Normally, I would not recommend wasting five hours of your day watching videos on YouTube. It’s not a healthy habit. But, I was bored, had nothing to do, so I thought, “hey, why not?” I remembered hearing about some Harry Potter musical with Darren Criss from Glee in it, so I decided to look that up and see what all the hype was about.
The hype was definitely warranted. I’m telling you, I had such a blast watching A Very Potter Musical and A Very Potter Sequel, that I think I would easily pay money to go and see it performed Off-Broadway or in some regional theatre. I mean, I went to see Potted Potter, a parody featuring Dan and Jeff from England, but I must say, I think the students from the University of Michigan blew those two Brits out of the water!
Here I go with my brief summary (I don’t want to give too much away)!
A Very Potter Musical: Harry Potter and friends are back at Hogwarts for their second year of school. The Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher is Professor Quirrel, accompanied by Voldemort on the back of his head. The school is hosting the House Cup Tournament, in which the four houses (Gryffindor, Slytherin, Ravenclaw, and Hufflepuff) compete to win a magnificent trophy. Draco Malfoy and Ron Weasley find that they are facing danger as they fall in love with Hermione Granger (tried to hint at one of the songs there). You will find that Cedric Diggory dies. Cho Chang isn’t asian! Oh yeah, and Harry defeats Voldemort – no big deal.
A Very Potter Sequel: Lucius Malfoy is bitter that Harry defeated Voldemort, and decides to go back, 
with the aid of the Time-Turner, to Harry’s first year at Hogwarts in an attempt to kill him. A lot of elements from the first musical are introduced in Harry’s first year. Dumbledore is openly gay. Sirius Black is on the loose and looking for Harry. Professor Lupin is a werewolf and is teaching Defense Against the Dark Arts. Dolores Umbridge is head of security at Hogwarts – played by the same actor that played Voldemort. Umbridge is in love with Dumbledore, and grows bitter when Dumbledore won’t love her back. Draco learns how to use the potty. He also is from the future and helps Harry & Co. defeat his father. We also learn a lot about Severus Snape.
Easy enough to follow? What I absolutely love about these musicals is that the writers did not feel the need to follow the book so literally. As any well-read Harry Potter fan can see, my brief summaries seem to jumble up multiple books and ideas together to create one big comedic extravaganza! The songs are extremely catchy – so catchy even, that I’m singing one right now!
Who says student productions can’t be good? The musical was written by Darren Criss, A.J. Holmes, Matt Lang, Nick Lang, and Brian Holden. Pure genius, I say! Get it to theatres!!!
Marina B. Nebro
