A Very Potter Musical Review by Ellen Stott

I’m sure you’re all familiar with J.K Rowling’s series of stories following the lives of three young wizards: Harry Potter, Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger, but are you aware of the many parodies of the beloved tales of magic and adventure?

Barry Trotter, Potter Puppet Pals and the mentions from Comic Relief, Epic Movie and The Simpsons are just a few examples of these parodies; however I recently came across a full length musical devoted to the Potter books/films called A Very Potter Musical.

This musical was performed and written by a group of students from the University of Michigan (Team StarKid) and tells the tale of Lord Voldemort’s plan to return to his body with the help of Professor Quirrell using the House Cup Tournament, to kill Harry Potter.

Important points from all seven books are included in the musical and some of the main characters are: Harry, Hermione, Ron, Voldemort, Quirrell, Dumbledore, Snape, Malfoy, Ginny Weasley and Death Eaters. References from the books are used as in-jokes for Potter fans and the student’s quirky portrayal of characters make them instantly likeable, their offbeat comedy style keeping the audience’s attention.

Not only does the musical follow Voldemort and posse put their plan into play, it explores the more personal side of the events of Harry, Ron and Hermione’s second year at Hogwarts, such as Harry’s struggles to woo his first crush Cho Chang, Hermione’s transformation from the pushover-nerdy girl to the suddenly hot and brainy friend of the guys, Malfoy and Ron’s infatuation with Hermione, Ginny and Harry’s first kiss and Voldemort and Quirrell’s destructive but sweet relationship and betrayal. Each character seems to undergo a change from how they began, for example we see Voldemort develop from a heartless, evil murderer to a compassionate and gentler murderer.

There are quite a few songs seeing as it’s a musical, all light-hearted but peppered with dark humour when characters such as Voldemort sing. Each song shows the actors’ ability to not only carry the role of their character but to sing well!

The musical is split into two acts, was performed and recorded in front of an audience then posted on YouTube where it has received over a million views. The only issues with watching it on YouTube are that the clips are between 5-10 minutes long and therefore you have to keep finding the next one you need to watch and also the sound and picture quality isn’t that great. However, the storyline and acting make up for these minor problems, as Quirrell would say “the rewards far outweigh the danger” and the musical is a must for any die hard Potter fan, if you’re willing to excuse the occasional swearing.

The musical ends with good triumphing over evil, as to be expected, and Voldemort again becomes a shadow of himself and must return to Quirrell to ask for forgiveness, finishing with a final song. But, don’t worry, that’s not all! The students of the University of Michigan made a sequel due to the success of the first musical; called A Very Potter Sequel. All I will say about that is evil always has a plan B.