‘Harry Potter’ fans are flying to Broadway to see the original Draco Malfoy

Almost eight years after Harry Potter and the Cursed Child opened, it has become the highest grossing show on Broadway. Why? Tom Felton, who played Draco Malfoy, Harry Potter’s nemesis at Hogwarts in the eight films, is now playing him onstage.

After every performance, crowds gather at the stage door to get autographs, selfies or just a close-up glimpse of Felton.

Anna Chan flew to New York from San Francisco to see him in the show. “I grew up watching the movies and reading the books as a kid,” she said, “so just seeing him reprising his role as Draco Malfoy is really exciting and just heartwarming to see. It’s kinda like a full circle moment for him.”

Felton feels the audience’s warmth. “I’m somewhat of a bookmark in their youth on the films,” he said. “To see them as excited as I am to be doing that again on the stage was… well, it’s overwhelming and it still is every night.”

Now 38, Felton spent much of his childhood, adolescence and young adulthood getting his hair bleached blond and sneering as the bully Draco Malfoy in the films. For 10 years, he worked with some of the finest actors of British stage and screen, including Dame Maggie Smith, Alan Rickman and Gary Oldman. Felton — and all the other young cast members — learned by example.

“You know, Alan Rickman making teas for the grips,” recalled Felton, “and Jason Isaacs telling anecdotes, Helena Bonham Carter sort of just being playful. I think that’s something that made the early Potter films very special — the adults around us did not take themselves too seriously. And so that allowed us to be playful.”

Post-Potter, Felton has written a memoir and has appeared in films and on London’s West End. When he was given the opportunity to play an adult Draco Malfoy on Broadway for six months, he jumped.

“I do understand the character somewhat,” he said, “although Draco now is a dad.” In the play, Harry Potter and Draco Malfoy’s sons become friends and get into a mess of trouble.

In the first act, he and the older Harry have a wizard’s duel and Felton said that, during rehearsal, he added a familiar line from the films that wasn’t in the script.

“When Harry and Draco first decide, ‘Come on, let’s have a scrap, let’s have a battle,’ I think it just came up voluntarily. I said, ‘Scared Potter?’ Felton recalled, laughing. “And then it was sort of looked over and then someone came back to me a few days later and said, ‘We’ve got it in, your line suggestion.'”

The audience gets to see Malfoy and Potter fly through the air and electrical arcs come out of their wands live onstage. “Every night you can hear or feel, rather, at least half the audience go back to their childhood or older memories,” Felton said. “The first time that they saw Draco and Harry duel. And because this one’s live and in front of your face, it’s just only more exciting, I think.”

Felton said he’s proud to be part of the Harry Potter World, on film and on Broadway. He’ll be appearing in Harry Potter and the Cursed Child through May 10.

Jennifer Vanasco edited this story for broadcast and digital. Chloee Weiner mixed the audio.