The Dower Power Hour

For those of you who don’t know, A Very Potter Musical is an original two-act play (including some very catchy musical numbers) that was written and performed last year by a group of college students at The University of Michigan. When it was uploaded to YouTube, it became a big hit and earned close to two million views. And when you watch it, it’s easy to understand why it became so popular.

Now, as a disclaimer I have to admit that I am not actually a huge Harry Potter fan. I read the books and have enjoyed the films, but I was never one of those people that stood in line on the first day. I don’t own any of the Harry Potter merchandise. But A Very Potter Musical is absolutely brilliant. The way the characters are portrayed is hilarious, both as a parody and in its own right. The acting is surprisingly good for college students and while the sound quality in the videos occasionally makes it difficult to understand, thankfully someone went to the effort of establishing a version with subtitles. This makes it easier to appreciate the dialogue, which is well-written and very funny. Particularly memorable are the homoerotic undertones in the (b?)romance between Voldemorte & Quirrel, played by Joe Walker and Brian Rosenthal respectively; the hilarious Cedric Diggery, played by Tyler Brunsman; and the inspired portrayal of Draco Malfoy, played by Lauren Lopez, a talented young woman who I would totally like to take out to dinner sometime.

A Very Potter Musical received such acclaim, that Starkid Productions decided to create a sequel, which was finally made available to the digital public last night. Now I have to admit that after one viewing of the sequel I think I prefer the original. In my opinion, the musical numbers in the original were better and I found their portrayal of Deloris Umbridge annoying in the bad way. This is no insult to Joe Walker, who practically stole the show in the first production, but as a villain Umbridge is nowhere near as enjoyable as Voldemorte. That said, whereas when I saw AVPM I had no preconceptions, for the sequel I had exceedingly high expectations so I’m not surprised that they were not surpassed.

I did enjoy virtually every scene with Draco, to whom they wisely gave a greater role in the sequel. As usual, the relationships between Harry (Darren Criss, who also wrote much of the music), Ron (Joey Richter), and Hermoine (Bonnie Gruesen) was the glue that held the show together. The costuming was even better than the original, to an impressive degree, and the dance numbers were well-choreographed. Several of the new characters were quite good; I particularly enjoyed the introduction of Lucius Malfoy and seeing where Draco got his mannerisms. There were still many laugh-out-loud moments and clever references to the first production and the Harry Potter series. And considering how confusing the plot became by the finale, they did a surprisingly good job of tying up all the loose ends. Given that the first production went through most of the real substance of the Harry Potter story, the sequel did well to incorporate a prequel-like aspect using time travel. (Not a spoiler because it happens in the first scene.)

I will say that there were several things I wish they had done slightly differently: Deloris Umbridge received too much screentime, particularly given that they could have done more with Lucius Malfoy, who I still feel had unfulfilled potential; I found their running gag of Lupin being a drunk to be a little bit odd — I think they could have done more with both his character and Sirius Black (again, no insult to the actors); and I was disappointed with a couple of characters’ endings. Still, overall it was quite enjoyable, particularly given that it’s an amateur production put on at no charge. While it was hard not to be a little bit disappointed with some aspects of the production, the sequel was definitely a worthy successor to the original.

If you haven’t watched either A Very Potter Musical or A Very Potter Sequel, I highly recommend you check them out.