#@teamstarkid

[jackie-talks-about-starkid]

Thoughts About StarKid, Theatre, and Money

StarKid is severely underlooked within the professional theatre industry as a viable source for providing theatrical entertainment and performing professional theatre worthy of artistic criticism. 

Though the company has gained a significant amount of internet fame and name-recognition within the laymen theatre community over the past decade, their mode of production and artistic work has gone undocumented by the greater professional theatre culture and been either flat-out ignored or deemed not worthy of taking the time of noting in academic journals or wide-reaching theatre influencers. While watching the evolution of their productions throughout this semester and tying my recent rewatching experiences with my personal knowledge and history of StarKid as a theatre company, I’ve come to the (easily reachable) conclusion that the only reason as to why more production companies do not take after StarKid’s multimedia, digital-heavy access to theatre is a combination of the desire for capitalist gain and the elitism that accompanies modern-day theatre culture. I’ve outlined both positive and negative points of comparison for StarKid Productions and traditional, commercial musical theatre, such as one sees on Broadway or the West End, to simply sum up my overall final thoughts regarding the work I’ve done in analyzing how StarKid produces their shows and hope that in some way, the points I’ve made will impact at least how one other person sees theatre from now on. 

Before theatre was about the best way to make the most money, which in relation to the rest of human history is a fairly new development, theatre was simply about providing entertainment. Because StarKid emphasizes artistic value and the enjoyment of their audience upon watching their productions, StarKid Productions has become successful in a way that no modern commercial theatre company is currently (there’s a reason why there are blogs like mine dedicated to StarKid Productions and not the Shubert Organization or regional companies like the Los Angeles Theatre Center). The reason why theatre kids (and I mean kids in the colloquial sense of the term-StarKid has fans in all age demographics) appreciate StarKid so much and allow them to continue making musicals so successfully is because of the combination of their dedication to access and good content. That does not mean to say that StarKid is perfect by any means; they are, in fact, people too. It just goes to show that theatre does not have to live in the exclusive little bubble that it’s built for itself within the past hundred years or so. I think that within the next hundred years, as theatre evolves and thrives in various corners of the globe throughout whatever our society throws at it *cough* Covid *cough*, theatrical content creators will look back at StarKid and think, “Wow, I wish I would have done that first!”, not because they would have made a fortune but because they would have made art.

StarKid

Negatives

Modems (rip) and other tech issues

Camera lens chooses perspective of audience, taking away individual viewer’s experience of choosing who/what/where to look at in any given moment

Still a developing area for theatre-what are the protections for content producers

Can online performances be equity? Can equity members perform in non-equity online performances (like performances during Covid in which little to no actors are currently working or making enough money to balance out what their wages would have been if Covid did not impact their work)?

Should payment be different? Production costs are generally lower but people still need to make a living

To what amount can the community control the distribution of other people’s IP? Live theatre already debates the negatives and positives of bootlegs. Providing theatre online for free and to purchase lessens bootlegging and increases audience accessibility but opens up opportunities for people to take advantage of online creators and the content they put out. Anybody can transcribe an online production, perform it either online or in-person, and charge tickets for people to see that production, but because it was transcribed from a production and not licensed, no money goes back to the creator which prevents the creator for making more of their accessible content

Positives

Accessibility

People in different geographical locations can access the same production as people experiencing it live

Online performances generally cost less to view online

Travelling is not always an option for viewing theatre-some people don’t have the financial ability to travel to places where a specific production is being performed

Physical and mental disabilities-not all theatres are physically accessible for people with wheelchairs, eyesight issues, hearing issues, or people with invisible disabilities (MS, chronic migraines) that are unable to sit in the average theatre seat for the length of a production. People with emotional anxiety, spatial anxiety, or sensitivity issues (ex. autism) may find live theatre too overwhelming to attend. Any person with a physical or mental health issue that has the financial ability to attend a live performance may find purchasing a ticket or making travel plans too risky because health issues can happen at any time and canceling tickets and reservations at the last minute is difficult at best, especially when one is dealing with the added stress of coping with a health issue

Less elitism

The lack of accessibility has created a culture of elitism in theatre. People with more financial ability or people with higher professional education in theatre have more access to experiencing live theatre, making traditional commercial theatre, like Broadway and the West End, only available to a small percentage of the theatre community.

Rewatching

It’s just nice to be able to rewatch a live performance for fun

Rewatching for academic purposes!

Free or significantly reduced price

Negative: Risk of price gouging for online performances and non-explicit processing fees

Live performances are also at more reasonable prices - average highest value Starkid ticket that includes set tours and meet & greets are still less expensive than the average cheapest ticket on the commercial theatre market for Broadway or off-Broadway, which averages at $79

Commercial Theatre

Negatives: ACCESSIBILITY IN ALL FORMS

Extremely limited accessibility for people with financial burdens

Buying theatre tickets shouldn’t require hours of research searching for the best prices so that you can go to a single performance (ex. 5 Ways to Buy Affordable Theatre Tickets https://www.playbill.com/article/5-ways-to-buy-affordable-theatre-tickets, http://www.broadwayforbrokepeople.com/, https://www.cheaptheatretickets.com/, https://officiallondontheatre.com/tkts/, https://www.todaytix.com/)

Many of these websites and third-party apps charge high fees for discounted tickets that make the cheaper ticket only $15-30 cheaper than a direct purchase from the theatre)

Outdated accessibility for people with physical and mental health issues, etc.

Programs like the Theatre Development Fund and theatre-specific programs at the Segerstrom in LA, the Kennedy Center in Washington DC, West End productions run by the Society of London Theatre, etc. are not commonplace and offer very limited performance dates

Not all audience members are respectful of live performances-talking, loud drinking/eating, etc.

Lack of accessibility provides incentive for people to make bootlegs that creators (actors, crew, directors, writers, composers) do not get any share of profit from. Producers have more to financially gain from a production than the average actor so making an illegal bootleg instead of a professional recording takes away an opportunity for a performer to make more money and get more financial recognition for their work

Cultural accessibility (see “Less Elitism” point in StarKid positives)

Historically disenfranchised groups have less access to live theatre because of social and financial burdens on top of mental and physical health issues that they get disproportionately less treatment for which would allow wealthier people with more access to healthcare attend the theatre more comfortably

Positives

Cultural capital!

Concentrated production areas in urban settings, regional or otherwise, give money back to the performance community in that area and boost the general economy by providing cultural centers in areas that rely on tourism for cashflow. It also legitimizes the production value of performances available in that geographic location by working with the given environment to create a culturally-specific niche for that location’s theatre scene (ex. The MUNY is St. Louis, The La Jolla Playhouse in California, Hartford Stage in Connecticut, etc. http://lort.org/theatres)

The live experience

Live theatre is simultaneously an individual and group experience. Each person attending a production interprets the performance differently and physically experiences the environment in ways unique from other audience members by sitting in different areas closer to/farther from/in different angles from the stage, lights, speakers, etc. Yet, the audience as a whole experiences the same unique production all at the same time, witnessing acting choices, understudies and standbys, or even stage mishaps all at once that a different performance of the same exact production may not have. The energy of a live performance in any venue changes with each performance and physical environment.

[jackie-talks-about-starkid]

The Music and Lyrics of Twisted: The Untold Story of a Royal Vizier

I am obsessed with the complexity of the musical and lyrical composition of Twisted as both a standalone piece of theatre and a work that parodies and honors the music of traditional Disney music so I decided to make a separate post talking about a few of the highlights. Enjoy my ramblings!

“Dream A Little Harder”

This entire sequence is an obvious parody of the opening sequence to Beauty and The Beast, ‘Belle’. It is absolutely not subtle at all and that’s exactly why I love this number so much. As the song progresses and the ensemble sings together more, it sounds more like a generalized version of the classic Disney musical sound, with its whimsical notes and pure tones (looking at you, sopranos) and I have to give major kudos to AJ Holmes for not only this song but the entire score because it’s hard enough to make your own music but it’s even harder to make a song sound like another song from a different and very well-known composer without making it sound exactly the same and getting sued because of it

“Everything and More”

The Princess’ solo is hilarious and way more subtle in its Disney references in that it sounds like a general solo but musically and lyrically mirrors “Part Of Your World” from The Little Mermaid which becomes more and more noticeable with each listen of the recording

“A Thousand and One Nights”

Not only is this a perfect musical duet between Ja’far and Sherrezade, the title references the source material for Aladdin, which is a nice nod to the original tale

You know that StarKid are true Disney kids when they take the most memorable song from the show, which happens to be a romantic duet with the main character and their love interest, and turn it into a playfully overdone pop version that’s sung over the credits by two famous people - in this case Brittney Coleman and Carlos Valdes, who I’m 99% percent sure are actually reincarnated 90’s pop stars with those vocals (both hilariously accurate while also incredibly well-sung)

“Happy Ending”

One of my favorite things that musicals do are numbers where each character sings their own individual melody line all together with other characters and it ends in gorgeous harmonies (ex. “One Day More” from Les Mis) which is really hard to write for and Holmes and McMahon executed it so well that listening to this song makes me tear up sometimes and I’m not ashamed

Ja’far’s solo sections are a musical reference to “The Wizard and I” from Wicked which is both a great general musical theatre reference and a lovely nod to the other half of Twisted’s plot inspiration    > Lyrics from “And one day the Genie will say to me, ‘Ja’far you’re a man of such virtue” to “I’d like to bring back your bride” - Twisted, lyrics from “And one day he’ll say to me, ‘Girl who is so superior” to “If I de-greenify you?” - Wicked

“Take Off Your Clothes”

Anyone who attended middle school and/or had an internet connection in the 2000s was made aware of the many supposed instances is subliminal messaging in Disney cartoons of the 90s and early 2000s, especially the one about Aladdin’s line when he goes to Jasmine’s window at the palace before “A Whole New World”. Instead of being heard of as “Good tiger, now take off and go”, many people believe Aladdin actually says “Good teenagers, take off your clothes”, and used this as an argument that Disney was polluting the young minds of innocent children (x)

This song also references the supposed subliminal message that a reference to the special effects department of The Lion King, in which a puff of smoke reads ‘SFX’, actually spells out the word ‘sex’ (x)

The fact that they made an entire song about this proves that these kids are actually Disney fans, 10/10

“Twisted”

The introductory notes also feel like a Wicked reference with the use of electric guitar and strings together, very strong Stephen Schwartz and Alex Lacamoire vibes

As I mentioned earlier, it’s super hard to write original music and lyrics for a show during any given production and it’s also just as hard to musically and lyrically reference someone else’s music without risking copyright infringement. This absolute banger of a song manages to do both, while also doing the musical thing where people all sing different things at the same time while sounding great and making me almost cry with how pretty everything is

They parody The Little Mermaid with Ursula’s introduction, The Lion King with Scar, and Beauty and the Beast with Gaston’s entrance without actually sampling the music from their respective movies

“The question then is whether 'tis nobler in the mind/To be well liked but ineffectual, or moral but maligned?” poetry, I don’t even need to explain myself

Those lyrics are from the same person that wrote “We’ll remember Achmed, the tiger-fucking man!”

The duality of it all is beautiful

Overall, Twisted has incredible music and lyrics and I would die for AJ Holmes and Kaley McMahon, thanks for coming to my TED Talk

[jackie-talks-about-starkid]

Black Friday (Rewatch #12 [last one!], 11/30/2020)

YouTube publish date: February 29, 2020

Number of views on date of rewatch: 1, 788, 310

Original Performance Run: October 31 - December 8, 2019 at the Hudson Mainstage Theatre in Los Angeles

Ticket prices: (x)

General Admission: $45

Priority Access: $75

Digital Ticket: $15

Rush Tickets via TodayTix: $20

Director: Nick Lang

Music and Lyrics: Jeff Blim

Book: Matt Lang and Nick Lang

Cast album price and availability: $14.99 on iTunes

     Release date: February 29, 2020

Parody or original: an original sequel to The Guy Who Didn’t Like Musicals

Funding: funded by a Kickstarter jointly dedicated to the StarKid: Homecoming concert celebrating the 10 year anniversary of the company and Black Friday (x)

     Goal: $155, 000

     Total (combined): $547, 439

     Backers: 11, 704

Main cast and characters

Lex Foster - Angela Giarratana

Hannah Foster - Kendall Nicole Yakshe

Tom Houston - Dylan Saunders

Becky Barnes - Kin Whalen

Linda Monroe - Lauren Lopez

Uncle Wiley/Homeless Guy - Joey Richter

Wiggly/Gary Goldstein - Jon Matteson

Ethan Green - Robert Manion

Man in a Hurry/General MacNamara - Jeff Blim

President Howard Goodman - Curt Mega

Frank Pricely - Corey Dorris

Sherman Young - Jaime Lyn Beatty

Xander Lee - James Tolbert

Musical numbers

     Act I

“Tickle-Me Wiggly Jingle” Characters: Uncle Wiley and Ensemble

“What Tim Wants” Characters: Tom Houston

“CaliforM.I.A.” Characters: Lex Foster and Ethan Green

“What Do You Say” Characters: Tom Houston, Becky Barnes, and Ensemble

“Our Doors Are Open” Characters: Frank Pricely, Lex Foster, and Ensemble

“Feast or Famine” Characters: Ensemble

“Monsters and Men” Characters: General MacNamara, Pres. Howard Goodman, and Ensemble

     Act II

“Deck the Halls (of Northville High)” Characters: Ensemble

“Take Me Back” Characters: Tom Houston, Becky Barnes, and Ensemble

“Adore Me” Characters: Linda Monroe and Ensemble

“Do You Want to Play” Characters: Becky Barnes and Tom Houston

“Made in America” Characters: Uncle Wiley, Pres. Goodman, General MacNamara, and Ensemble

“Black Friday” Characters: Lex Foster

“Monsters and Men (Reprise)” Characters: General MacNamara

“If I Fail You” Characters: Tom Houston

“Wiggle” Characters: Linda Monroe and Ensemble

“What If Tomorrow Comes” Characters: Hannah Foster and Company

Content Analysis:

Black Friday is monumental for the theatre community. While The Guy Who Didn’t Like Musicals was the first in the Hatchetfield series, Black Friday solidified that StarKid has created a theatrical universe of horror-comedy musicals that are all interconnected. There have been sequels to musicals before (including the infamous Phantom sequel Love Never Dies and the Annie sequel), the only group of titles that have come close to creating a theatrical universe a la Marvel is William Finn’s Marvin trilogy which encompasses In Trousers, March of the Falsettos, and Falsettoland, the last of the two often performed as the two-act musical Falsettos. Even then, Finn’s work doesn’t equate to StarKid’s latest and theatrical project; whereas Finn intended his works as a group of one-act musicals to be viewed in succession and continuing the same storyline, StarKid’s Hatchetfield series revolves around the town of Hatchetfield and the growing cast of characters within it as the audience witness different apocalyptic scenarios in alternate universe connected by a singular entity.

Where The Guy Who Didn’t Like Musicals was the introduction to the universe, Black Friday was the introduction to the extended Hatchetfield Theatrical Universe’s lore. The introduction of this universe’s version of force-sensitive children, Lex and Hannah, perfectly weaves together the growing plot and alternate-universe characters the audience is already familiar with, such as General MacNamara, Emma, and Paul, and adds so much more depth to Black Friday’s predecessor, providing so much potential for StarKid’s future Hatchetfield projects. When viewing it as a stand-alone musical, Black Friday holds its own because of the strong writing, creative story, and excellent characterization, but it would be a disservice to this individual story to only view it as such. Considering that it’s a part of a currently-growing larger theatrical work, the only way to fully comprehend the complexity and creativity of Black Friday is to view it in tandem with The Guy Who Didn’t Like Musicals.

The book is a perfect companion for The Guy Who Didn’t Like Musicals because of its great writing and each actor embodied their character so well that I would say the greatest performance throughout the show was given by the ensemble as a whole. An interesting difference between the two shows, however, is the tone. The overall tone for the show feels heavier and the plot bears much more significance to the characters, as well as the audience. A lot of that is largely due to the lighting and set design, provided by Sarah Petty and Corey Lubowich respectively. Even when viewing the production from a screen, I feel like I’m trapped in an enclosed space that increases my sense of impending doom the longer I take in the dark complexities of the plot.

Yet, story-wise, the plot is a lot darker because the consequences are higher and less laughable than being stuck in a musical. Black Friday does not shy away from its message that capitalism will eventually be the end of us all and is not afraid to say that if America continues its self-serving ways, then it will be a major, if not the sole, reason for the beginning of the end of Western civilization. Ignoring the fact that the entire show is about the poisonous effects of money in modern capitalist society, the running thread of the interpersonal disputes and internal struggles within the main characters revolve around selfishness and material gain. Our protagonists, Lex and Tom, spend the entire show trying to repair their relationships and make life better for their loved ones, but they bet their entire future happiness on a doll (who happens to be an evil being from another world set to destroy Earth but that’s beside the point). Granted, a lot of personal issues can be fixed with money - housing, food stability, education, healthcare, etc. are all dependent on a person’s finances. But, as Black Friday argues, people can withstand the worst of tragedies life throws at them as long as the people they love are close by and emotionally available.

[jackie-talks-about-starkid]

The Hatchetfield Theatrical Universe - Nightmare Time

Important news in what I am now dubbing the Hatchetfield Theatrical Universe/HTU(TM)! 

StarKid is releasing 6 new musical shorts that take place in the town of Hatchetfield, the fictional location where The Guy Who Didn’t Like Musicals and Black Friday take place (albeit, in alternate realities but they’re essentially the same place). 

When I first looked at the titles, the one that struck me the most was “Janes’ A Car”. If you’re familiar with the HTU, you’ll know that Jane is Emma’s older sister who died in a car crash. In both realities of TGWDLM and Black Friday, it is heavily implied that Jane’s death is the catalyst for setting both plots of the musicals into motion, seeing as her death is the one major detail that has remained the same in both musicals. Though the audience has never technically met Jane, we know that her death is the driving force of bringing together the cast of characters in both musicals that end up being the most involved in apocalyptic storylines. Going by the title alone, I have a feeling that this story, in particular, is going to be very Twilight Zone-esque in nature, and will most definitely tease us about StarKid’s upcoming Hatchetfield musical, Nerdy Prudes Must Die. It may not give us any answers as to why exactly Jane, and more specifically, her death, is so important in this universe and the group of people within it, but I feel like we will be getting just enough to expand upon or completely change theories about her and the HTU in general. Maybe, since she’s described by Emma as being the ‘good sister’, Jane is the nerdy prude that has to die in order to set everything into motion for the multiple universes of Hatchetfield? I’m putting my money on that.

I’m also very intrigued by “The Witch In The Web”. I may or may not be looking too much into it, but the word “Web” is ringing major bells for me, seeing as in Black Friday, Hannah has a mysterious, seemingly-omniscient friend(if you could call it that) named Webby, whose consciousness is connected to the Black and White that ties the multiple Hatchetfield universes together. That just leads to me to ask: Who is the witch in the web, and how does the witch connect to the Black and White?

A title that really surprised me was “Watcher World”, not because of its connection to the HTU, but because of StarKid’s previous use of the word ‘watcher’ in their shows. If you’re familiar with StarKid’s greater line of work, you may recall that The Watchers is a derogatory term used in The Trail to Oregon to refer to the audience and their cruel tendency to enjoy watching the characters of a story in pain. Those sick bastards…

And speaking of bastards, for no other reason than my own speculative enjoyment, I’m calling that “Time Bastard” has to do with fan-favorite General MacNamara, his work with PIEP, and his history with his husband, whose existence was cut from Black Friday due to time. Maybe he rencounters his former mentor Wilber Cross, who somehow turned into the Uncle Wiley we see in Black Friday. Maybe Cross and MacNamara’s husband are the same people, making Cross’ possession by the Black and White all the more personal for MacNamara, and dramatic for us, the watchers.

So many great things to look forward to from StarKid this month!

Let us take a moment to appreciate that StarKid has created an interconnected narrative universe using musical theatre as its medium of choice. And, not only is this musical theatre universe one of the first, if not the only, of its kind, the genre they chose to format this universe in is a musical horror-comedy with a healthy dose of sociopolitical commentary.

Eat your heart out, Marvel!

[I’ll post my next StarKid rewatch musical breakdown later tonight/tomorrow, but this is so exciting and important that I needed to document my thoughts ASAP. I was so excited about this that I accidentally deleted the first two versions of this post.]

[jackie-talks-about-starkid]

Firebringer (Rewatch #10, 11/15/2020)

YouTube publish date: December 31, 2016

Number of views on date of rewatch: 4,317,045 

Original Performance Run: July 6 - August 7, 2016 at Stage 773 in Chicago, Illinois

     Ticket price: General-$35, VIP-$60

Director: Julia Albain and Nick Lang

Music and Lyrics: Meredith Stepien and Mark Swiderski

Book: Brian Holden, Matt Lang, and Nick Lang

Cast album price and availability: $9.99 on iTunes      Release date: November 22, 2016

Parody or original: original content

Funding: $154, 670 from 3, 722 backers on Kickstarter (x)

     Original Goal: $88,000

Main cast and characters

Jemilla - Meredith Stepien

Zazzalil - Lauren Lopez

Molag - Lauren Walker

Keeri - Denise Donovan

Emberly - Rachael Soglin

Grunt - Joey Richter

Tiblyn - Tiffany Williams

Ducker - Joe Walker

Schwoopsie - Jamie Lyn Beatty

Chorn - Jamie Burns

Smelly-Balls - Brian Holden

Clark Baxtresser - Clark Baxtresser

Musical numbers

     Act I

“Fire” Characters: Company

“We Are People Now” Characters: Company

“We Got Work To Do” Characters: Zazzalil, Jemilla, and Ensemble

“What If?” Characters: Zazzalil

“Welcome to the Stone Age” Characters: Ensemble

“Just a Taste” Characters: Emberly and Grunt

“The Night Belongs to Snarl” Characters: Smelly-Balls, Schwoopsie, Ducker, Tiblyn, and Ensemble

“Into the Night” Characters: Zazzalil and Ensemble

“The Night Belongs to Us” Characters: Zazzalil, Jemilla, and Ensemble

     Act II

“Jemilla’s Lament” Characters: Jemilla

“Paint Me” Characters: Grunt and Emberly

“Ouch My Butt” Characters: Ensemble

“Backfire” Characters: Zazzalil and Ensemble

“Together” Characters: Jemilla and Zazzalil

“Chorn” Characters: Chorn and Ensemble

“Finale (Make the Most of It)” Characters: Company

Notable Notes:

“I Don’t Really Wanna Do The Work Today” became a meme that was so popular the Broadway cast of The Book of Mormon and that year’s touring cast of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Cinderella made their own videos performing the song

Cultural Context: 2016

Beyoncé releases her visual album, “Lemonade”

Leonardo DiCaprio finally wins an Oscar for his performance in The Revenant

Hamilton won the Pulitzer Prize for Best Drama and that year’s Grammy for Best Musical Theatre Album

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them opens in theaters

Content Analysis:

Firebringer has one of StarKid’s most inventive storylines in their collective works and has the added bonus of being an inherently feminist, woman-led piece. The story of a woman who invented fire and another woman who led the ancestors of the human race into creating a just and equal society sounds more like a provocative, experimental play rather than a comedy musical yet StarKid once again seems to be the only group of people that can pull off such a unique concept, successfully critiquing our current society while also presenting the storyline and characters in a way that makes the audience relax with each bit of commentary rather than tense up and ignore the performance. It’s refreshing to be an audience member of Firebringer. The musical numbers and character performances are entertaining in a way that feels comforting and almost happy-go-lucky despite the fact that the production takes place at an imagined pivotal point in the history of the human race. The dialogue and small comedic moments between the characters make fun of how dumb humanity can be at times, resorting to crude body humor and questionable social skills, but pull an about-face in the next scene by displaying the strength and ingenuity of the human race and our desire to succeed and prosper in an environment that seems dead-set on ensuring our demise.

As well as just generally being an enjoyable work of musical comedy, the dynamic of the piece is feminist in a way that is not explicitly stated but simply accepted by the characters within the universe and, by extension, the audience itself. Jemilla is a woman who is a well-respected and undisputed leader of an entire tribe, whose female mentor and former leader is just as highly regarded, and Zazzalil is a provocative thinker who kickstarts the tribe into advancing as a society by introducing fire and hunting into their daily survival skills, yet no where in the story do any of these strong female leads gets questioned for being women in positions of power. It is an indisputable fact accepted by all characters regardless of gender that these women are the leaders of their society and the fact that this isn’t brought up in any negative or positive connotation within the confines of the story’s universe is such a genius way to address feminism in a theatrical work. If they were to make a point of putting the women in a negative situation where gender discourse is the main cause of the threat to the characters only for the woman to bounce back in order to prove that she is just as strong or worthy as any potential male leader, it would have reinforced the idea that women need to prove that they are just as good as men rather than the society around them accepting the fact that all genders are equal regardless of identity. On the other hand, if they were to pat themselves on the back and make it a point of being progressive in choosing women to lead their tribe, it would have turned the choice into one of pandering rather than genuine belief on the writers’ part and on the characters. By not mentioning the feminist core of the musical within the story itself, Firebringer naturally shows the audience through fictional storytelling the gender equality that our society can achieve for itself without making the situation too unrealistic to be considered unattainable (not than unrealistic situations cannot be written and performed successfully otherwise, it’s comforting to see).

As for the actual book content of the show, it is not StarKid’s strongest in terms of consistency. The humor, the heart, and the quality of performance are always aspects of StarKid shows that the audience can depend on being as good as ever with each new production, but there are moments in certain scenes, such as Keeri’s initial confrontation with Zazzalil and Jemilla and Zazzalil’s reunion, that the dialogue between characters switches in and out of a natural flow of conversation, making it easy to lose interest in a dialogue heavy scene until another joke happens. Similarly, there are moments where lyrics in songs, such as “Into the Night” and “Paint Me,” are not musically or verbally compatible with the verses in which they are sung. The majority of lyrics are clever and match the tone and character of the performance perfectly, but there is an occasional clunky line or oddly-placed word that I found to be distracting enough to take note of during the song.

Overall, Firebringer is a lighthearted musical with great performances and cleverly intertwined social commentary that adds to the comedic tone of the piece rather than distracts from it. I wish that more musicals were written in the tone of Firebringer, in both the sense of overall quality, gender representation, and sexuality representation, which, like the gender placement of the main characters, is written so naturally that it’s almost hard to believe real life isn’t like the one represented onstage in which gender ruled without the patriarchy and sexuality lived in without heteronormativity is so commonplace it’s a nonissue.

[jackie-talks-about-starkid]

Random Thought

One thing I absolutely adore about Starkid is that the people involved genuinely care about the work that they create and their audience, especially their dedicated fans. There’s quite a bit of fan interaction on social media and through official account channels (I’ll probably make a whole different post about that later). 

But.

One thing that has been making this study increasingly difficult throughout my whole two days of officially doing it is that since it’s a private company that isn’t commercially popular, I can’t find any detailed information about how the company is run!

I’m so curious to see what the average pay is for cast and crew, how much it costs to film, how the DVD sales and album sales compare to the streaming of their shows on YouTube, how the auditions process goes (like other traditional theatre companies, they usually cast people for shows who are already involved in the company), how the legal process works for licensing the few shows that they offer for outside productions, and a whole bunch of other things I can’t think of right now but have been randomly bugging me for the past decade!

I’m also curious as to whether or not the rumor is true that the budget for “A Very Potter Musical” was $150 and that they spent $50 AKA a third of their budget on the giant Hershey’s bar Ron eats when he’s pining over Hermione. If it is in fact true, I’d like to personally thank everyone for their dedication to the craft.

[jackie-talks-about-starkid]

Me and My Dick (Rewatch #2, 9/15/2020)

YouTube publish date: November 12, 2000

Number of views on date of rewatch: 2,129,928

Original Performance Run: October 29-31st, 2009

Ticket price: ?

Director: Matt Lang

Music and Lyrics: Darren Criss, AJ Holmes, and Carlos Valdes

Book: Brian Holden, Eric Kahn Gale, Matt Lang, and Nick Lang

Cast album price and availability: $9.99, iTunes

Album release date: January 6, 2010

Parody or original: an original (I suspect that the plot may have been influenced by King Missile’s “Detachable Penis” but that’s just a hunch)

Main cast and characters

Joey Richter - Joey Richter

Dick - Joe Walker

Sally - Jamie Lyn Beatty

Miss Cooter - Devin Lytle

Vanessa - Ali Gordon

Tiffany - Alle-Faye Monka

The Old Snatch - Nicholas Joseph Strauss-Matathia

Flopsy - Brian Holden

Joey’s Heart - AJ Holmes

Musical numbers

Act I

“Me and My Dick” by AJ Holmes and Carlos Valdes

     Characters: Joey and Dick

“Ready To Go” by Darren Criss

     Characters: Company

“I’ve Seen You Around Here Before” by AJ Holmes and Carlos Valdes

     Characters: Dick and Miss Cooter

“Nothin’ Like A Dick” by AJ Holmes and Carlos Valdes

     Characters: Old Snatch and Miss Cooter

“Listen To Your Heart” by AJ Holmes and Carlos Valdes

     Characters: Joey’s Heart and Joey

Act II

“Land of the Dicks” by AJ Holmes and Carlos Valdes

     Characters: Weenie, Big T, and the Lost Dicks

“Even Though” by Darren Criss

     Characters: Joey and Sally

“Gotta Find His Dick” by AJ Holmes and Carlos Valdes

     Characters: Joey’s Heart and Company

“The Council of the Pussies" by AJ Holmes and Carlos Valdes

     Characters: The Old Snatch, High Council Pussy, and The Council of the    Pussies

“Flight of the Pussies” by AJ Holmes and Carlos Valdes

"Big T's Temptation" by  AJ Holmes and Carlos Valdes

     Characters: Big T and the Lost Dicks

"Finale" by Darren Criss

     Characters: Company

Notable Notes:

The cast album became the first ever student musical album to chart on Billboard’s Top Cast Albums the week it was released (x)

The album debuted at #11. It was a place above the original cast album for Rock of Ages.

Cultural Context: 2009

Me and My Dick was performed the same year that StarKid did A Very Potter Musical

Barack Obama gets sworn in as president of the US

Glee airs its first episode (Darren auditions for Finn and doesn’t get the part)

Michael Jackson dies on June 25th

Kanye West interrupts Taylor Swift’s “Video of the Year” speech at the Video Music Awards

Avatar (the one with the blue people, not Avatar: The Last Airbender) becomes the highest grossing movie of all time

The “Miracle on the Hudson” happened on January 15th

Personal Thoughts:

When one first hears of a comedic musical about pubescent high schoolers and their singing penises and vaginas, one does not think, “Wow, what a sophisticated concept that dissects the relationship between gender roles and sexual identity in modern day society,” but that’s what StarKid Productions’ Me and My Dick is truly about. At first, having the main character’s genitalia being completely separate but complementary entities to the teenagers at the center of the storyline seems jarring and like it was only done for comedic purposes, but the longer and more complicated the plot gets, the more obvious it seems to be. The main character, Joey Richter and his relationship with his Dick is a very compelling one. Throughout the musical, Joey struggles with coming to terms with his sexuality as a teenage boy. At the beginning, Joey himself reflects the average stereotype of the sex-obsessed male teenager whose primary interest is getting laid rather than achieving emotional fulfillment. Later, when his Dick becomes interested in his neighbor Sally’s Miss Cooter, Joey and his Dick have a fight about what that attraction means for their relationship and eventually separate, before eventually coming back together once Joey develops a relationship with his Heart. Joey himself is his own entity, with his own thoughts, feelings, and goals, and his struggles with his Dick and his Heart represent very real internal struggles that many teenagers, and especially teenage boys, have with themselves, their sexuality, and their personal emotions. 

Joey’s Dick, as well as the other character’s sexual organs, represent the subconscious sexual identities of each character. For Joey, his sexual identity cannot be fully realized or appreciated by himself because he has not fully matured as a sexual being. Unlike Sally, Joey does not realize that in order to achieve sexual fulfillment, he needs to not only be physically attracted to someone, but also experience an emotional connection with someone, which is something that Dick AKA his sexual subconscious realizes before Joey and even his Heart do. This journey is the perfect example of the dangers of a sex-oriented society, and how that kind of society damages the well-being of maturing men and women. In Western society, the ideal sexually mature man is defined by his sexual prowess and dominance. If he can have sex with a bunch of hot women and not worry about how emotionally in-tune he is with himself and his personal relationships, then he is the ideal man. Society teaches men (and women) from a very young age that a man’s defining trait is his sexual attitude towards others. 

The ideal sexually mature woman, on the other hand, is represented by the character Tiffany, who is arguably the most sympathetic character in the musical. Through the perspective of her vagina, lovingly referred to as The Old Snatch (aptly named as Tiffany’s sexuality represents the general mistreatment of women’s sexual selves in society), we see that Tiffany is the unfortunate byproduct of such a male dominant sexually oriented culture. The only time Tiffany has ever experienced true sexual fulfillment was during her first time having sex with an unnamed male character she was in love with. However, it was later revealed that this character used Tiffany only for his own sexual enjoyment and did not truly love her, intensely hurting Tiffany’s feelings and resulting in her being used to getting treated as a sexual object whose existence is only beneficial for men’s pleasure rather than her own emotional and sexual fulfillment. 

Another, more subtle, detail that emphasizes this theme is Sally’s opening section in “Ready to Go.” While singing, Sally already knows that she has a crush on Joey, but her low self-esteem and worries about her own attractiveness lead her to become sexually repressed, to the point where her vagina, Miss Cooter, has to ‘fall in love’ with Joey’s Dick in order to Sally to realize that she not only experiences, but truly desires having sex with Joey. 

What I love about the representation of the character’s and their respective sexual organs is that they are tethered to one another through some kind of leash-type object that allows for the penis or vagina character to be connected to their person but freely move around and act as their own character without them. While this is beneficial for the actors and entertaining for the audience to see these beings take on a life of their own, it also compliments the theme of sexual identity and maturity very well. By choosing to have penises and vaginas tethered to, but not completely physically attached to their teenage counterparts, it communicates to the audience that the sexual identity the genitalia represents in of course a very important factor of the person’s life and individuality, but ultimately not the be-all, end-all of who a person truly is. While Dick, Miss Cooter, Old Snatch, and other characters go through their own journey, the most important development is the ones that their human attachments experience. The sexuality of the character is an integral part of who the character is and how they navigate their life, but in the end, the most important thing is that the human characters go through their own development in which their sexuality compliments, but never dick-tates (sorry, I had to). 

The ultimate take away from Me and My Dick is that in order to be a fully realized individual, one has to recognize and accept all parts of themselves, instead of just focusing on their physical sexual selves and ignoring their personal feelings, or overemphasizing their emotional feelings while ignoring their physical, sexual needs. 

“[Dick] is a part of you like I am, Joey. You need him and Sally needs him” - Joey’s Heart <3

“We gotta start thinking of love and sex as a team effort. We can’t just pine over a girl we can’t get or be in a constant pursuit of sex. We need to listen to each other because that’s the only way it can work out” -Joey Richter

[jackie-talks-about-starkid]

First Up... “A Very Potter Musical”!

The one that started it all! 

(Well, kind of. Technically, StarKid’s very first production was a Lord of the Rings parody musical. However, seeing as that isn’t posted on their official channel, I have merely only heard tell of it within the deepest corners of YouTube and tumblr because I didn’t go to the University of Michigan at the time when it premiered. Because I was approximately nine years old. Anyway...)

I do not remember exactly how I came across AVPM (the common abbreviation for A Very Potter Musical that I’ll be using for the rest of this post because I only have so much typing room). Knowing ten year old me, it was probably because Mugglenet (the OG Harry Potter fansite) posted about it once the show started gaining popularity on the internet. I do know one thing for sure, though. I did watch it before Darren Criss was cast on Glee. *gasp*

I know, right? Even pre-tween Jackie was a fandom hipster who liked things before they were popular. Darren Criss was and forever will be Harry Potter first and Blaine Anderson second. So, imagine my surprise when my little Gleek self found out my first celebrity crush was going to be on Glee! I was, as the kids say, shook. 

But, unfortunately, this post isn’t just about Darren Criss so I must continue my ramblings. Though I was not fully aware of it at the time (because I was literally ten) AVPM became a cult-like sensation for the incredibly awesome niche fandom crossover of theatre kids and Potterheads that launched a bunch of college kids into internet stardom. I feel as though AVPM, and the following StarKid productions, embody the true essence of theatre. There’s cultural critique, humor, drama, but, most importantly, it was self-made and readily available to the general public. While StarKid had a one-up in that the college they attended allowed them to use a performance space for the weekend to house their production, everything about the show was made and performed by and for themselves out of pure love for theatre and for fandom. 

You can see it in the performances and hear it in the way the audience reacts to the show that’s going on in front of them. There was true love and joy in that room, and over 16 million people (as of right now) have been able to experience that because the kids decided that they’d put it up on YouTube for their friends to see. There was no way to tell that it’d reach the amount of popularity that it did, and definitely no way to predict that they’d get a cease and desist letter from Warner Brothers threatening to sue them if they didn’t change the original name of the musical (which I’m assuming was “A Harry Potter Musical” but I can’t be too sure of because I wasn’t there). But here we are! StarKid is a full-on theatrical production company with an amazing and super-active fandom! Bringing musical theatre and sex jokes and sociopolitical commentary to people all over the world who normally wouldn’t have access to these productions, let alone traditionally commercial ones on Broadway or the West End!

For the sake of my study and for the sake of the art of theatre itself, the most important thing that can be taken away from this production, and from all subsequent productions of StarKid, is that theatre is best not when it is created out of a desire for profit, but when it is created out of a desire to share the work in any way possible.

*In my next post, you’ll get my official commentary and run-down of AVPM but I felt it necessary to preface that with a statement. This is a blog, after all. You’ll definitely be getting more of these in the future.