John Skelley’s Harry Potter journey from Broadway understudy to star
Every time Skelley thinks he’s done with the play Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, ‘opportunity kind of keeps coming back’
John Skelley cannot escape the pull of Harry Potter. It is as if something magical keeps them together.
“It’s like something that just kind of keeps coming back into my life,” Skelley says. “There have been multiple times where I thought, ‘Well, that might be the last time I do it.’ And then the opportunity kind of keeps coming back.”
All this from a guy who was not initially a huge fan of Potter and the gang from Hogwarts. He had not read the books before auditioning, nor seen the stage show, although he had seen the films when visiting his now wife in graduate school while she was in class.
Once he secured the role, Skelley quickly devoured the Harry Potter books – one a week for seven weeks – and has listened to two different audiobooks. Harry Potter is now front and centre.