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[0:00] Robert Bannon: Well, one of the most magical times you could have on Broadway right now is definitely over at Harry Potter and the Cursed Child. I remember waiting in line at the Barnes & Noble for my brother to get these books at midnight, and I thought, these people are crazy. What is this show about? What is this book? Then I went to see this show, and it is one of the most magical nights on Broadway. If you're a Potterhead or you're not, this is literally for everyone, and I am so excited that we could have Erik Christopher Peterson and Joel Meyers. Welcome to the show, Joel Meyers and Erik Christopher Peterson.

[0:35] Joel Meyers: Hey there.

[0:35] Erik Christopher Peterson: Hello, hello.

[0:37] Robert Bannon: So I, personally, I have to class that out because you all are actors. I mean, there is, there is. A, I'm exhausted because you're on stage for three and a half hours, eight shows a week. B, from the Shakespeare to the Columbia to the regional work to Othello to Midnight Summer's Dream. You all can act your faces off.

[0:59] Erik Christopher Peterson: That's very kind of you.

[1:03] Joel Meyers: We do.

[1:05] Robert Bannon: I'm just here doing a little singing and dancing in Jersey, and you all are around the world up on stage. What is it like for both of you making your Broadway debut? This show is a monster. It is magic. It is a huge cast. It is costumes. It is sets. It is special effects. It is all of it. What has it been like, personally, what was the process to get the part, and what was it like your first night up on stage?

[1:27] Erik Christopher Peterson: I'll let you go, Erik. You start.

[1:29] Erik Christopher Peterson: Okay. Yeah. Well, the audition process was a blast. I mean, it was a really just wonderfully warm audition room and so fun to connect with these characters. And I was doing a show in Arizona at the time, so I was flying back and forth between Arizona and New York, and it ended up being totally worth it. And then opening night was just a blur, I think, every moment. Over a year ago now, well, our opening night, I guess, I think every moment backstage, we were kind of just high-fiving each other. Keep your head above water. Keep doing it. We're making it through.

[2:14] Joel Meyers: Yeah, I remember particularly the moment. There's a moment in Act Two where we used to sit on a bed. They took the bed away from us halfway through the year. And you look up at this massive set, and the two of us coming from doing school productions, regional productions, things like that, we were sitting there looking up at the set with each other like, what have we gotten ourselves into? But like Erik said, it's just been the most magical ride to come in with these characters that I think live so closely to both of our hearts and come into such a machine of a show that is so well-oiled, which is great to step in and have the only thing you've got to be figuring out is yourself. But yeah, it's been just a magical ride from start to finish.

[3:00] Robert Bannon: Well, while we're talking about it, if you want to get your tickets, go to HarryPotterThePlay.com. Make sure you get your tickets to come on down. It's a magical night. No age limits. You can be seven years old. You can be 70 years old. You could have read the books, you could have seen the movies, or you could know nothing about the story. And you will literally have an amazing, magical time. I know you're not going to tell me the secrets, but there's some magic. The set is shaking. Water is showing up from nowhere. Things are glowing. Would you have to sign your life away so you never tell us all the tricks in that world of Harry Potter?

[3:37] Erik Christopher Peterson: I think the secret is we just don't entirely know how it works either.

[3:44] Joel Meyers: Yeah, no, it's true. It's amazing, and it's just so mind-blowing. And even now, we've both been with the show for a year and some, there are still things that you will be watching another scene and be like, wait a minute, I didn't know that was in the show. I'm like, that's cool. How do they do that?

[4:02] Erik Christopher Peterson: That's what we're saying. That's what I'm saying. Some pictures of the show, if you're watching us online, it is beautiful. It is beautifully done. It is some of the most fun. And what a beautiful cast that has assembled every single night to put the show together. Eric, what is it like to work with this ensemble? You all work very closely together. So what is it like to trust each other as actors on stage with telling the story?

[4:29] Erik Christopher Peterson: Yeah, it's one of the most rewarding artistic endeavors I've been lucky enough to be a part of. I think we have a really close company. We have a really large company, rarely large for a play. And we all start the show every night together. We do a full company warm-up. And I think that we're all in it for a long haul. We've all been with the show for a while. And then the new people that have just joined us are going to be with it for a while. And so we really kind of, I think, hunker down and get to build some relationships. And on stage, I'm wowed constantly. Just backstage last night, I was talking with Aaron Bartz, who plays Drake, and I turned to him after we'd gotten off stage from the scene. And I was just kind of like, you are so good at your job. I don't get to tell you enough, but you are an incredible actor. And that's true of everybody. We are constantly spoiled with the most giving scene partners. The same is true for Joel. I'll admit it.

[5:37] Joel Meyers: Thank you.

[5:37] Robert Bannon: That's what I was just going to ask you. Joel and Eric Christopher Peterson are on stage together for so much of the scene. You have such this relationship that you share on stage. So how do you guys work on that off stage and together? When we watch the show, you just seem like you guys are buddies and friends and that you have this rapport and relationship. And it's what makes it so charming to watch on stage. So was that something natural when you two met? Did you just click?

[6:07] Joel Meyers: It's all entirely fake.

[6:13] Erik Christopher Peterson: We really lucked out, I think, with coming into this together at the same time and to go through not only the journey of joining the show, but going through the Broadway debuts together. We kind of came at it from the same place in life. And it's been, it's really been a special journey for the two of us to share this experience and really lucked out that we clicked pretty immediately. At least I'll speak for myself on that front. I hope you feel the same, Eric.

[6:39] Erik Christopher Peterson: Yeah.

[6:39] Joel Meyers: We spent a lot of time together otherwise.

[6:41] Erik Christopher Peterson: The banter is witty on stage, but it might be wittier off stage.

[6:45] Joel Meyers: Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. No, we have a good time. And that's how you do a show like this eight times a week. You have to find those relationships that keep you going. And so whether it's the two of us or anyone else in the cast, I think that we really are fortunate to have a wonderful company, both the cast and the crew, full of wonderful people who are happy to be doing what we're doing. And that makes all the difference.

[7:10] Robert Bannon: And it shows for us. You know, this is not trying to be a controversial question. You don't even have to answer, but a lot of speculation. There's so much speculation about the relationship between Albus and Scorpius. What is the story behind it? I think people need to just go and have a good time and make it be whatever they want it to be.

[7:32] Erik Christopher Peterson: I'm with you. I think that there's room for whatever it means to you. And whether that's best friends, whether that's more, take it and run with it.

[7:44] Joel Meyers: I'm not trying to make the Harry Potter people mad and get myself in trouble. That's all I'm going to say.

[7:49] Erik Christopher Peterson: You might be making them very happy.

[7:52] Joel Meyers: When you make, absolutely. I think that's what a lot of people. So Joel plays Albus Potter, who is, if you don't know the whole story, he's Harry's son. We're fast forwarding through. And then Eric Christopher Peterson plays Scorpius Malfoy, which, you know, Draco Malfoy, is he good? Is he bad? Are they the good people? Are the bad people? And their relationship? Are you guys Potterheads before? Did you read it? Or did you watch the movies? Like you knew what you were getting into?

[8:21] Joel Meyers: Oh, yes. Oh, yes. Yes. Yes. Yeah. I think when the play was first announced, and I was in high school, and I found out, oh, there's a character that is Draco's son, his name is Scorpius. I got to play that role. Like, well, how do I how do I do that? And, oh, my gosh, you know, a handful of years later, here I am doing it.

[8:48] Erik Christopher Peterson: And you're doing it likewise. And Joel, you're playing you're playing Harry Potter's son. And the characters, Harry and Hermione and Ron, and they're all in the show too, that, you know, there is it is a all-encompassing. The fandom of the show is humongous. So when you go to the stage door, and you get letters, you get you meet people. Well, what is it like when people come and tell you what it means to them to be able to see a live interpretation of this piece?

[9:14] Joel Meyers: It's, it's wonderful. It's absolutely, we love seeing people at the stage every night. We love hearing from all the, you know, there's there's the Potterheads, there's the Broadway fans, and we kind of get the special Venn diagram of Broadway, Harry Potter fans, which are the best fans in the world. And, you know, it's wonderful to see. It's such you realize how much a story like this means to people of our generation, people who grew up with these books, the new generation coming up kids who are discovering it through their parents. It's so wonderful to see that something that was so near and dear to our hearts growing up being passed along to the next generation is so wonderful. We love seeing the kids come in their full Hogwarts robes with their wands. And it's just the best to see, see that love for it every night.

[10:04] Erik Christopher Peterson: Oh, and they're there. When I was there, I've seen the show now twice, and they are decked. The wands are there. The capes are there. You know, it's all there. I want to, you guys individually, Eric, you went to the Sargent Conservatory of Theatre Arts at Webster. You had an apprenticeship with Great Rivers Shakespeare Festival. While this is not Shakespeare, this is definitely wordy. This is definitely long and complex. And, you know, Othello and Romeo and Juliet and all of the shows that in your past, and you as a writer as well, how has that all prepared you to kind of take this text, which is not Old English, but it is definitely a certain language and a certain rhythm? And how did it all that preparation prepare you for this moment?

[10:46] Erik Christopher Peterson: Certainly. You've done your research. Yeah, no, I've done a lot of well, I've done I've been I've been I've done a handful of Shakespeare work. I hope to do more. And I think that this project is epic in scope, as similarly to a lot of

[11:10] Erik Christopher Peterson: Shakespeare's plays, and the sort of physical capacity that it asks of you as an actor, and the vocal, like purely the breath capacity that it's asking you to engage with, are definitely tools in my toolbox from some of my training and experience with, you know, those complex plays that are... I'm using those tools every night.

[11:43] Robert Bannon: Well, if you want to follow Erik on Instagram, it's Erik, if you're listening to us on the Broadway Podcast Network E-R-I-K period C, period Peterson, and you can follow and stay up to date of all that what's gonna happen, and what's after this, what's next? Joel, you trained, and you're in... How do you get a bachelor's in theater and astrophysicist?

[12:06] Joel Meyers: Columbia. Did you ever take a nap? Did you ever sleep? Did you eat? Like, how did you get all of the work done to do all of that? You know, you just... you just hunker down, and you do it, and it's... it's one of those things where it was kind of like, we'll see how this goes, and I got through it, you know? It's... it's possible, and it was a lot of fun.

[12:26] Robert Bannon: Well, you're... you're no slouch to some Shakespeare and some serious work as well, and what about you... what about the training that you learned did you... did you bring to... to your role every single night?

[12:38] Joel Meyers: Yeah, I mean, you know, like Erik said, I think a lot of it is just that purely the stamina to do this show is something that you... you have to... I'm... the experience... various experiences I had, I think, really prepared me for that, of growing up, and... and, you know, doing... doing musicals, doing Shakespeare, doing a lot of that, that sort of... there's elements of all of those things in Harry Potter. We... we dance, we, you know, we... we don't sing, which is good, but we swim, you know, we do... we do all sorts of things, and it's... it's a lot of that. I feel like I'm constantly pulling pieces from various experiences that I've had in school or outside of school, doing theater, that just... it all kind of... this play hits all the... all the boxes.

[13:23] Robert Bannon: Well, yeah, it sure does. If you want to follow Joel P. Myers on Instagram, make sure you follow to stay up to speed as well. When I saw the show, I went with my brother, who's, like, a real big Harry Potter nerd, who, like, is a police detective, so he doesn't want to tell people he's a nerd, so, like, he'll buy the tie that's written, but it, like, won't say, I'm a Harry Potter nerd, but it will be there for the other people to see it. You know, the socks, the belt buckle, like, he gets his Harry Potter in there, and it was very hard for him, because he read the books first before the movies were made, and now to see it on stage and to see it on screen, you know, you have your own vision of what it is like.

What is it like... how do you find your own version of these characters that have become iconic in literature and in film to now put your own spin on them? Did you... did you get very specific notes, Erik, about how you were supposed to be, or did you get to bring some of your own artistry to the part?

[14:19] Erik Christopher Peterson: I think... I think Scorpius, and maybe Joel can speak to Albus as well, but, like, there are huge gifts as characters, because they're connected to this wonderful universe, but in the films, you only ever see the back of Scorpius's head for a split second, and he just gets a brief mention in the epilogue of Deathly Hallows, so there's a lot of, you know, latitude to play and discover who this person is through the play, and the creative team, John Tiffany and our associate director, Connor Wilson, are so like investigative in their work, and they're curious to explore and discover, and I think that I've been given a huge gift to play and find who, you know, what's the overlap of Scorpius and Erik, and how do I bring myself to this character, and there's a lot of creativity that we're given, you know, we're not asked to play the role exactly like the person who was playing the role before us, which is all you can ever ask for, I think.

[15:33] Joel Meyers: Yeah, they give us a lot of freedom to change that, like even when we have Understudies and Swings go on, the relationships can change night to night, which is super special, and it's really special that as a creative team, they've allowed that freedom within the structure of, and otherwise, you know, otherwise there are things that you do have to be very set in so you don't catch on fire or something like that, but they let us find the freedom where we can, which is wonderful.

[15:59] Erik Christopher Peterson: I was literally just going to say that. I was going to say, don't catch on fire. When doing a show like this, I'm sure it requires, like you say, physical stamina. Erik, what do you do to take care of yourself? A lot of people who are in theater school or young, aspiring musical theater performers or theater performers watch the show. I teach musical theater in Newark, New Jersey, etc. What is it like, what advice do you have to keep the stamina physically healthy to get up on stage and be able to perform every single night?

[16:26] Erik Christopher Peterson: Yeah, well, I think it's a 360-degree lifestyle. It's not just what you're doing on stage. It's not just what you're doing just before the show and just after the show, but it's like, there's not a moment in my weekly schedule where I'm not thinking about doing eight three-and-a-half-hour long shows. So it's what you eat, it's how you treat your body, it's how you fuel yourself, and it's also about finding what works for you. I really have a habit of interrogating other castmates of like, okay, what do you do? When do you eat? What do you like to eat before the show? And I'll steal little bits and pieces, and I think I'm figuring it out 13 months in, 14 months into doing the show. But still constantly trying to figure out how can I take better care of myself and stretch my muscles out, be available to the show every night.

[17:24] Joel Meyers: How about you, Joel? Could you eat like three pounds of pasta and an entire pizza? What's the trick to running around on stage?

[17:28] Erik Christopher Peterson: I drink a lot of apple cider. I swear by apples at intermission, Eric knows this. Joel eats apples at intermission every night.

[17:39] Joel Meyers: Yeah. It's, but yeah, I mean, like you said, Eric, it's a lot of just planning the rest of your life around it. At the same time, I find it's, it honestly helps me more to not go crazy overboard and sort of treat it like, yeah, this, you let your body adjust and sort of, you know, you don't have to go do a four-hour workout before the show. A, because you probably shouldn't, because there's, the show is basically a four-hour workout, but you know, it's, it's you listening to your body is a big, a big learning curve of this kind of experience. Like, you are... you will know halfway through the day what it's going to be like to get up at night and what you need and sort of letting yourself be flexible within those bounds. I've found very helpful.

[18:27] Robert Bannon: That's great. Absolutely. So how do you do this show for, you said, 14 months and how do you keep it fresh? How do you, I know there are days where you're tired, you don't feel well, you were up too late or whatever. Is it the audience? Is it, is it the company? Like what is it? You know, I know there are people that come from around the world and spend their money to come see the show and they want to see you at your best. Do you feel that responsibility and, and is that some of the things that push you through those, those tough days, Erik?

[19:00] Erik Christopher Peterson: Certainly. Yeah, it's astounding. Every night at the stage door, there's somebody saying that they've come from Peru or Greece or all, all over and it's so exciting. But yeah, I think, I think that there's a certain mindset that is valuable for me of letting tonight's show be tonight's show and it's, it's not trying to make it better than last night's show. It's not trying to make it the same as last night's show. It's just being available to what tonight's show is going to be and when, when we're doing that together and that's something that I think we both really focus on and we try to meet each other where we're at on, on any given night and that is... that's the big way that it stays fresh is to hear, hear what Joel's saying to me for the first time because tonight it is the first time he said it, even if he said it this afternoon, you know, and then the audience is totally the other variable like the energy that we are being sent from the 1600 people watching the show is immense and the gasps and the, you know, when, when we have a school group in it totally changes the energy in the house and, and I think I like to really be conscientious of that and feel that and let that move me.

[20:29] Joel Meyers: Yeah.

[20:30] Erik Christopher Peterson: Yeah.

[20:32] Joel Meyers: I would say too that like free, like I said freedom within the bounds and that the, that the creative team lets us do that because and this is something that you know, I, you don't realize when you go see a Broadway show once or twice is that the show evolves over time, like the version of the show that we're doing now isn't exactly the same as the version we did on our opening night, you know, it is... the lines are the same, the trick, you know, the magic is the same but the way that we approach it changes and I think that that really helps in a 14-month contract really helps you explore and keep it alive as you go.

[21:11] Robert Bannon: And, and alive it is. So if you're here and you're coming to, to New York City or if you're around the world make sure you go to HarryPotterThePlay.com to make sure you check out Harry Potter and the Cursed Child. It is a fun night of theater. Before I let you go here's the last question, the question on my mind, is the water cold? Is it freezing?

[21:37] Erik Christopher Peterson: Are we allowed to answer that? I don't know.

[21:40] Joel Meyers: The, the water in the lake is, is certainly frigid for Scorpius.

[21:47] Erik Christopher Peterson: I, I'll maybe leave Eric's experience up in the air.

[21:52] Joel Meyers: It's certainly cold when you get out. Give it that, give it that. Especially this time of year, the last week has been.

[22:00] Robert Bannon: Well, have the most fun, break, continue to break all the legs. Thank you for sharing your art and artistry with us and creating some magic on Broadway. And if you're coming to New York City, you have to check them out. Make sure you head on down and check out Harry Potter and the Cursed Child. It's so exciting to talk to you both. Thank you so much for spending some time with us today.

[22:14] Joel Meyers: Yeah, thank you for having us. Nice to meet you.