Potted Potter

Ok, so I’m not a kid, but i still found it super enjoyable. It isn’t crazy accurate, and wasn’t what I was expecting, but it is definitely one of the more funny things that I’ve gone to see in a theater. If you want a night full of laughs, this is probably the show for you!

I saw this show in San Francisco today with my daughter, who treated me, thinking it would be a lot of fun. It was the most putrid disappointment, first drawing grimaces and then later yawns. I think we were both embarrassed. No one in the full house was laughing for the first 10 minutes. I think we were all in shock. After a while, around the time that one cast member used slide show style prompts to cue the audience when to cheer, applaud and laugh, like for some lousy tv sit com, people started to participate — likely out of the need to salvage their poor kids’ expectations. The kids were not laughing, but gamely went along after a bit. The other reviewers on this page explain the pathetic set and jokes, basically at poor theatre-​goers’ expense, so I won’t repeat any of that. I can’t understand the NY Times giving this show a boost. I’m from NY. This crud would never fly there, and I found myself wishing I lived in Shakespeare’s time, or during the time of vaudeville — if I could have boo’d them off the stage and demanded my daughter’s hard-​earned money back, I would have. There was no talent, innovation, or humor. It felt like a lame attempt to hustle using Harry Potter’s good name. Learned a good lesson to always read the reviews before shelling out money for theatre tickets.

We saw this show in SF last week. It is funny, but not worth the high cost. This should be a $ 20 show for what it is. and it is best for ages 12 and under who love Harry Potter.
It is two guys being silly on stage. Not worth it.

To get through Potted Potter, you’d better smoke a hell of a lot of pot…
This show was conceivably the single most disappointing excuse for comedy I have ever witnessed. Harry Potter fans beware, fly your brooms far from this production before you want to avada kedavra yourself. Voldemort couldn’t have conjured a more despicable scam… These two men have faked their way to fame with skits unworthy of your 5 year old daughter’s eyes. Do not expect wit or cleverness, instead prepare for stuffed animals and brainless humor that will leave you wondering if you should duck out early. They even kill 20 minutes of the show with daycare version volleyball in the audience, aka «quidditch». It seems like these two haven’t even read the books, and not in a humorously ignorant manner. Is there a spell that can make this disappear from my mind? Think I’ll have to borrow Dumbledore’s pensieve for a while.

Unless you have children who will laugh at absolutely anything, don’t bother wasting your time. I didn’t expect pyrotechnics or CGI (as they kept saying there is NO CGI in the show!) but to say the show is minimalistic is an understatement. The set doesn’t change apart from the occasional fogginess of dry ice and has a total of five unrelated props. The character props are nothing but dollar store trinkets and there is little effort to actually parody the characters apart from doing unrealistically out-​of-​character bits (e.g. making Ron a rapper and Hermoine a man). There are references from the actors to The Hobbit, Game of Thrones («winter is coming»), and other fiction and pop culture but they aren’t even remotely original or funny. There is a continuous bit about how one of the actors has not read the novels and they draw it out ad nauseam. The best part of the show was probably the live quidditch, but you could formulate a better simulation in your living room.
The biggest disappointment is the cost – at $ 80 for two ON SALE ($ 100 with all the fees), this show is a complete rip off. Another drawn out bit about how the budget that was supposed to be spent on the set and actors is spent on an impressive dragon from book 4 (which of course it isn’t, it’s a hand puppet, sorry for the spoiler) is finally funny to me; it was a philosophical question to make you think about what they actually do with your money when you leave.
The kids in the audience did seem to have a good time, but even if I was a parent I’d be horribly disappointed. It’s way too expensive, too short, too boring, and too contrived to warrant the praise it’s been getting. But maybe I just don’t get British humor, I don’t know.
I saw this at the Broadway Playhouse on 12÷6÷15.

I saw this show in Austin, TX. It was the quality of a show you’d see at the Renaissance Festival but a lot longer. I’m glad I got my tickets for $ 25 each (half price in Austin) because I would have been horrified to pay more. My husband and I are HP fans, and we took two 15 year olds. The 15 year olds loved it. I thought it was pretty darn dumb, although funny at times. Pretty low-​brow humor, low-​brow acting, low-​brow concept, low-​brow execution. Caveat Emptor.

My 11 year old daughter and I LOVED it. I agree with the other reviews that it is expensive for what it is (we spent $ 100 on two tickets), especially as the theater has certainly seen better days.
But the two guys were great. Super high energy. Laugh out loud funny. Really charming and fun for HP fans. I think tween is probably the perfect age. Appropriate for younger but they probably would miss out on a lot of the jokes.
It made us happy. Simply super happy.

I saw this in Washington DC recently. It seems to be on tour?
Sad, really, this could have had so much potential.
Unoriginal and boring at times. A few chuckles, but generally this one is for the 8 and under crowd. I’m thankful I got the absolute cheapest seats. Astonished seats for this sell for $ 100. Worth maybe $ 19, if they include a PBR.
Basically this is two guys doing amateur improv where someone threw out the word «harry potter», and then you have to endure 70 minutes of the same joke. Every joke is repeated 3x times. (except one which goes on and on and on for five minutes on the same line).
So… five minutes of «whose line is it anyway» stretched into 70 minutes.
Beware!!!

IF I want to see crappy improv, I’ll go to UCB on a free night.
cheap sets, draggy humor, general stupidity. NOTE: Kids WILL like it but DO NOT GO IF YOU ARE AN ADULT WITHOUT KIDS. If you are an adult with kids, you need to be drunk or high.
It’s also horribly expensive.

Rarely do I feel the need to award 1 star for anything but, in this instance, it can be the only outcome. Simply put, this production just isn’t good enough to warrant being on the stage.
If your child did a similar performance in the lounge at Christmas, to entertain the family, you’d feel slightly embarrassed for them, so the fact these gentlemen are ‘professional’ beggars belief.
Save you time, money and disappointment for other days and avoid Potter Potter. Sorry lads — I desperately wanted to enjoy myself but the whole evening reeked of amateurism.

I was lucky to get to see Potted Potter before its run off-​Broadway closed. As an avid Harry Potter fan, I found this show incredibly hilarious! This show was much more like an improv show themed around Harry Potter than a normal Broadway/​off-​Broadway show. Sets are minimal, and the whole production is very low-​budget, but intentionally so. In fact, it’s the fact that everything is so low-​budget that is part of the show’s charm. The two actors looked like they were really enjoying performing and you could tell from the non-​stop laughter that the audience was loving it too. Would definitely recommend if the show comes back to NYC.

For my age, I laughed way more than I should have. Dan and Jeff were some awesome and hilarious dudes up there. Lots of good material and HP related jokes. Even if you are only a little familiar with the books I think it would still be funny.
The Quidditch and the song were brilliant.
One star off for some dull moments which even the actors seem to acknowledge during the show.
You can find discounted tickets from the Groupon-​like daily deal sites often for around $ 40 which I highly recommend.

+4 stars for an awesome time and great service
–1 star for the few dull moments
Overall, Potted Potter was really funny. The show is very interactive with the audience through the quiditch match between one side of the audience and the other.
The day I attended a showing I was late by 15 minutes, some place will turn you away and you’d loose out on your paid ticket. However they accommodated us, and to our luck we ended up with better seats on the 2^nd row.

Not Broadway quality. Not very amusing. Poor production quality. See something else with your valuable tine and money. Disappointing.

This has to be the worst show I have ever seen in my life. I can not believe how the reviews rave over this. I really feel like the people who like this are missing more then just a few screws in their head. I think this can be comparable to watching a bad version of a PBS show. No orginal jokes. I really tried to laugh, but it was not funny what so ever. for example people luaghed at Luke I am your father. Really!!! The entire time they just have 2 guys on stage doing crap for 70 minutes smiling and moving around in the same place. I wanted to leave after the first 5 minutes. Watching anything on TV with commercials and paying money would be better then this. I can not believe they are allowed to charge for this aweful aweful show. $ 50! really. I did not smile one time, but amazed how they can let this go on.

Have you ever read the Harry Potter books? I haven’t.
Have you ever seen the Harry Potter movies? I seen them, kind of…
Do you care at all about Harry Potter? «meh»
Well this play is for you!
Super low budget minimal set (on purpose) and two wacky brits retell the 7 Harry Potter books in 70 minutes. I didn’t actually clock the time as I was too busy laughing and enjoying the show. If its over 70minutes though, then completely ignore this review and demand all your money back, or threaten with violence.
HOwever, if your viewing was within 70 minutes, then you should really appreciate what these two have done. They made me give a damn about Harry Potter. I have no intention of reading the books or watching the movies, but I like knowing the full story and the highlights from each book told me in a creative monty python funny way.
If you still don’t enjoy Harry Potter after this, it’s probably because you’re a communist.

This play is AMAZINGLY HILARIOUS! Completely rewarding for the Harry Potter fans that can’t read the books enough! Dan and Jeff were brilliant, Each actor had the crowd in the palm of their hand, the audience laughed, cheered and cringed together with delight.
I felt like these two actors really loved what they were doing and I felt like a lot of the jokes were just four our audience. Whether they really were or not I felt genuinely entertained. I would recommend this to any Potter fan.

I’m a Harry Potter nerd. I had high expectations going into this, especially after reading the great reviews. Firstly, James Percy and Delme Thomas [the understudies] were absolutely hysterical. They were able to improv when the time called for it and were just a delight overall. The theater is small and no matter where you sit, you’ll have a great view! They also let you move up if there’s empty seats in the section in front of you! With that said, go for the $ 40 tickets, unless you want to be part of the Quidditch game [which is really geared for the children in the audience]. I must go again before they move onto the next city of their US tour.

Just OK. If you are an adult Harry Potter fan there isnt much here for you. We laughed some, but a lot of times we just didn’t feel like false cheering. It does get better after act 3, when they stop pointing out the lack of sets, costumes, or actors. Kids really seemed to enjoy it though.

All 7 Harry Potter books in 70 minutes? Whaaat?! Needless to say, my sister and I were intrigued. We went to the theater that day and got tickets (student discount!!).
I’ll admit, there were parts there were slightly slow, but that ended within the first third of the play. The 2 actors were really energetic and entertaining. There were some ad-​lib moments which were hilarious (partially because I don’t think they were supposed to happen). I was really impressed with their improv abilities. Audience participation is a plus (audience Quidditch game, anyone?).