Friday, August 21, 2009

I first picked up a Harry Potter book 8 years ago, a borrowed copy from my classmate, at my first year in high school, and since then, I'm hooked. I've watched every Harry Potter film on it's opening day, read countless of HP fanfictions, shipped every Rowling based ship (short for "relationship", a term used in fanfictionworld) and still visits mugglenet.com occasionally for updates.

But never, ever did I expect to watch such a genius of a musical, a show so enjoyable and funny it has attracted 350,000 plus viewers and counting on youtube barely 1 month after being uploaded.



A Very Potter Musical (formerly known as Harry Potter Musical but was later changed because of copyright issues) is a non-profit stage play made by Potter fans to Potter fans by university students. The info below is stated on their StarKidPotter's youtube channel:

This fan musical is produced and performed solely for the personal, non-commercial enjoyment of ourselves and other Harry Potter fans. It is in no way sponsored, approved, endorsed by or affiliated with J.K. Rowling or Warner Bros. or any of their affiliates.
The show was written and produced in early 2009 by a bunch of college kids/recent grads through a non-profit student-run theatre company. It was a free show that ran for three nights (five performances).

Now, I've read a lots and lots of Harry Potter fanfiction (and even written some of my own) and I thought I've seen the best and the worst the fandom has to offer, but I was wrong. Never have I encountered before a script so well and wittily written, songs so well composed and perfomed and characters and storyline so engaging I just have to watch it over and over again.

Who would've thought that Dumbledore shouting "What the HELL is a Hufflepuff?", Draco rolling on the floor every chance he (or she :) ) gets, a Zac "Boss" Efron poster being the final Horcruxe, Quirrel and Voldemort sharing a special relationship and the presence of another wizarding school, "Pigfarts"... on Mars, could be so addicting. Add to that the brilliant music and the clever lines they've come up with.

Since the release of book 7 and with the death of HP fanfiction two years ago (because there's almost nothing else to write about, no speculations to debate on and "The Great Battle" to imagine), with just the films to look forward to, it seems that the fandom is slowly dying down. Fortunately, with the global explosion AVPM to, at least, the faithful Harry Potter fans, things are definitely looking up.

With almost 17,000 fans, you also can join in in the magic and visit their official Facebook page HERE. There are updates and news from the creators themselves and tons of fanart to goggle at.

Also, fans are clamoring for a A Very Potter Musical Soundtrack since the very beginning. Now, I think the StarKidPotter's group are preparing an official website for the said musical play and once it's up, I'd bet we'll have a soundtrack in our midst real soon. For the meanwhile, I've found the soundtrack uploaded in imeem.com available for listening (but not downloading).

HERE are the search results I've found for the said soundtrack.

From the above post, I'm sure you've already guessed that I'm quite addicted with this thing. I can't help it. Two of my most favorite things in pop culture HARRY POTTER + MUSIC have decided to fuse together to give me this rare treat. And yes, I'm expressing my gratitude by at least writing this squee-ish blog post about it.

And also because, it's simply TOTALLY AWESOME!

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