Can’t have that last ‘Potted Potter’ ticket; It’s reserved for JK Rowling

In the event that you are told, once “Potted Potter” starts its third Philippine run (Sept 30-Oct. 5), that there is only one ticket left, just… walk away. You can’t have it; it’s reserved for author JK Rowling.

And that’s not because the beloved British novelist, author of the “Harry Potter” fantasy series, marked a birth anniversary (her 49th) on July 31 and is collecting a gift.

Is Rowling Manila-bound for this series (from Potted Productions, Concertus Manila and Lunchbox Theatrical Productions) at the RCBC Theater in Makati? The organizers, cast and crew are not taking any more chances. Once is enough.

JAMES Percy and Benjamin Stratton Manila-bound to don “rock-star” boots. Facebook photo

Jefferson “Jeff” Turner, co-creator of this parody of pretty much all Harry Potter incarnations—labeled “unauthorized” and fondly critiqued as “gloriously goofy”—recently told visiting Filipino journalists in London this urban legend:

Was it…

“We were in Edinburgh Festival in 2006. It was our last show and we were just packing up. This front house girl, no more than 17 or 18 came up to us… we could tell she’d been crying. The front house manager said, ‘Go ahead, tell them what happened.’

“Turned out, the girl had turned one lady away at the ticket booth because, well, we were all sold out. The manager, just back from her lunch break, caught [a glimpse of] that lady walking out, and she asked the girl, ‘Was that JK Rowling?’ You can imagine—there was this frantic chase that followed! And they couldn’t find her.

“We don’t know for sure if it was her, or just someone who looked a lot like her… but since then, absolutely wherever we are— and this will include Manila—we leave one ticket not sold. If she turns up, it’s there. See, if it happens once, it could be seen as an accident. But if it happens again…”

If it happens again, at RCBC, Jeff will have been right about insisting on a Manila drop-in. “I should be somewhere in Britain working on a new show with Daniel (Clarkson, his ‘Potted’ partner). But I just have to see for myself.”

Rock stars

Jeff and Daniel used to be hosts on CBBC, the British Broadcasting Corporations’ children’s network. They were also the first “Potted” performers.

Actors Jesse Briton and Gary Trainor, who performed in the first two Manila editions of the Olivier Award-nominated West End hit, had reported getting the rock-star treatment from “Potter” fans here.

Bad wigs

Benjamin “Ben” Stratton, up for this coming series with James Percy, is impatient for his turn: “Can’t wait, absolutely.”

The two-man show, also previously noticed (and just as fondly) for the use of “bad wigs… and a set so cheap, it might have been furnished by craigslist,” promises to “present all seven ‘Harry Potter’ books in 70 minutes.”

That sounds ambitious. But the parody—created in 2005 as a five-minute performance to entertain people waiting for the release of “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince,” the sixth in the series, at an Oxford bookshop—has grown quite like… magic.

Jeff said, with less self-deprecation than a child’s contentment with just rewards, “We’re still waiting for someone to say it has all been a dream.”

STRATTON and “Potted Potter” co-creator Jeff Turner chat with Filipino journalists in London. EMMIE VELARDE

Aside from West End, “Potted Potter” has enjoyed successful Off-Broadway runs and toured around the world. The coming series would brand the Philippines, happily, as the only country it would have been three times outside of Britain, and for three years in a row.

Online tribute

On the occasion of Rowling’s birthday, a teen admirer poured out her awe-inspiring gratitude in an online tribute. She pointed out,  among other things, “[Rowling] made Y.A. (young adult) literature a cultural event on the level of boy bands and  ‘Titanic.’”

The fan-girl represents just one sector of Rowling’s following. This would have reasonably posed a marketing challenge to the creators of the “Potted Potter” parody. But, Jeff insisted, “It is for everyone.”

Even for those who are not Potter followers, he said, because the team— creators, cast, crew—are card-carrying HP crazies. (“We lined up for the books,” Ben quipped.)

The “best-selling” ingredient, Jeff believes, is the spontaneity. So they’re not straying one inch from the formula “The best way to make it look spontaneous,” he said, “is to make it spontaneous.”

(Tickets from P1,000 to P2,950 available via ticketworld.com.ph, 891-9999, or TicketWorld outlets. Priority booking for Visa card holders until Aug. 15.)