A VERY POTTER MUSICAL Reaction - Ep. 22 of Musicals I Know Nothing About 

Drop your Hogwarts House below! Let's see what this channel is made of haha

I don't care what anyone says or thinks: Quirrellmort will always and forever be my Harry Potter OTP.

That moment when Voldemort jumps out of the cauldron, his tap shoes click against the stage, and everyone in the theater instantly just *knows* what's coming? Honestly one of the most iconic and suspenseful moments in musical theater history.

“What’s up with all these guys getting the girls they don’t deserve?” Well, there will always be guys like Potter.

@Barbara 2.0 Fun Facts Time! 1. This and "A Very Potter Sequel" were performed at the University of Michigan while they were still taking Theater Classes. Also, AVPM was never meant for World Consumption. They didn't realize that by putting it on RU-vid, literally, everyone would watch it. As this was during the early days of RU-vid, they didn't realize there was a "Private Listing" option so they just put it up on their channel and the rest, as they say, is history. 2. Darren Criss wrote all the music for AVPM with AJ Holmes. 3. Ron's Takeout wasn't scripted. That was actually Joey's dinner for the night. He didn't have a chance to eat before the show so they just let him eat DURING the show. 4. This show was built around "Granger Danger." Ron and Draco both falling in love with Hermione was a joke among Team Starkid before it evolved into AVPM. Darren wrote "Granger Danger" because of that joke among them and AVPM was born out of that, making "Granger Danger" the first song every written in Team Starkid History. 5. "Not Alone" is the Official Starkid Anthem. Darren wrote that song when he was in Italy, studying abroad and he was missing his friends. So it's, quite literally, Darren's love letter to his friends. 6. Dumbledore's List at the end was not scripted. It was because Dylan couldn't memorize all of that so he wrote up a bullet list, used it as a prop, and changed the entire monologue to actually reading a bullet list. You need to watch Sequel and Senior Year to finish out the "Very Potter Trilogy." Also, you have to remember that this musical, AVPM, takes place during Harry, Ron, and Hermione's Second Year at Hogwarts. So they're all just 12-year-old kids and, if you remember, in Chamber of Secrets, Harry and Ron weren't exactly model students or people, for that matter. Also, being Second Year, this would be Ginny's First Year so she would only be 11. So she wouldn't exactly be "badass and powerful" yet. Also, also, Harry outright tells Ginny at The Yule Ball that he's a douchebag so Harry being a douchebag shouldn't be that much of a surprise. I think they were going for Harry being more like James in this version.

Barbara: „they‘re really just taking the ugliest side of each character and exposing it“ Apart from Quirrelmort who are life!

"I wish the audio was better" *StarKid Homecoming has entered the chat*

I love when an engaged couple fights over their love for a witch

Now that you've seen this one, you can learn some fun facts! This version of the musical is actually edited from the original which had certain scenes cut that were deemed to inappropriate for the internet. At one point during a show, there was a small fire outside the theater, which Joe put out in full voldemort costume. The song Voldemort is Going Down was added the morning of the first show. Family members witnessing the final dress rehearsal kept asking of they were sure they were ready to perform because it was a mess. They hung up poster at their college advertising a Harry Potter musical without getting permission to perform at the theater. They got permission only because there was so much excitement from the school. (They also had to change the name due to copyright not allowing "harry potter") I forget the other ones I was gonna say, I'll comment them later if I remember.

AVPM is based around books 1, 4, 6, 7 AVPS is based around books 3 and 5 AVPSY is mainly based around book 2

To answer your question on who comes up with this stuff, Starkid shows are usually just an amalgamation of improvisation and inside jokes, leading to the most chaotically hilarious content I’ve ever seen. I think- though I may be wrong on this- that Lauren rolling around on the floor was improvised by Lauren. Another inside joke is the “Hufflepuffs are particularly good finders” line which apparently came from an inside joke between the writers about what the worst superhero would be: someone who just finds things. The name Toms Riddle on the tombstone was also a mistake: Jaime had been instructed to write Thomas Riddle but she messed up and forgot the ‘a’ and they found it so hilarious that they kept it in. Pigfarts came from an au that the writers joked about, where Rowling has this ex-boyfriend who was jealous of her success and decided to come up with a rival franchise where kids go to a school on Mars named Pigfarts, with Rumbleroar as the headmaster. (I know I wrote a lot, I just have so much Starkid knowledge and I love sharing it) I can’t WAIT to see your reaction to AVPS, and I absolutely loved this one.

I am so excited for the reaction to Voldemort and Quirell, it’s so cursed but so wholesome at the same time

Random fun fact: the guy who plays Snape (Joe Moses) is engaged to Tessa Netting, who played Barb in Spies are Forever.

This musical is so aggressively 2000's that it actually kind of hurts like im getting middleschool flashbacks just watching this--

Fun fact: More than half of the money they had for the show was used for the snacks. They had like 150$...

The song Harry is so funnyfor the audience, because in a series calledLittle White Lie there is a song called Sammy. The series was filmed before this so the audience new the song. Its basically the same song just with different and just a little bit changed lyrics. Thats why everyone is laughing.

AVPT IS WAY BETTER THAN CURSED CHILD. AND MAYBE BETTER THAN THE ORIGINALS BUT DEFINITELY BETTER THAN THE PLAY THAT MUST NOT BE NAMED

Quirrelldemort is honestly the heart of this musical

So if nobody already pointed out this about Lauren for you, her Malfoy was written early in the rehearsal period to be kind of a diva such that he would try to strike a pose, but fail to do so and play it off. The idea for Lauren rolling around the floor was born when Lauren tripped and played it off by rolling on the floor. The guys thought it was funny so they decided to write that into how she plays the musical's Draco.

Lauren and Joey have performed Granger Danger at several shows if you want to see a version with better audio. :)

I think it's kinda telling that they let dumbledore be more gay in this musical than jk in the books...

the unbreakable vow with lauren saying "you have to be my slave for a whole day" was improv - thats why Joe looks so shocked, she pulled it in one rehersal i think but never again and then the day they filimed did it again skjsjsjsjs

If I remember correctly, Lauren was just goofing off rolling around on the floor while saying her lines and everyone found it so funny that they just made it a thing.

You won't believe me. But by the end of the trilogy Ron's my favorite character. I couldn't stand him in the first one, but by the end... Hell, i love that boi.

“Why is he a camel? Oh wait there’s another human there!” I love these videos so much x

I'm still not over two facts about this show specifically. The first one that they had to censor the original and change the name (it was called HP the Musical) because they weren't aloud to use the name "Harry Potter" in the title and the second being Darren improved so many lines (like the one with the invisibility cloak) Also, your love for Starkid's Voldemort means that Senior Year definitely is gonna be fun for you! He's such a good character there! And Hermione is Bonnie Socha (née Grueson)! She was Hermione for the first and second musicals!

I highly recommend watching the deleted scenes. They’re on RU-vid but they had to be taken out of the show due to Warner bros not wishing any dirty jokes to be made.

Favourite line not shown "He is a pawn! You are his queen!"-Bellatrix. "You think killing someone will make them like you. But it doesn't! It just makes them dead!"-Voldemort.

lauren's physical comedy is incredible. you should absolutely watch tin can bros "solve it squad" - it's not a musical, but it's hilarious.

I love how the thumbnail can describe the whole musical in one sentence

Joey and Lauren always understand the assignment

Discovered this show when I was like 14. I'm now 24 and two years ago I got "okay is wonderful" tattooed on my leg, it's insane what a journey I've gone on with Starkid ✨ I'm so happy you liked it, I love seeing you enjoy these shows 😊

20:20 A kickline is inevitable...

I've been waiting for this since I first saw you fangirling about Lauren.

It is so cool that you get to have the unique perspective of getting to know and love the actors before seeing AVPM; that's crazy to think about!

The constant pausing in the opening number of this vs the constant pausing in the owen reveal in SAF-

It is so weird to see someone watching this for the first time. I watched it back in 2009 for the first time so every aspect of the show feels so natural to me that it is weird to see someone question their choices. Also it is weird to see someone coming at the show already being familiar with the Starkid oeuvre but not the show that started it all. A super fun perspective to see. As far as the songwriting, I feel like Darren writes pop songs while Jeff writes more musical-y songs. Both of them write great ones but I definitely see preferring Jeff's style. Also, Ravenclaw!

The character creation in this and most other Starkid shows is a mix of Nick Lang and the actor. Lauren talked about it on the Potterless podcast. But you just need to watch the two sequels because they talk about both of them. Additionally if you want to see a better audio version of Not Alone and a reference to the show Darren performed it in 2012 at the inauguration. Additionally there is some really old behind the scenes footage because Darren was sort of thrown into the project to get it done, AJ Holmes also did some of the music as well.

I just realized your username is a Beetlejuice reference- Starkid ruining innocence and sanity is accurate-

So excited you finally watched this! Some of the other comments have already covered a lot of the interesting backstory stuff so I’ll just say I hope you get to the rest of this series soon! The sequels have some of my favorite songs in them! Also they did release a cast album so you can get better quality versions of the songs if you’re interested

You need to check out the version of Not Alone they did at Apocalyptour, Jamie is incredible in that recording!

YOU UPLOADED THIS TODAY AND STARKID IS TURNING 12 TODAY. was that intentional?

Brian Rosenthal absolutely kills it in this.

My favorite thing to do is point out Carlos Valdes (aka Cisco Ramon from CW's The Flash) just sitting behind AJ Holmes with his bass and his terrible university mustache because it just blows people's minds.

Fun fact, Tessa Netting, who played Barb in Spies Are Forever, is engaged to Joe Moses, who plays Snape in the Very Potter musicals

I was so confused when the subtitles changed language lol.

Fellow Ravenclaw here, also love that you have Narcissa's wand cos that was the first one I bought, it's so pretty! Also Lauren is a better Malfoy than Tom and there's no argument that can convince me otherwise! XD

This is on a MUCH lower budget than cursed child, with college students, and still manages to be better

Honestly every time I rewatch AVPM, I like it less, but it has SO many certified iconic moments and it's an integral part of team Starkid and their history so it's hard to hate it entirely.

I love the cannon ships in the books but I consider avpm a different universe since it is intended for comedy :)

“Who are you madam” Bonnie Gruesen was part of Starkid when they were still just a uni troupe. She did not stay with the company and went on to get married and have kids AND THAT IS ALL YOU NEED TO KNOW!

Oh man, it's so odd this not being the first Starkid musical you've seen, whereas it was my introduction to starkid. 4 minutes in and I'm already loving this though.

I’m so happy you enjoyed this!! Not sure if anyone wrote about that here yet, but if you want an additional piece of gorgeous Quirrellmort content, look up a video that’s called “For Joe Walker:” on Brian Rosenthal’s channel. I would love to know what you think about it. 💕

Somehow I got lucky enough to get this in my YT reccs an hour after this was put up, and while I've never seen your content before I'm absolutely delighted by your reaction! Even with their first musical, Starkid truly did find find their mark in writing and in the blend of comedy and seriousness while staying faithful to the source material. I can't wait to see you react to AVPS and AVPSY!! Personally, I think it works that Hogwarts is more Americanized in the context of a parody, but maybe that's just me lol ^^

Actually nick said most of their characters came from how all the other college students saw them. Not just this show, most of the old shows like MAMD..yeah. Also Lauren keep rolling on the floor joke is from during rehearsal, Lauren accidentally fell down and they found this so hilarious it made it into the show. Based on Denise (who played Cho Chang) talking about her experience in starkid on her channel, she said their version of Cho Chang has southern accents because one time when she got drunk, the students found that she starts to talk in a strong southern accents and that's where Cho Chang as a character came from. Not even during AVPM, but even in MAMD even when she's playing a different character.

I'm so excited! This is going to be totally awesome!

It’s the way Joey and Lauren are engaged for me. It just gives Granger Danger all this new depth.

I am so excited for this!! When I saw the thumbnail, I immediately felt myself beaming, and I can't wait to see your reactions! There are so many incredible songs in AVPM, not to mention the classic opening number, which honestly makes me nostalgic for memories I've never had??

FALSE RUMORS IN CASE PEOPLE COMMENT THEM: 1. They did not spend money on the chocolate bar it was a gift from a parent 2. That Lauren improvised the “you have to be my slave for a whole day starting now” is also not true. It was in the script. Fun facts: 1. Lauren explains the rolling by saying he is trying to hit a pose but doesn’t know when to stop 2. Joe Walker once put out a fire outside while in costume and make up 3. Dylan has the notepad at the end cause he could remember the lines 4. Julia Albain, Crabbe, was added to the cast about four days before they opened 5. The learned Voldemort is going down either the day before or two days before opening night 6. The first full run through was opening night 7. The song Harry was originally from their web series Little White Lie and was originally Sami 8. They originally uploaded this just for family and friends to see but it got popular and that’s how Starkid started 9. This isn’t the original version. They got threatened with being sued and had to remove some more of the sexual humor (cause they were college kids after all) so they had to take it down and re upload it 10. One of the people in the band is Carlos Valdez. If you watch the flash you may know him as Cisco 11. The lines Voldemort says before killing Harry is directly taken from Avatar the last air bender 12. Joe Moses, who plays snape, is engaged to Tessa Netting, a very popular Harry Potter youtuber 13. Meredith is actually in the audience at the show. She said she has heard herself laughing. That’s all I can think of right now but I know I know more-

Couple facts about avpm: 1. This was done at a university, which is why it's low quality filming. 2. Darryn wrote this. He got the idea when he thought Draco had a secret crush on Hermione. 3. Their budget was $150, and a good chunk of it was spent on the giant candy bar. 4. Joey (Ron) decided to eat on stage as a stylistic choice, not realising how ron-like it was.

3:21 I ask the same question every time I watch the films

a nice sentiment: “The core message of the show . . .” reality: this show is made purely out of the stupid complex inside jokes of two dorky, dorky brothers and their friends

I cannot wait, this has been what I’ve been wanting since you first started your journey!

Fun Fact! The "you have to be my slave for the whole day" bit was entirely improve, and everyones surprise their was entirely genuine. Also, they had a very small budget, made even smaller with the purchase of that one giant hersheys bar.

Dude! when you pointed out the core theme and how it relates to this Voldemort’s arc and how they merged the show with their own Starkid uniqueness while still keeping the OG’s core of the story and characters...it really put into words why I love this musical so much! (And Starkid in general) I’m binging ur starkid reactions and I love it when you pause for a bit and analyze what makes their shows so good. That admiration for starkid’s craft has always been in the back of my mind and yet I could never put into words on what makes them so good at what they do, so seeing someone watch and talk about it really helps highlight how great they are, especially with how you articulate your thoughts. I definitely wouldn’t mind a bit of a longer discussion at the end of each reaction. I love your vids! ❤️

the end of AVPM walked so The Fault in our Stars could run, literally. "Is okay good? Okay is wonderful"

I highly recommend looking up live performances of the songs from this show! starkid has performed them sooooo many times over the years (especially going back to hogwarts, granger danger, and not alone)

You should watch the sequel. You'll love Umbridge.

Okay, you should totally watch the Starkid Homecoming show that they did once you watch all the shows. It's such a good time, and it's great to hear so many of the songs revamped with better audio and orchestra. I just bought the digital version and I've already watched it twice.

Fun fact: Darren Criss sang “Not Alone” for the Obamas 😁

Commenting before I've even watched this: YEEEEEEES, FIIIIIIINALLLLLYYYYY! 🎉🎊🎇🎆🥳🥳🥳 The college humor is at it's most immature in this, they have definitely grown up and developed, but there's still so much heart in this already.

I AM SO GLAD YOU'RE WATCHING THIS! IF I WASNT AT WORK, I'D BE DEVOURING THIS! Ok, I'm done shouting. Love you! 💛💛💛

“Trauma” has never been as delightful as AVPM.

Thei concert tour dvds as well as the reunion shows have all the songs in super good quality and evolved voices. It's literally everything 😭😭❤️❤️❤️

I still cant believe that I ship Voldemort and Quirell

I’m so happy you watch this with their subtitles! They are so funny... highly recommend watching all their shows with their subtitles!

This video is so wholesome! I loved your reaction and your constantly conflicted emotions xd

23:52 Lauren mentioned that one day during rehearsals she just decided to go all out and roll around everywhere and it just stuck

I love watching you discover new musicals! Your insights are super interesting and it's a little like watching/listening to the shows for the first time again :) (And your love for Lauren is very relatable) If you want more suggestions for musicals, how about 'Everybody's talking about Jamie'? Also, I was very happy to see 'Starry' on your list, can't wait for that one!

I can already tell this video is totally awesome edit: I was right

I saw this on RU-vid in 2010 , and it is a Super full circle experience to have loved that show since but also not delve much into other starkid shows until this year, and then watch some of the later shows basically along with you and have you return to this ❤️

I missed the notification for this, but I’m starting it now! Excited to see your reaction😄😄😄

Clicked on this video randomly and when I realized this was not your first starkid musical, I had to stop and watch all the other videos first. It’s interesting to watch someone watch from newer to older starkid. I’m seeing you fall in love with the cast backwards from what I experienced. It’s great!

I just watched the movies again so your post comes at perfect timing for me!! I also just recently discovered your channel. You have no idea how glad I am I stumbled across your videos, they truly made my easter break. I think you might already know Waitress (its possibly not nerdy enough for this channel?) but I would love your thoughts on it, especially because ( and I dont know how but) it has become my all time favorite.. Thanks again for these videos, it must be so much work, but its so much fun to watch:)

I honestly just found out about AVPM (And StarKid) Literally a month ago maybe, but i love watching your videos on their musicals! Your energy is so easy to match and you honestly just seem to really be enjoying these videos and its a lot of fun to watch :))

Your comment about a nerdy boy and confident carefree girl paired together must have been listened to, given Nightmare Time and NPMD

HUFFLEPUFFS UNITE

The person you can hear commenting on the play is the tec guy. I think they said it in a streamor something like that

9:53 Random Czech subtitles appear and stick around for a while.

You hit the nail on the head of turning Hogwarts into an American high school! This musical was such a big part of my late high school-college years, but the first time watching was *very* jarring because of the complete tonal change. It takes a second watch, and watching what the sequel does (which is my favorite of the trilogy), to really settle into this alternate take as its own thing. Still, I really wish they hadn't done Hermione so dirty. (In fact, I remember there was some concern when the film rights for the books were getting shopped around to different studios that Hermione would be turned into that stereotypical nerd with glasses, so this parody almost mirrors what could have been!)

You asked about how they came up with the character traits. And well Lauren has explained that in a livestream once. It was the "4th of julive stream" they had a thing where they were explaining musicals from memmory and it was some starkid shows. Including this one. And it was fun you should check the livestream out on your own time. Its got some hilarious bits outside of that as well, including the whisperer challenge, giving nick lang a makeover. Diane is there. etc

You should watch Little White Lie. Darren and Lauren are in it and it's amazing

Please react to 'A New Brain' by William Finn! The revival cast album is great, has Jonathan Groff, Christian Borle and loads of other great actors. Written by the same guy that co-wrote Falsettos

Can’t want for you to do the rest of them!

Yes yes yes yes YES!!! I haven’t even watched it yet, and I’m beyond hyped. THANK YOU! Lots of love ❤️

I went to a summer camp that did this show and I was Voldemort and let me tell you, synchronized backwards walking and dancing while blind is not easy. Absolutely love this show tho!

I’m so excited for you to see the sequel and senior year!

Honestly, if you don't start shipping Quirrelmort after this, did you even watch the show?

if you haven't come across it yet this is Tom Felton's reaction when asked about AVPM ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-YwNYYhZPYOY.html Enjoy!

as for who comes up with stuff -- from what i think, it's a bit of a mixture of everyone because they're literally a group of college friends who got together to make a project -- so i think plot and story would have been the Lang brothers, of course. And then the personalities and jokes are a mixture of everyone. edit: my favorite thing about AVPM recording is being able to hear Meredith laugh in some bits -- i love her