A Very Potter Sequel
NOTE: This review contains unmarked spoilers. Read at your own risk.
I am a huge Harry Potter fan. I have read all the books so many times I can recite many passages by heart. My walls are plastered with posters from the movies. I love both fanfiction and fanart and spend way too much time on the Internet looking for both. I'm just as engrossed in the series as I was when I first discovered it ten years ago, and I imagine I will still be entirely devoted to Harry when I have my own children.
I will admit, therefore, that I have something of a love-hate relationship with the films. I recognize and appreciate that they are by-and-large highly faithful adaptations, and far better done than most other popular book series. I know that the adult cast includes many of Britain's finest actors. I know that Jo Rowling has been involved right from the start, and she enjoys the films, too. And I really do enjoy them for the most part. The last two movies I thought were particularly well-made.
But I can't help feeling disappointed with some aspects of the films. Part of me wishes Warner Brothers had waited until the entire series was released before making them, so they could properly foreshadow the most important scenes and subplots. Some of the characters were poorly adapted; I am thinking here primarily of Ron, who at least in the first four films is largely dumbed down and something of a coward, and Hermione, who often gets to steal other characters' lines, and is far prettier and less passionate than her book counterpart. Nor do they have the connection I loved between them in the books, though at least some kind of romantic tension is evident. Harry and Ginny's relationship is missing the intensity it had in the books, and Ginny is not the fiesty, confident character I love. The films also lack the brilliance of Jo Rowling's storytelling and careful plotting, and are often clunky and (I would think) incomprehensible to non-book readers.
When A Very Potter Musical appeared on YouTube last summer, I found that it addressed many of the issues I had with the films, and held up admirably as an adaptation of the series. True, it was (a very affectionate) parody, and certainly it was not word-faithful, as a combination largely of books 1, 4, and 7, but it revealed many of the storylines better than the movies had, in some ways. It was not intended to be taken seriously, and yet, as the work of devoted fans who were making it their peers, it emphasized what we as a community loved about the books. I did have some problems with it - I did not like their abrasive, mean-spirited Dumbledore, the other characters' treatment of Hermione, and their sometimes offensive humor - but it was clearly a labor of love. The films' object, ultimately, is to make money for WB. A Very Potter Musical's object was to put on a good show for college students who had grown up reading the books, and I believe all their shows had free admission.
A Very Potter Sequel was released this past Thursday, July 22. Its plot is drawn mostly from books 1, 3, and 5, and is really more of prequel than a sequel. The story goes that Lucius Malfoy, intent upon stopping Harry from defeating Voldemort, travels back in time to Harry's first year with a group of Death Eaters in order to kill him before he can vanquish the Dark Lord. The play follows Harry as he arrives at Hogwarts, instantly hitting it off with Ron over Red Vines, of all things, and continually mangling Hermione's name until he befriends her at Halloween (at which point he pronounces it correctly, then immediately forgets). Professor Lupin is teaching Defense Against the Dark Arts this year, and he's also coaching the Gryffindor Quidditch team. Sirius Black is on the loose, and apparently out to "drug and kill" Harry, according to a Rita Skeeter piece. Meanwhile, Draco Malfoy is trying to gain his father's acceptance, Hermione wants her classmates to like her, and Dolores Umbridge comes to the school intending to rule it with an iron fist.
Of course, this is still A Very Potter Sequel, and the ridiculous reigns above all else. Dumbledore, who in this version both flamboyantly gay and something of a jerk, mistakenly believes Umbridge is an attractive man in drag (which, considering she is played by the ridiculously handsome Joe Walker, who played Voldemort in Musical, is a forgivable assumption to make), and tries to get things going with her - only to find out that she is, in fact, a woman, and a very clingy one at that ("Did you get my text?" she repeatedly asks other characters, only to be highly annoyed when they don't respond immediately). Malfoy is, among other things, just learning to use the toilet, and, as it turns out, need not desire Lucius's approval at all, as he is actually the son of Narcissa and Dobby. Both plotlines made me slightly uncomfortable, I have to admit.
I continue to enjoy Team StarKid's portrayal of the Trio, however. Harry is a bit more self-centered than his book self, Ron is meaner, and Hermione is basically the Butt Monkey of the cast (no one can say her name correctly, and she's constantly mistaken for a night troll), but they are essentially quite true to their canon selves. Hermione's hair is properly bushy (rejoice!) and she is the slightly annoying, but very caring know-it-all I find so endearing in the books. Ron is shown to have a soft spot for her despite their initial mutual dislike, and they later have a hilarious conversation about Spider-Man comparing their relationship to Peter Parker and Mary Jane's (mirroring an exchange between Harry and Ginny in the first play). Harry and Ron's bromance is epic ("Where have you been all my life?" shouts Ron, to which Harry replies, "In a cupboard under some stairs!"). I also love Harry's sense of wonder about the magical world and Hogwarts, and his two songs about them are surprisingly heartfelt.
I also enjoyed the callbacks to the books: the Snape/Lily/James plotline, Crookshanks, Dean and Seamus, and the Marauders, although in a slightly over-the-top twist, Peter Pettigrew is not Scabbers, who is actually a dead rat that Ron likes to carry around on his shoulder. A talking Hedwig has a few hilarious cameos, and there are the usual one-scene wonders, Goyle, continuing from the first play, and this time around Yaxley, Sirius (who, as it turns out, wants to "hug and kiss" Harry; Rita Skeeter misquoted him), and Luna Lovegood.
Now, I didn't like everything. I get pretty easily offended, which is why I don't care for The Simpsons, Family Guy, or Borat, and why I didn't care for, among other things, Draco's (and Luna's) diapers, Lupin's swearing and making Neville eat the remains of Bambi's mother (makes sense in context), the centaur-coitus storyline (although Firenze was hilarious), and Umbridge's almost-use of a paddle. I get that most of my peers find that sort of thing amusing, but I'm not one to go for toilet jokes, and I can see how other people would be turned off the play by it. Ultimately it did not affect my enjoyment too much, but I would have preferred it be left out.
That being said, A Very Potter Sequel was wonderful overall. It was clever, well-written, and highly amusing, and any devoted Harry Potter fan age 15 or older should treat themselves to it. I can't decide if I liked it more than the first play or not, which says a lot about the quality of the sequel. If you have 2.5-3 spare hours, check it out. It's definitely worth your time!
