West End audiences have been asked to arrive an hour early for performances of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child and have their bags searched on arrival before the two-part shows.
It is the most hotly anticipated London show since Benedict Cumberbatch’s performance in Hamlet at the Barbican. During Hamlet, security staff struggled to stop viewers photographing the performances, prompting the star to ask fans not to record him onstage.
Security will be tight before showings of the Cursed Child, described by Harry Potter author JK Rowling as the eighth story in the boy wizard series.
The sold-out show at the Palace theatre, which opens next month, will have bag checks on arrival. And audiences are asked to arrive 60 minutes early to make sure the play begins on time.
People who are seeing a matinee performance of part one before an evening performance of part two on the same day will have their bags searched again if they leave the theatre in between.
Photos of the cast were released this week showing Jamie Parker as adult Harry, Noma Dumezweni as Hermione Granger and Paul Thornley as Ron Weasley, as well as Sam Clemmett playing Albus Severus Potter, the son of Harry and his wife Ginny Potter.
Harry’s schoolboy nemesis Draco Malfoy will be played by Alex Price, and the play will introduce his son Scorpius Malfoy, played by Anthony Boyle.
A spokesman for the producers declined to say if security measures were specifically in place to stop filming or photography, saying only that they were “for the benefit of our audiences and patrons and are clearly outlined in advance as part of the ticketing information”.
During his performances at the Barbican last August, Cumberbatch urged fans not to film his performance as Hamlet, saying it had been “blindingly obvious” there was filming by “someone in the third row”.
