MUSIC PREVIEW: A VERY POTTER MUSICAL...THE SEQUEL!
They're Back! (After Some Careful Wriggling Around Cease-And-Desist Threats)...
Never underestimate the power and enthusiasm of a Harry Potter fan. That is what the deliciously ragamuffin group of artists known in Potter world as Team StarKid learned last year when their little labor of love became a massive Internet sensation.
A Very Potter Musical was created in the spring of 2009 by University of Michigan student artists under the provision of Basement Arts, an entirely student-run theatre organization.
An unofficial, fan-made parody musical, initially created solely for the amusement of the creators themselves, AVPM gathered incredible attention upon its initial performance in Ann Arbor. Packed houses and added performances left the students thrilled with the work and pleased with the attention, but no one could predict what was yet to come in the summer months.
In July, A Very Potter Musical was uploaded in its entirety onto YouTube…and then all hell broke loose. Within its first week online, the videos garnered over 100,000 views. Fans went nuts. Message boards exploded, and the creators thought, “Oh crap…we may have just created a monster.”
And a monster it has been. After carefully wriggling around cease-and-desist threats and lawsuit scare tactics, StarKid began a wild ride through the world of Harry Potter fandemonium. By the end of the year, the videos had made their way onto Entertainment Weekly’s Top Viral Video Countdown, been nominated for YouTube Video of the Year…and, irony of all irony’s, parodies of the parody began popping up on YouTube as well. Suffice it to say, all members involved were blown away at the sudden and fervent success of the little Potter play.
From there, StarKid hit gold yet again with their tongue-in-cheek musical Me and My Dick about…well…exactly what you’d think it would be about. Performed in October of 2009 at the University of Michigan, the soundtrack was released onto iTunes in March of 2010 and almost immediately made it to the Billboard Charts for original cast recording, where it sat pleasantly between Rock of Ages and Phantom of the Opera.
Now, merely one year after the springboard that sprung, and a few months since their Billboard success, Team StarKid is back and preparing for something they all swore they’d never do (yet couldn’t resist in the end): A Very Potter Sequel is coming to a YouTube page near you. The entire cast (and a few new faces) are preparing to descend on the town of Ann Arbor for a whirlwind couple of weeks, jokingly being referred to as “Camp Hogwarts.” For two weeks, 40-plus people making up the cast, crew, and creative team will spend 12 hours a day in the darkness of the University of Michigan’s Walgreen Drama Center rehearsing, creating, laughing, and ultimately going quite insane in the pursuit of forming a sequel which will please the fans. A Very Potter Sequel will run in Ann Arbor May 14th-16th. Unfortunately, the entire run is already completely over-sold. With patience, though, the show will premiere on YouTube for all to enjoy, as of July, when the cast will be performing at the Infinitus Conference in Orlando.
Stay tuned for more updates from behind the scenes, and be sure to check in online with the StarKid team to be a part of all of the hilarity and insanity that is set to follow at www.teamstarkid.com
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