Why you should be obsessed with Team Starkid
There always happens to be something, whether it be a tv show, a band, or a special moment, that reminds you of those years you spent in high school searching for our yourself. For me there’s two things that trigger a thought of those four awkward but wonderful years, Glee, and most importantly, Team Starkid.
Team Starkid, primarily known as Starkid Productions, is a Chicago based musical theater company founded in 2009 at the University of Michigan by Glee’s Darren Criss, Brian Holden, Matt Lang, and Nick Lang. The company is composed of actors, writers, directors, composers, choreographers, and designers, most of them coming from the University of Michigan’s School of Music, Theater and Dance, that collaborate together to produce musicals for their fans to enjoy.
In 2009, Team Starkid put on a musical parody of the Harry Potter series, known as A Very Potter Musical. When the students uploaded a video of their production on YouTube, they didn’t imagine that it would play well within the Harry Potter fandom and eventually go viral.
It’s no surprise that a group of unique and goofy students were able to successfully gather a promising and reliable fan base. If you have lived under a rock for all of these years, A Very Potter Musical, is filled with hilarious moments, such as Draco Malfoy being brilliantly played by my favorite funny girl, Lauren Lopez; Hermione, played by Bonnie Gruesen, being the punching back of the group and even Hogwarts professors; a big curly haired Harry, played by Criss, being the cool, sassy, and careless boy wonder; Ron, played by Joey Richter, always having something in his hands to eat, Dumbledore, played by Dylan Saunders, wearing slippers and being obsessed with Zac Efron; Voldemort being shirtless, wearing a fabulous black cape and tight black pants, and so many other hilarious characters.
After the show’s success, Team Starkid went on to produce two successful sequels, A Very Potter Sequel and A Very Potter Senior Year. This production company might be widely known for their hilarious Harry Potter musical parodies, but they have also successfully put on many wonderful plays. Apart from success with AVPM, AVPS and AVPSY, they went on to produce, Me and My Dick (it’s exactly what it sounds like), Starship, Holy Musical B@tman, Twisted, Starship, The Trail to Oregon, and Ani: A Parody.
Apart from their plays, they have also done sketch comedy productions, Airport for Birds and 1Night 2Last 3Ever, they’ve went on to do tours, The SPACE tour and Apocalyptour, they’ve even done a one season web-series, Little White Lie, and if you didn’t think they could do it all, they have released a novel and graphic novel, The Bully Book (takes place in the same universe as Little White Lie) and Quicksand Jack.
It’s clear that Team Starkid is filled with many talented members but they are so much more than that. I know that I speak for the rest of the Starkid fandom that they truly helped us find ourselves. Being a group of goofy, geeky, and nerdy adults they showed me and others that it’s okay to be like that, that it’s okay to be different and stand out.
They continuously give so much love to their fan base and never fail to disappoint us with their wonderful and hilarious plays. They even gave us the handsome and ridiculously talented Darren Criss, and that’s pretty much all that you can ask for.
Although they have had their success, they truly are underrated and it would be wonderful to see them succeed even more. So if you’ve never seen any play by Team Starkid, I highly encourage you to take a look at their YouTube channel, find your inner musical theater geek and really just have a blast watching any of their productions. Even if Harry Potter isn’t your thing (and I ask HOW) they have a variety of shows that’ll sure make you laugh your socks off and yes, even shed a tear. I guess you can say that they truly are supermegafoxyawesomehot! (If you know Starkid, you know what this means.)
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