‘Harry Potter,' ‘Wicked,' and more make up PPAC's 2025-26 Broadway season
And a visit by Friedman herself to Rhode Island's capital city helped seal the deal in bringing the production to a local audience, Singleton explained.
'She'd never been here. She thought we were in Long Island, which happens to me all the time,' Singleton said, drawing a few laughs. 'And [she] loved Providence. I thought she was going to buy a place here.'
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'So that was one of the reasons 'Harry Potter' landed here: Because she loved it so much and everybody showed her such a good time,' he added.
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Now, PPAC has big hopes for the play, which after years in New York, has hit the road.
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Following stops in Chicago, Los Angeles, and Washington D.C., 'Harry Potter' will arrive in Rhode Island for an 18-show run starting Sept. 19, Singleton said Tuesday, as he revealed PPAC's upcoming season schedule.
'Right after those three major markets, we will be … the first market north of New York to play 'Harry Potter,'' he said. 'It will be a forest fire.'
The production will also be presented at
With an entire generation having grown up on the Harry Potter books, Singleton believes the production will introduce 'a whole new audience' to PPAC. And while he doesn't think demands for PPAC subscriptions will hit quite the levels spurred by the fervor around 'Hamilton,' it will surely be a hot ticket, he said.
'I would expect it will bump our subscription base, which is presently about 13,000 plus, probably another 3,000 to 4,000,' he said.
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In all, six critically-acclaimed and award-winning shows will be featured in the upcoming PPAC 'Broadway Series,' including 'Water For Elephants,' 'Suffs,' 'Wicked,' 'The Outsiders,' and 'Kimberly Akimbo,' PPAC officials said Tuesday.
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'Six,' 'Hadestown,' 'Clue,' and 'The Lion King' will make up PPAC's 'Encore Series' as returning productions.
In total, PPAC will put on about 120 shows next season, according to Singleton.
'The commercial theater business has never been better in this building,' he said.
Here is the schedule for the upcoming 2025-26 Broadway season at PPAC:
'Broadway Series'
'Harry Potter and the Cursed Child:' Sept. 19 - Oct. 4, 2025
'Water For Elephants:' Dec. 2 - 7, 2025
'Suffs:' Jan. 20 - 25, 2026
'Wicked:' March 4 - 22, 2026
'The Outsiders:' April 14 - 19, 2026
'Kimberly Akimbo:' May 5 - 10, 2026
'Encore Series'
'Six:' Oct. 22 - 26, 2025
'Hadestown:' Nov. 7 - 9, 2025
'Clue:' Jan. 16 - 18, 2026
'The Lion King:' May 20 - June 7, 2026
Other performances
Jo Koy: Oct. 17, 2025
Louis C.K.: Oct. 19, 2025
America: Oct. 18, 2025
Boston Pops Holiday Concert: Dec. 13, 2025
Cirque Dreams Holidaze: Dec. 19 - 21, 2025
Bill Bragg's Family Magic: May 16, 2026
More information is online at
Christopher Gavin can be reached at
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Boston Globe
an hour ago
- Boston Globe
In 1978, Pat Wells cut an album that didn't make it big. In 2025, songs from it landed on Netflix.
The new show that wanted to incorporate her music is ' Advertisement 'It's a very, like, up-in-the-tower kind of recognition,' Wells, now 71, said recently in a phone interview from her home in Grantham, N.H. It feels like a major upheaval in her life, 'like if you read my tarot cards, they'd say TOWER!' Get Love Letters: The Newsletter A weekly dispatch with all the best relationship content and commentary – plus exclusive content for fans of Love Letters, Dinner With Cupid, weddings, therapy talk, and more. Enter Email Sign Up On the day the series dropped in late May, Wells sat down and binge-watched all five episodes. When she was finished, she thought, there must be some mistake. The songs weren't there. Oh, yes they were, responded Douglas Mcgowan. They were just buried deep in the mix. Mcgowan is the owner of the small California reissue label that made 'Hometown Lady' available to download more than 15 years ago. He found a copy at a Boston-area record shop — Advertisement And that, once again, was that, for more than a decade. About a year ago, he reconnected with Wells and told her he was sending her a check, rounding up to $100, the amount he felt he owed her. 'I'm pretty sure you could count the number of people who paid to download her record on your fingers and toes,' he said recently. Pat Wells grew up in West Newbury, the fourth of five children born to a radiologist and his stay-at-home wife. At 10 or 11, she became interested in learning to play the guitar. She'd close her bedroom door to drown out the commotion in her crowded house, and try to write songs. When she was 16, one of her older sisters encouraged her to sign up to sing at the open mic night at 'Nobody could drink at that table,' Wells recalled. There was a robust circuit of barrooms and stages across the North Shore for songwriters at the time, Wells said. At the Pat Wells plays her guitar at her home in Grantham, N.H. Jim Davis/Jim Davis for the Globe She remembers seeing Tom Rush perform in Salem and Bonnie Raitt in Ipswich, and there were lots of artists — Bill Madison, Kenny Girard, Charlie Bechler — who drew local followings. Younger than most of her peers, she felt supported by the audiences she encountered. Advertisement 'There was something about creating music, having people listen to you and enjoy what you had to say about your life, your friends, the area,' she said. When she picked up some work assisting a piano tuner, she asked to pick his brain. 'You know, I've got all these songs,' she said. 'How do people make records?' The piano tuner happened to know Josiah Spaulding Jr., the songwriter who would later become Spaulding helped organize the band that backed Wells in the studio. They recorded at Century III, then a video editing and post-production company on Boylston Street that took in occasional musical acts on the side. Each day, Wells drove her beat-up Ford F-100 pickup truck across the I-93 bridge into the city. Pat Wells grew up in West Newbury. She now lives in New Hampshire. Jim Davis/Jim Davis for the Globe 'It was a wonderful opportunity to work with studio musicians who were so talented,' she said. 'Joe was able to do that thing that producers do — rise above and take the 50,000-foot view.' 'I thought she was a terrific songwriter,' said Spaulding, who has a home on Plum Island. 'We had a ball, but she basically stopped making music soon after we finished.' Changing tides in the music world worked against any prospects the album may have had, Wells recalled. 'This was when disco was incredibly popular,' she said. 'The A&R guy from Sail would go around with me to the radio stations. The guy would drop the needle, listen for a short time, and say, 'Well, it's not disco.' I mean, der — it's not disco!' Advertisement The songs on 'Hometown Lady' give off echoes of Joan Baez and Janis Ian. It's evocative of its time and place, said Mcgowan, who grew up in Newton. 'When I started my label, I was zeroing in on anything I could find that was local,' he said. 'I was scratching an itch I didn't know I had, a connection with my place of origin.' What he heard in Wells's album was 'a specificity and a vibe. So much music is generic — it could be anyone, anywhere. She manages to evoke a very beautiful, earlier time.' Mcgowan specializes in what the record-collecting world now refers to as 'private press' recordings — the obscure, independently released albums from previous eras that have become ripe for reissue. His label reintroduced the music of a psychedelic folk-rocker from Detroit named Ted Lucas, and Mcgowan teamed with industry leader Light In the Attic on a landmark reappraisal of new age music called 'I Am the Center.' Pat Wells in her yard in New Hampshire. Jim Davis/Jim Davis for the Globe 'It turns out there was a massive number of incredibly talented people making albums in incredibly restricted circles,' Mcgowan said. 'There was no pipeline for a local artist to get into the mainstream. 'Virtually no one in Pat's position ever broke out of where they were. Only because of the internet have people started to be able to compare notes on their record finds.' It was the internet presence of Advertisement Jen Malone, a onetime Boston-based publicist, served as the music supervisor on 'Sirens.' The producers, she said, were initially hoping for Joni Mitchell songs to accompany scenes in episode three that feature Moore's character, Michaela, a powerful woman of means in the fictional, Nantucket-like town of Port Haven. Julianne Moore as Michaela and Kevin Bacon as Peter Kell in "Sirens." Macall Polay/Netflix/MACALL POLAY/NETFLIX Mitchell's songs weren't in the budget, Malone said in a phone call, so she consulted with a company that sources music options for film and television. When that company suggested Pat Wells, Malone took one listen, 'saw that she was from New England, and I was like, 'Done and done.' 'We love using undiscovered vintage catalog,' she explained. Wells's songs 'are in the background, but they're still very important to the palette of the show. To be a little part of that story and give her that platform, it's a great feeling.' Since the release of 'Sirens,' there's been a new flurry of activity for Wells. Mcgowan just posted 'Hometown Lady' on Spotify for the first time, and in early June he received confirmation that a British label will license another of her songs, 'The Seeker,' for an upcoming compilation of 'music for a fictitious tropical resort.' All of these unexpected developments have inspired Wells to think about picking up her guitar and writing some new music. Her voice may not be quite as angelic as it was in 1978, but 'the folks at church really like it,' she said. 'I tend to go right over the top.' Advertisement After remarrying, she and her second husband adopted several children from Ethiopia. It's important for her, she said, to show her adult children and her grandchildren — she has 11 — that creativity can strike at any time. 'I don't want this to be a story of, 'Oh, my dreams were dashed in 1978,'' she said. 'No. This is something great. Isn't it lovely that somebody heard me and said, 'We'd like to put this on our platform'?' For now, she's enjoying her retirement and the small pleasures of daily life. 'My tenant has a 2-year-old,' Wells said, 'and he was following me around as I was mowing the lawn with his bubbly lawn mower, with his ear protection on. That's wonderful.' James Sullivan can be reached at . James Sullivan can be reached at
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But as far as Redwood goes, and Smash, BOOP!, Dead Outlaw, Death Becomes Her, all these new shows — it is so hard to put on a new show. And as I told Idina, it's so brave of us to take something that is our baby and take a swing at it. And she took a big old swing and as far as I'm concerned, a big old home run. It was a beautiful performance. When I saw it, I was so moved, and I feel like it did not get its due," Kristin emphasizes. "I just have to applaud all the new pieces. It's so hard. I'm facing it myself. I've been working on The Queen of Versailles for several years. It is my baby," she continues. A few months out from beginning rehearsals on the Broadway stage, even the veteran performer experiences nerves. "I'd be a liar if I said I wasn't nervous. You work on something for so long and now I need the baby to be born. Good, bad or ugly." Kristin also gushed about her other baby, her rescue pup Thunder. 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Tom Felton Shrugs Off JK Rowling Controversy After Announcing Harry Potter Return
Tom Felton is shrugging off the controversy surrounding JK Rowling as he prepares to return to the Harry Potter franchise. Last week, it was announced that the former child star would be returning to the role of Draco Malfoy, playing a grown-up version of the character as part of the Broadway play Harry Potter And The Cursed Child. Tom Felton is reprising Draco Malfoy in 'Harry Potter and the Cursed Child' on joins the show on Nov. 11 for 19 weeks. This marks Felton's Broadway debut and the first time an original 'Harry Potter' actor has joined the stage productionhttps:// — Variety (@Variety) June 5, 2025 In recent years, the Harry Potter brand has been tarnished for some critics following its creator's commentary about issues relating to the trans community, which has most recently included deliberately misgendering several prolific transgender public figures. Because of this, Tom's casting in the Broadway production of Cursed Child raised eyebrows from some fans when it was first announced. On Sunday night, the British actor was a guest at the Tony Awards, where he announced the winner of the Best Featured Actress In A Play prize alongside Carrie Preston. Before the ceremony, Tom was asked by Variety if he had any thoughts around the controversy surrounding Rowling, and whether it 'impacted' him. 'No, I can't say it does,' he responded. 'I'm not really that attuned to it. 'The only thing I always remind myself is that I've been lucky enough to travel the world – here I am in New York – and I have not seen anything bring the world together more than Potter. And she's responsible for that, so I'm incredibly grateful.' Tom Felton says the controversy around J.K. Rowling's political views doesn't impact him: "I'm not really that attuned to it...I have not seen anything bring the world together more than Potter. She's responsible for that, so I'm incredibly grateful." # — Variety (@Variety) June 8, 2025 After the interview was shared on social media, many X users had a lot of feelings in response to Tom's comments… That's the problem ain't it, people not caring about issues that don't 'impact them.' — Alicia Stella (@AliciaStella) June 9, 2025 What a privileged straight white man take. — 🥀_ Imposter_🥀 (@Imposter_Edits) June 8, 2025 "twitterverse controversy" and it's jk rowling directly saying that the funds from her new media will go into dismantling the lives and rights of trans felton is a hideous, privileged, white cishet man. but the interviewer sucks, too. — love is a gift. confront injustice. be free. 🍉 (@sistertonin) June 8, 2025 so he's saying he's choosing to actively ignore the lives of queer people that are being endangered by rowling's views because... *checks notes* he gets money and chances to travel? sure, that's TOTALLY more important than literal lives and rights being denied! /s — lu⁷ extraña a vi (@teuviolet) June 9, 2025 must be nice to not have empathy and care about trans rights… — beth 🍄 (@readbybeth) June 9, 2025 Fuck Tom Felton. Fuck J.K. Rowling. You should be ashamed. — Cowboy Peixinho 𐚁 (@Hugo_Peixinho_) June 8, 2025 'I've never seen anything bring the world together more than Potter'Ngl this fucking REEKS of narcissism. — Red / Yangy 🏴🏳️🌈🏳️⚧️ (They/Them) (@RedYoungTYR) June 9, 2025 don't listen to this careless man, us slytherins PROTECT THE DOLLS 🏳️⚧️🐍 — w (@wavesneverseen) June 9, 2025 Anyways shoutout to the golden trio who didn't sell their souls away and support the 🏳️⚧️ community — Aylin🇦🇲🇹🇷🇬🇷🇮🇹🇫🇷 (@VoilalaLucio) June 9, 2025 In 2021, Tom was asked for his 'reaction' to the backlash Rowling had received in the wake of her early comments about the trans community during an interview with ET Canada. He responded: 'I don't have a reaction to that, I'm afraid. As I said, I'm not Mr Social Affairs. I didn't even know that that was a thing and lord knows I'm the last person that's going to wade in on opinions about what other people are saying.' A year later, he said at a fan event: 'Personally, I love everyone. As long as we all love each other, I think the world will be a much better place.' Tom's former co-stars Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson and Rupert Grint have previously spoken out in solidarity with the trans community in light of Rowling's remarks – prompting several responses from the Harry Potter author. Paapa Essiedu Raises Eyebrows By Calling For Trans Support After Joining Harry Potter Series John Lithgow Reacts To Backlash Over His Casting In Controversial Harry Potter TV Series Pedro Pascal Brands JK Rowling A 'Heinous Loser' In Light Of Supreme Court's Trans Ruling
