The five star reviews are rolling in for Harry Potter and The Cursed Child, currently showing at the West End's Palace Theatre in London.

After weeks of previews and sworn secrecy – although there were leaked reports of a feral owl – the critics have finally cast their verdict and pronounced the play a smash hit and a triumph for British theatre. 

Harry Potter Play in London's West End | ELLE UKpinterest
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Written by Jack Thorne, Harry Potter and The Cursed Child is set 19 years after JK Rowling's seventh book Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows

The play's action revolves around the three wizard stars who are now in their 30s with their own children, off to Hogwarts.

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Lasting a total of five hours and split into two parts, Harry Potter and The Cursed Child is a theatrical marathon but complete magic for both seasoned, and not-so-seasoned, Potterheads.  

And while it looks like Hogwarts will be a fixture in the West End for some time, America can have its Hamilton, while we've got Harry.

Other shows not to miss this summer...

Jesus Christ Superstar at The Regent's Park Open Air Theatre

Anoushka Lucas as Mary Magdalene photographed by Johan Persson
Johan Persson
Anoushka Lucas as Mary Magdalene photographed by Johan Persson

Regent's Park is the perfect setting for this energetic revival of Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice's controversial musical. The fantastic cast, costumes and on-stage band will rock you to your core.

Until 27 August


YERMA at The Young Vic Theatre

Billie Piper as Yerma photographed by Johan Perssonpinterest
Johan Persson
Billie Piper as Yerma photographed by Johan Persson

Director Simon Stone, known as the enfant terrible of Australian theatre, transfers the action from rural Spain to modern day London.

Billie Piper has said she was attracted to the role because the topic of motherhood and the desperation to have a child chimed with her and her friends. 

Until 24 September


Groundhog Day at The Old Vic Theatre

Phil Connors played by Andy Karl and Rita Hanson played by Carlyss Peer. Photography by Manuel Harlanpinterest
Manuel Harlan
Characters Phil Connors and Rita Hanson photographed by Manuel Harlan

The cult 90s film starring Bill Murray has been turned into a musical by Tim Minchin, who made Matilda such a hit.

Even musical maestro Stephen Sondheim shied away from adapting the film but if anyone can do it justice Tim Minchin can. 

Relive groundhog day on stage with  cynical weatherman Phil Connors whose inner thoughts are turned into witty lyrics and Rita, who has been made into a single career woman in her thirties. 

It's the time loop that keeps on giving.

Until 17 September


BOOK NOW: Oil at The Almeida Theatre

Anne-Marie Duff in Oil photographed by Miles Aldridgepinterest
Miles Aldridge
Anne-Marie Duff in Oil photographed by Miles Aldridge

Anne-Marie Duff stars in pioneering young playwright Ella Hickson's new play about the Age of Oil. 

Directed by Carrie Cracknell, whose phenomenally successful  production of A Doll's House transferred to Broadway, the play explores our complex relationship with the finite resource.

7 October - 26 November

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Hannah Nathanson
Features Director
Hannah Nathanson is Features Director at ELLE. She commissions, edits and writes stories for online and print, spanning everything from ’Generation Flake’ to cover profiles with Dua Lipa and Hailey Bieber. One of her most surreal moments as a journalist has been ‘chairing’ a conversation between Jodie Comer and Phoebe Waller-Bridge from her living room. The word she says most in the office is ‘podcast’.