"A Very Potter Musical" is Totally Awesome

I've been a Harry Potter fan since 1999. The word "fan" doesn't really cover it, but somehow the Harry Potter fandom still hasn't come up with a collective name for its members (a la "Trekkies" or "Rentheads"). I have full Gryffindor robes, went to the midnight releases, and bought everything from the socks to the trading cards. While I still love the books dearly, my obsessiveness began to move to the back burner in 2007, once the final book was released and I discovered Wicked.

So when I heard some college kids wrote a Harry Potter musical and put it on youtube, I was intrigued. How do you fit the seven book series into a single musical, especially considering the seventh book is being split into two movies?

The (perhaps, obvious) answer: You don't. Instead they molded together storylines from throughout the series, especially focusing on books 1, 4, and 7. And how to prevent the obsessive fans from nit-picking everything that differs from the books? Make it a parody!

"Harry Potter: The Musical," as it was originally titled, was uploaded to youtube so the friends and family of the cast could watch. But it wasn't long before thousands of Harry Potter fans all over the world were watching, and loving every second. Fearing the wrath of Warner Brothers, the creators removed and reuploaded the show as "A Very Potter Musical" - now with improved video quality, but lacking many of the dirtier jokes.

Admittedly, it took me some time to make it through the musical, which is split into 23 videos (and clocks in at a whopping 2 hours, 46 minutes). This was partly due to a lack of time, and partly due to me getting distracted between videos.

I found the real strengths of the show to be in the book and casting. The writers did an extremely good job of merging over 4,000 pages into a single storyline, keeping it entertaining, and still original.

Some of my favorite lines were those which poked fun directly at the series itself, such as when the characters were discussing where to search for horcruxes:

Hermione: Or it could be hidden somewhere around the mundane British countryside. Our search could entail months of depressive camping, breaking into Gringotts, and drinking boatloads of Polyjuice Potion.

Harry: Well the medallion says that's dumb, so we're not gonna do that.

Regarding the cast, in an ingenious move Lauren Lopez was cast as Draco, stealing each scene she appeared in. Bonnie Gruesen's Hermione is spot-on perfect (and she has the bushy hair!), and Joe Walker brought a humanizing side to Voldemort while still keeping him evil. Darren Criss starred as the totally awesome, guitar playing, Harry, while Joey Richter ate his way through the show as Ron.

The songs for the most part were well done, especially considering they were all written within about a two week time span. "Get Back to Hogwarts" and "Granger Danger" are both surprisingly catchy - I've had both of them stuck in my head the past few days. Another of my favorites, "Voldemort is Going Down," was taught to the cast only a day before opening.

It's a shame that if an official Harry Potter musical is ever produced, it won't be this one. Although it's not perfect, I can't imagine a better way to approach the project. Seeing as it's unlikely to be performed again (many of the cast has now graduated, and the music was never written out), thank Merlin for youtube.

Icon credit to dancingraphics on livejournal