Potted Potter: The Harry Potter Parody Keeps Muggles in Stitches

7/9/12 - By Anna Fader

A few years ago, we made it to the Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival for a hilarious production of The Complete Works of Shakespeare (Abridged), a show that condensed all of the Bard's major plays into a 90-minute farce that even had my six-year-old quoting Shakespeare for a week. In a similar vein, Potted Potter, now playing at the Little Shubert Theatre on 42nd Street, compresses the entire Harry Potter saga into a 70-minute romp that's fun for fans young and old.

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Dan and Jeff (Daniel Clarkson and Jefferson Turner) take on the traditional comic personae of straight guy and doofus as they lead the audience through all seven of J.K. Rowling's books. Their silly antics keep the audience virtually rolling in the aisles as they bumble their way through the stories. The highlight of the show is an interactive Quidditch game that gets the whole audience involved (I won't spoil how that works) and climaxes with an original song about evil Lord Voldemort.

Granted, the complete works of Rowling don't represent quite the scope of material that Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet, etc. do, and Potted Potter isn't quite as clever as it could be. But since the comedy centers around the shenanigans of two goofy guys, the show works for kids as young as six and reading the books is not a prerequisite for getting all the jokes. Dan and Jeff are charming, the show is fast-paced and funny and a big crowd-pleaser.

Potted Potter: The Unauthorized Harry Potter Experience is playing at the Little Shubert Theatre, 422 West 42nd Street between Ninth and Tenth Avenues through Sunday, September 2. Tickets are $39.99-$79.99 but you can find discount codes on Broadwaybox.com.


Find about other cool culture experiences in our Summer Fun Guide.

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