A Series of Potter Musical Awesome
If you are a fan of the Harry Potter series, and more so if you grew up with Harry like I did, then I suggest that you do yourself a favour and check out Team Starkid's A Very Potter Musical series if you haven't done so already.
I've mentioned Stakid before when I spoke about their latest musical based on Disney's Aladdin and the Wicked-style back story to a Villan we thought we knew. And whilst Twisted was only their latest production, Starkid fame really took off in 2009 with A Very Potter Musical starring Darren Criss as Harry before he transferred from Hogwarts to Dalton Academy and became the Blaine Anderson we know today.
A Very Potter Musical
AVPM is set in our favourite trio's seconds year at Hogwarts, beginning with the miserable monologue Harry gives regarding his time in Privet drive, meeting up with Ron and Hermione and making it back to school in a very colourful and amusing song and dance. This is probably my favourite musical number simply because it's so quotable and catchy, but that's not to say that the rest of the show isn't as wonderful or the songs as good - rather just that this is the one that I personally like the best. And whilst the show itself doesn't follow the timeline of JKR's primary text, it's rather a mashup of many of the main themes of Harry Potter and loosely follows the overall storyline of the Goblet of Fire with added extras from the Philosopher's Stone and the Deathly Hallows. Starkid's musical is not meant to be an adaptation of the series, but rather a fan-based re-interpretation fuelled by fun. Here are some of my favourite things:
*Pigfarts - the Mars equivalent of Hogwarts that Malfoy desperately wants to go to, run by the Aslann-esque headmaster, RumbleRoar. *Quirrell and Voldemort as a really bizarre odd/gay couple.
*Ron CONSTANTLY eating - from novelty size Hershey bar to hot dogs and chips.
*Darren Criss.
*Joe Walker's Abs.
*Ron and Hermione's totally awkward, totally creepy make out scene.
*Voldemort tap-dancing.
There's plenty more, but I'll leave that to you to check out if you want to. The song list is as follows:
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You can watch the first Act of AVPM here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wmwM_AKeMCk
A Very Potter Sequel
Next up comes A Very Potter Sequel which is my favourite of the full-staged musicals which launches right in with a very twinkle-toed Lucius Malfoy plotting to go back in time by using the Time Turner to kill Harry during his first year at Hogwarts so he can't defeat the Dark Lord the following year (Note: Lucius Malfoy is so freaking awesome as a ballerina). And so what we get is a mix up of how the trio first met, the escapement of Sirius Black from Azkaban, the reign of Umbridge (in drag, by the way), Remus Lupin, Snape losing his shit, and not to mention some musical numbers even better than the first instalment. My favourites are definitely 'Stutter' and 'No Way', but 'Days of Summer' is pretty awesome, too. And I also think that AVPS is probably even more quotable than its predecessor mostly for one very good reason: Umbridge.
Joe Walker returns in AVPS as Umbridge, keeping on with his Twisted and odd villains after his Ab-tastic show as Voldemort in the first musical. He/she offers a very different interpretation of the crazed villainess than the original source material does, and his version of Umbridge is a slightly manic, sassy, masculine and hard-ass woman from the South who basically just wants to love and be loved in a show of cute aggression gone totally bat-shit. But whilst she's mental, this Umbridge unlike the one you're probably familiar with, is totally loveable in a Gloria Estefan kind of way that really reflects in the song she sings to Dumbledore when she breaks up with him (despite the fact that they were never together and Dumbledore is 100% gay - the rainbow Scarf of Sexual Preference said so). And Joe Walker just does it all so well that if it wasn't for his super sexy man arms, I'd have almost believed he really was a jilted Southern Belle who'd lived off nothing but protein shake, falcon eggs and rocks. Here's the song list:
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You can watch the first act of AVPS here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OepW-AG-Ris
A Very Potter Senior Year
Lastly, the final installment of the VP Starkid musical series wasn't actually ever performed as a stage show, rather at Leaky Con in 2012 a live reading with the cast was put on as one of the star attractions. It included almost all of the original cast, with the exception of Bonnie Gruesen (Hermione) who was replaced by Meredith Stepien (don't ask me why), and the addition of Evanna Lynch as Luna (reprising her film role). As it was a very quickly and un-polished show, all the actors carried their scripts onto stage and the regular dialogue was accompanied with a narrator who often set the scene. Whilst this was a very different approach to stage production than I was used to, I actually rather loved it. There's something very refreshing about seeing a group of what are effectively just friends with fans putting on a show chocked full of songs, jokes and enough improv and breaking the fourth wall to make it awesome. Not to mention the added extras of cast members trying not to laugh or forgetting lines and all the other fun that usually gets cut out of the final polished show (ish). It's like a show plus the blooper reel included - so much more fun and so much easier to relate to. 
This last musical is effectively what the title says: Harry and the gang's senior year at Hogwarts as we imagine it would have been if they'd actually gone. It's full of fun puns, ongoing jokes, teen drama, over sexed teenagers, sad losses and reprises of past musical numbers plus a bunch of really catchy new ones. Like its predecessors, this third musical is also a mashup of the Wizarding World we know and love. The plot is loosely based on the events of The Chamber of Secrets, the Half-Blood Prince and with some elements thrown in from the Deathly Hallows such as Harry's trip to Godric's Hollow and the 19 years later scene on platform 9 and 3/4. What I think I love the most about this one is probably the really romantic song that Joey Richter (Ron) sings to Hermione after she is paralysed by the Basilisk. It's adorable and sweet and the first real solo that Ron has gotten in the series. It's all about being the sidekick and not being the one who saves the day, which is sort of a twist in Ron's character throughout the Harry Potter series and causes him particular distress (most notably in the Goblet of Fire), but that to him it doesn't matter so long as he can be beside Hermione. It's truly touching and pretty much steals there show for me.
The song list is as follows:
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You can watch Act 1 here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a81FO-2TxNg
So not only did I enjoy pretty much everything about all three of the Potter musicals, but now I've developed a minor crush on Joe Walker, Joey Richter and Darren Criss. Three supremely talented men that will at one point in every musical make you go 'awww' and feel kind of awesome - I'd watch them all again just for these three. 
But I'm not that pervy, so here are some more honourable mentions:
*Malfoy's love for Hermione.
*Cho Chang being a white girl from Texas.
*Anything that Lucius Malfoy does.
* The songs: 'Goin' back to Hogwarts', 'No Way', 'Not Alone', 'Days of Summer', 'Stutter', 'Always Dance', and 'Sidekick'.
*Hermione's hair.
*Remus and Sirius completly failing at blending in with the Muggle world.
*Voldemort and Dumbledore's odd love for Zac Efron (Zefron).
*Umbridge's Norman Bates-esque encounter with her mother.
*Scarfy the Scarf of Sexual Preference.
*Aragog's weird sex song to encourage the trio to 'get in his mouth'.
*The Jelly-legs jinx - who knew the counter curse was just unjellify?
*Harry and Ron's make up hug after defeating the Zefron Horcrux.
*Lucius Malfoy using the Time Turner to kill Harry Potter - why did no one ever think of that?
*Umbridge's rules for the Hogwarts girls dormitory.
*Snape's class questions.
*Draco's homemade Dark Mark.
*Mrs Weasley.
*Umbridge's obsession with everybody texting her back.
*Voldemort learning that killing people doesn't make them like you, it only makes them dead.
*Hermione trying to seduce Gilderoy Lockhart.
*Lockhart writing Harry's story and trying to sell it as a fictional series in the Muggle World.
*Lupin referring to the Dementors as being so old they used to go by the original name of Ringwraiths.
*Evanna Lynch joining StarKid on stage.
*Hagrid bouncing Harry on his knee.
*Ginny using Riddle's Diary like it's a dream journal.
*Quirrell and Voldemort adopting an Asian baby together.
Considering the stress I've been having lately many of the lyrics have been particularly inspiring. Such as the lyrics to 'No Way' from AVPS that make me determined despite my impending difficulties making my money last abroad:
My mind is racing, but my heart, it beats faster.
I'm in control, commander and master.
Lady Fate, creating disaster--
but she ain't the boss of me!
A head-on collision with a catastrophic setback
makes you either wanna get lost, or get back.
I choose the latter; let's not forget that
we hold the cards this time,
so there's no need to bitch or whine!
There's no way
I'm gonna take another option,
no way I am gonna settle with a loss!
No way I'm gonna sit around and watch,
there's no, no way...
There's no way
you're gonna find me in the background,
no damn way you gonna see me satisfied!
No way they're ever gonna make me back down,
no, no way...
There's no way!
There's no way
we're gonna leave it up to chance,
there's no damn way we're gonna go without a fight!
No way you gonna see us on on our ass,
There's no, no way...
There's no way
we're gonna settle with sorrow,
leave right now if you think this ain't real!
Today, not waitin' for tomorrow!
Or those from 'Days of Summer' that reminds me of how I feel about to leave my friends and family for so long:
We've got these days of summer to,
remind us of each other!
The time we have to spend apart,
Will keep us in each other's hearts!
I'm hoping that thegood old days
Don't matter if it's sooner or later,
I know that it's gonna be all right!
I don't wanna see you go,
But it's not forever,
Not forever!
Even if it was you know,
That I would never let it get me down!
'Cause you're the part of me,
That makes me better,
Wherever I go!
So I will try,
Not to cry,
But no one needs to say goodbye!
Sam xox
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