"Interesting story. I got a call from Phil Hettema who, at the time, was heading up Universal Creative. He asked if I knew the Harry Potter property, I said “Yes I have the book and read it on a flight back from London” and in fact, I had written to see if the film rights were available only to find out that a “Warner Brothers producer” had optioned it prior to publication. (That was David Heyman) So I was familiar with the material. Phil said “good because we need a concept for the Conan stage and we need it in two weeks – can you do that?” I said yes, and it turned into more like three weeks, but since I knew the story, and I knew the Conan stage intimately I thought I could come up with something. (Note: Gary wrote, directed, and designed the Conan Sword & Sorcery Spectacular for Universal back in 1981)
In keeping with the style of the books we created an original story “Harry Potter and the Magic Talisman”, developing a storyline that featured all of the “touchstone” elements of the books, hopefully connecting with the growing body of fans of the Harry Potter books. I created a concept for a live show where Muggles were invited to Hogwarts for a special “Open House” by the school for the parents of the students. As part of the day a special “live stage show” was being presented with the cast made up of the students including Harry, Hermoine, and Ron. The idea was that it would be simple “magic show” of sorts, allowing students to demonstrate some pedestrian things they had learned at the school.
In addition to setting up the idea of a live show with magic, this gave us the chance to musicalize the Hogwarts School Song that was printed in the books, and it gave us the chance to create a new parallel/companion story to the books, (a this point the movie hadn’t been made yet.)
Essentially our show included Harry’s Owl, it included the Hogwarts School song, it included Harry, Hermonie and Ron uncovering something having to do with “he who must not be named” ( and who ultimately IS named for sake of dramatic narrative) and who then shows up to wreak havoc on the school and the Muggles in attendance. The ultimate battle of magical powers builds in scale with Lord Voldamort taking control, and culiminating with the appearance of a multi-headed Hydra-serpent who is summoned (using the pre-existing elevator lift and shaft in the Conan Theatre) with our heroes using their broomsticks and wands to subdue it.
Of course there’s a lot more to it, but that was the basic idea. Now remember this was all done in just three weeks when the Harry Potter phenomenon was just beginning – no movie out yet, just the books and the huge Potter fans worldwide. Bill Stout turned around several very cool black and white sketches that helped to convey the spirit of the show, and Greg Pro turned around a pretty nice color “finale” piece in record time as well.
As a footnote to this story, I always wondered why we only had two weeks to do this. I found out that Universal has spent several months working on another concept, and that it was found wanting. With a meeting coming up for JK Rowling and/or Warner Brothers, they needed something else and they needed it quickly. Ultimately, Universal was told that they (JK and WB’s) preferred to wait until the movie came out before making any licensing deals for theme parks. A very smart move on their part. But actually, even now after all these years and with the movies now out, I think this concept holds up well for a live “spectacular” based upon the Harry Potter saga."