play Albus Potter who is the son of Harry Potter and Ginny, and, you know, to be the son of the most famous wizard in the world carries its its weight. I play Ginny Potter, wife of Harry and mother to Albus. I spend the show managing the boys. And keeping my feet on the ground as many mothers have to do. The wand is now going to pull us this way. So, we go one, two, three, four, five, six. On seven, eight, nine, we get control again. Seven, eight, nine. Now the wand's coming for our face. One, two, three. It's going to shoot across. Four, five. Yes. Six, seven, eight, nine.

Can you walk me through how many pieces of clothing are actually with this production?

Honestly, we're probably close to 5,000 pieces. I mean, you know, we're you know, that's when you're talking, you know, laundry, socks, all that kind of stuff. Um, but we kind of did an estimate the other day and came up with 2,000 pieces per show that we're that are moving parts and on stage.

Wow. Okay, this is stunning. This is Ginny's lovely little sporty trench coat. Do you want to try it on?

I would love to. Oh my gosh. Oh, it's a good fit. Yes. Oh. This fits really nice. See, it's nice, right? I mean, I know where that's at if that disappears today. Myrtle, Moaning Myrtle. She does not like that name at all. Still in her lovely Ravenclaw uniform from the 40s I believe. She also looks a little weathered because she spends so much time in the bathroom. Right. Little wet, little damp all the time. She did die in, you know, in a horrible flood. Our student blazer cloak. They even have their little house colored hood on the back. Now, this coat, I would wear this out. This is gorgeous.

Isn't this lovely?

You got the very serpent look to it. Uh, this is all like hand done in London. Um by a lovely man by the name of Mark Castello builds these for us. Very sexy. And isn't this nice? This is Professor Snape. He has his wand pockets. So, he can just

Oh. May I?

Yeah. This is called rainbows. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine.

You're going counter?

We're going old clockwise. Yeah. Yep. Yep. Yep. All the right questions. Great.

Can I do one more thing?

Yes, of course. This is called this is everyone's favorite part. It's called

That was my favorite part.

Okay, it's called spank the troll. Of course you have to spank the troll twice. One, two, three. One, two, three. Then you grab it four, five. Six, seven. Eight, nine. Great.

This show is magical. Lack of a better word. It's magical. And walk me through your life being in Harry Potter.

It starts with me being very tired every night. Because we're running around on stage all the time. It's really a magical show to be a part of and it wouldn't be the show that it is without the people I do it with. So honestly, my life is just full of wonderful hard workers and beautiful souls.

Okay. Talk about a beautiful costume. I was just shown your wardrobe for this. When you look at this costume, what comes to mind when you think about it, when you put it on?

Uh what comes to mind, sweaty. Sweaty comes to mind. Quick changes come to mind. Uh just a a wonderful character who's really forward thinking and trying her best to be really good at school and make as many friends as she can.

Aside from the books, the theme parks, the movies, how do you make it your own?

I I think I'm very lucky because I had very little exposure to Harry Potter before I started this tour. And so and Rose Granger Weasley is a character that not a lot of people are familiar with. So I could kind of do whatever I want when I went on stage and started crafting this character with the team. And I had so many beautiful inspirations from all of the productions of this show that happened before we went on tour. So it wasn't it wasn't too difficult. Eight, nine, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven. Perfect. This is the last thing we'll do. We're going to spin it around. And then we're just the wand's going to take you whichever way you want. Perfect.

So here we are backstage at Harry Potter. What does that even mean to you guys?

It is the first time that this entity has existed on stage. Um, so it's a brand new experience for us and for fans. Um, it's another story after the events of the seventh book. Um, and it involves many of, you know, characters that people know and love and also some new ones. So we get to carry this legacy that you're talking about and also bring in new energy and new storytelling. There's a lot of words, some are Shakespearean. The writing is deliberate. There's nothing that is arbitrary and the challenge is with such sparse text is to be able to um say a lot without saying a lot. Anybody that loves good writing will appreciate this story. It's not fluff.

And so people maybe if they haven't read the books, speaking of writing, they haven't seen the movies, maybe they haven't gone to the theme park, but they're going to come see Harry Potter on stage. Can it be a new experience?

We'll catch you up. Um, if you don't know the Potter world, um, we will move through what you need to know in a really fun engaging way.

Everyone and their mother would want to play these roles. Talk about your journey getting to play this part.

Yeah, it was it was many, many really fun rounds of call backs and movement calls and reading calls and there's something involving flying that I can't talk too much about. This company does a movement a full movement session. You're grouped with people. So they see you in a room. It's not just like one on one and and and nervous energy. It's actually getting to see your personality and how you take in information and how you learn, how quick you are to learn. Call backs are notoriously impossible to like do perfectly. And it's you know, how do you behave when when you are faced with extreme difficulty of movement. Ela was telling me during her call back, one of them, it was how long can you hold a plank. And she apparently held it the longest and she got the part. So, there you go. Sometimes it's that simple. Do your core workouts, kids.

Six, seven, eight, nine, three. Seven, eight, nine. Seven, eight, nine, one, two, three, four, five. Rainbows. Spank the troll. Spank the troll. Stabs, you got it. Stab, stab. Stab, stab. Oh, that was the one. You killed that.