At the Denver Center, the wizarding world comes to life through old-school practical effects.

It’s not a musical, but it certainly has that aesthetic stagecraft-wise. It’s hard to call it a play, with all the underlying music, dance, acrobatics and special effects. It’s also hard to call it any kind of kids’ show, with its three-hour runtime, dark themes, murder and truly scary and enormous flying Dementors.

What Harry Potter and the Cursed Child is most assuredly is something most Harry Potter fans will enjoy. After all, it’s not every day we get to see legendary characters like Harry, Ginny, Ron, Hermione, Snape, Dumbledore, Lucius Malfoy and Voldemort live on stage. Even more appealing are some of the book series’ less-famous personalities like the reprehensible Professor Umbridge, heroic Lily Potter and — in a true show-stealing moment by Mackenzie Lesser-Roy — Moaning Myrtle.

But for the lengthy runtime, I’d be tempted to call this short attention-span theatre given the rapid-fire scenes that leave the audience dizzy in the opening scenes until we got used to the frenetic pace. And while the time-travel-heavy plot bogs down in confusing ways later in the second act, the frenzied action and lightning-fast scene changes give the whole thing an urgent, almost immersive feel as we are drawn into the action. The story itself is necessarily derivative and, yes, flimsy in places, but if you’re there for the spectacle and the high-end production, it more than makes up for it.

Moaning Myrtle (Mackenzie Lesser-Roy) entertains Scorpius Malfoy (David Fine) and Albus Potter (Adam Grant Morrison) in ‘Harry Potter and the Cursed Child.’ | Photo: Evan Zimmerman

A new trio

The initial action is set 19 years after the Battle of Hogwarts and Harry’s defeat of Voldemort to restore peace to the wizarding world. Harry (Nick Dillenburg) marries Ron’s sister Ginny (Abbi Hawk), Ron (Matt Harrington) marries Hermione (Rachel Leslie) and the three are raising their kids in relative peace. Harry and Hermione have senior positions with the Ministry of Magic while Ron is running the joke shop started by his brothers.

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The new kids on the block are Harry’s problematic teenage son Albus (Adam Grant Morrison); Hermione and Ron’s daughter Rose (Naiya Vanessa McCalla); and squeaky-voiced, ludicrously named Scorpius Malfoy, who’s not at all like his nasty father. While Harry and Draco despised one another during their time at Hogwarts, Albus and Scorpius hit it off on their first day on the train, and the action revolves around their friendship that later appears on its way to becoming a romantic one.

Chafing under his father’s legendary status and feelings of inadequacy, Albus follows the well-worn “I hate you, Dad, you don’t get me” storyline. Rose is smart like her mom and Scorpius is the squeaky-voiced “sissy” character who confounds his tough-guy, asshole dad. Early on, Rose is replaced in the trio by Delphi Diggory, the sister of Cedric Diggory, who Potter fans will recall was killed during the Triwizard Tournament in the fourth book. She seems cool and helpful at first, but we soon learn she has ulterior motives that threaten to bring back some of that old Voldemort black magic. At the core of this is her push to try to bring Cedric back.

Once they break into Hermione’s office and steal a forbidden, thought-destroyed Time-Turner device, the usual baffling plotlines regarding time travel start to muddle the plot. As we all know, going back in time and changing things (like preventing Cedric’s death) can have unintended consequences in the future. So they go back, try to fix it, twist things into a cocked hat once again, return, go back, etc. There’s a spectacular effect when the time change takes place that uses sound and some kind of lighting design or projection I couldn’t quite grasp to illustrate the switch.

It gets used so many times, however, that the novelty wears off. Mostly, though, the effects are what make Cursed Child worth the trip.

Bad time-travel management causes a Bizarro-world Hogwarts in ‘Harry Potter and the Cursed Child.’ | Photo: Matthew Murphy

Practical magic

Unlike so many high-end productions these days using digital effects and projections, the production team behind Cursed Child sticks to practical magic. In its most awe-inspiring moments, the characters are shooting long flames (real fire!) out of their wands, floating and spinning in the air on unseen wires and performing elaborate choreography on a pair of Escher-esque staircases that move constantly.

There’s a bit where characters shoot out of the fireplace (real fire!) into Professor McGonagall’s office in a haze of smoke and another where Ron disappears into a mail slot. When the kids drink Polyjuice Potion to transform into their parents, voluminous robes help effect a convincing switcheroo that drew gasps from the audience. A scene with Draco and Harry having a wand fight was nothing short of astonishing as the two shot flames and spells at one another all while defying gravity in unique ways.

The soul-sucking Dementors were portrayed with super-creepy puppets that must’ve been 20 feet tall. At one point, though, they appear to pick up two of the characters and spirit them away — a feat you wouldn’t think possible just with puppets. Chalk it up to just some of the clever practical effects that make the show a cut above its digitally enhanced Broadway kin.

While Cursed Child doesn’t have a live band, the recorded tracks and sound effects are next-level, working alongside well-designed lighting that play in a variety of shades of black and gray yet never leaving characters in the dark.

Also of note is the large contingent of black-robed supporting cast/crew members who make possible the speedy scene changes so well-choreographed that they acted like Snapchat intermezzi.

Harry Potter and the Cursed Child doesn’t rise to being more than the sum of its parts. As a Potter story, it pales in comparison to some of Rowling’s better installments and could probably use a good 30-minute haircut. The spectacle’s the thing here, and all those parts shine quite well individually. For Harry Potter fans, the chance to see the wizarding world brought to life on stage in such an engaging fashion is likely more than enough.