Harry Potter Exhibit Arrives at the Discovery Times Square Expo — through September 5

Harry Potter fans are gearing up for their last hurrah this summer – the release of the final movie Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 on July 15 – but New York City has another Potter treat to enjoy right now. Through September 25, Muggles and Potter wannabes can enjoy The Harry Potter Exhibition at the Discovery Times Square Expo, the  final stop of its North American tour.

The exhibit showcases an extraordinary number of items from the Potter movies, using detailed Potter movie settings — the Gryffindor Common Room, Hogwarts classrooms, Hagrid’s Hut and the Great Hall —  to categorize hundreds of props, costumes and set pieces.

Diehard fans will marvel at seeing some of the background props as well, ones that weren’t featured up close in the movies but are as instrumental to creating J.K. Rowling’s wizarding world as are the broomsticks and cauldrons. A case with books by Gilderoy Lockhart, Harry’s egotistical Defense Against the Dark Arts professor in Chamber of Secrets, shows off Lockhart’s smug photos on Travels with Trolls and Magical Me. In the Potions class display, you’ll see Severus Snape’s store cupboard of sinister-looking ingredients including  my personal favorite, pickled toad. Ron’s Gryffindor dorm is decorated with Chudley Cannons paraphernalia, his favorite (but poorly performing) Quidditch team. Educational decrees from Order of the Phoenix hang forbiddingly outside the Great Hall, and a gallery of Daily Prophets brings you close enough to the magical paper to catch the tagline The Wizarding World’s Beguiling Broadsheet of Choice. There’s even a preview of a prop from the final movie: the cup of Helga Hufflepuff, one of the horcruxes Harry must destroy to defeat Voldemort.

The major props are all there, too, including Harry’s trademark specs, Hogwarts robes, wands and the Invisibility Cloak. There are also fun opportunities for interacting with the exhibit to stave off museum fatigue. You can toss a Quaffle into a Quidditch goal post, disappear into Hagrid’s enormous chair, volunteer to be Sorted into a Hogwarts House, or pull a shrieking Mandrake plant from its pot.

The exhibit is appropriate for both adults and children (and the cool, dark museum will be a welcome respite from the city’s summer heat), but be wary of taking younger kids into the Dark Arts section of the exhibit:  Death Eater masks and the Angel of Death statue from the Goblet of Fire graveyard scene may prove too scary for them.

If all the Potter props have left you wanting more, the "real" Harry Potter is only a few blocks away. Daniel Radcliffe is currently on Broadway in How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying at the Al Hirschfeld Theater. 

The Harry Potter Exhibit is on display through September 5, 2011 at the Discovery Times Square Expo, 226 W. 44^th Street. Tickets are $25 for adults and $19.50 for children 4-12 (children under 4 are admitted free).

This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 1st, 2011 at 9:02 pm and is filed under Stuff to Do. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.