50 Fun Facts About Team StarKid

In A Very Potter Musical, a poster of which actor turns out to be Voldemort's last Horcrux?

Zac Efron is the face on the poster Dumbledore keeps in his office, and Ron is the one who destroys it. Voldemort even posts an online review of the actor's film 17 Again.

Students at which university founded Team StarKid in 2009 after staging A Very Potter Musical?

Michigan theatre students put the parody on for three nights on campus in April 2009. Most early members came from its School of Music, Theatre and Dance.

Which TV series made StarKid co-founder Darren Criss famous as Warblers lead singer Blaine Anderson?

Glee introduced him in 2010 as Blaine, the lead voice of the Dalton Academy glee club. His first number on the series became its biggest one-week seller.

In A Very Potter Musical, Pigfarts is a prestigious wizarding academy located on which planet?

Mars is where Pigfarts sits, which is why one student bargains with Voldemort for a rocket to get there.

StarKid's stage Harry Potter, Darren Criss, replaced which film actor in a Broadway musical in 2012?

Daniel Radcliffe handed him the lead in the revival of How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying. The three-week stint was among the revival's most lucrative.

In The Trail to Oregon!, which disease finishes off the family member the audience votes to kill?

Dysentery strikes just as the family reaches the state line, where a doctor names the victim. The crowd makes its choice earlier in the evening.

What does Harry Potter use to tame the Hungarian Horntail dragon in A Very Potter Musical?

A guitar serenade lulls the beast into submission after Harry skips his tournament training. The number is simply called The Dragon Song.

Which Harry Potter film actress played Luna Lovegood again on stage in A Very Potter Senior Year?

Evanna Lynch joined the StarKid cast for the 2012 staged reading, opposite the troupe's own Harry. A different singer took her part on the soundtrack.

Which StarKid actress first found fame playing Draco Malfoy in A Very Potter Musical?

Lauren Lopez returned as Draco in the sequel and stayed with the troupe as both an actor and its company manager.

Which StarKid actor played Ron Weasley in A Very Potter Musical and Peter in Nerdy Prudes Must Die?

Joey Richter was an undergraduate when the Potter parody went viral, and he later recurred as Officer Petey on Disney Channel's Jessie.

Which StarKid actor played Voldemort in A Very Potter Musical and Dolores Umbridge in its sequel?

Joe Walker also pitched the idea that grew into the space musical Starship, in which he played Commander Up.

In A Very Potter Musical, Voldemort spends Act I attached to the back of which professor's head?

Quirinus Quirrell and his unwanted passenger bicker like roommates, then grow so close that the Dark Lord is heartbroken when they part.

Which A Very Potter Musical duet do Ron and Draco sing at the Yule Ball?

Granger Danger was the seed of the whole show: the writers imagined a bully hiding a crush, and a full Potter parody grew from that one idea.

In A Very Potter Sequel, which candy does Ron Weasley offer to trick the traitor Peter Pettigrew?

Red Vines are Ron's snack of choice in the sequel, and the bait works. In the first show the pianist handed him a rival licorice brand instead.

In A Very Potter Sequel, which of his father's magical devices does Draco use to rescue his friends?

A Time-Turner lets Lucius hunt Harry as a first-year, and Draco later borrows the same gadget to rewind an hour and save his friends.

In A Very Potter Sequel, who does Lucius Malfoy reveal to be Draco's real father?

Dobby the house-elf had an affair with Lucius's wife years earlier, a secret Lucius blurts out when his son finally stands up to him.

The Trail to Oregon! ran in repertory with Ani, StarKid's parody of which film franchise?

Star Wars gets the StarKid treatment in Ani, which centres on Anakin Skywalker, the Jedi who becomes Darth Vader.

Whose catchphrases in the 1960s Batman TV series inspired the title of Holy Musical B@man!?

Robin, played on television by Burt Ward, met each new crisis with a pun that began with the word Holy.

In The Guy Who Didn't Like Musicals, what crashes into a theater and sets off the singing plague?

A meteor carries the blue contagion to town, and the hero's last hope is to blow it up with grenades.

Which The Trail to Oregon! song has the kidnappers try to float across the Columbia River?

Caulk the Wagon is sung by the two outlaws and their captive with a line of backup singers. The crossing fails when they strike a rock and tumble out.

In The Trail to Oregon!, the flirtatious stranger McDoon is secretly which feared outlaw?

The Bandit King is unmasked by accident when his own sidekick blurts out the truth. He takes revenge by setting fire to the family's ride west.

In The Trail to Oregon!, Grandpa claims he battled which sea creatures back in 1812?

Lobsters, in his tall tale, were banished to the sea and took revenge by stealing a million-dollar bill with his face on it. One of them later rescues the whole family.

Who wrote the songs for The Trail to Oregon! and also starred as the Father on stage?

Jeff Blim wrote the music and lyrics, shared the script credit and led a cast of just six actors.

In The Trail to Oregon!, the family begins the journey west in which real Missouri town?

Independence welcomes the family with a chorus of honest but gloomy advice from its townspeople, and a store owner there swindles the Father over a deformed ox.

In The Trail to Oregon!, the farming family skips food at the general store and stocks up on what?

Bullets are their one planned purchase, on the logic that farmers never need to buy food. The plan collapses once the youngest child eats the reserves.

Which song in The Trail to Oregon! is performed by whichever family member the audience has doomed?

You Gotta Go changes singer from night to night, so every actor in the family has to be ready to deliver the farewell.

The Guy Who Didn't Like Musicals was loosely inspired by which 1956 science-fiction horror film?

Invasion of the Body Snatchers lent the show its premise of neighbours being taken over one by one, here by a hive mind that makes them sing and dance.

In The Guy Who Didn't Like Musicals, which real hit show does Paul refuse to see with Bill?

Mamma Mia! is the show he turns down, citing his distaste for the whole genre. That refusal keeps him out of the audience on the night the trouble starts.

In The Guy Who Didn't Like Musicals, what job does Paul's crush Emma Perkins hold at Beanie's?

A barista by day, Emma is working her way through community college and hates her job, her town and musicals alike.

StarKid's Twisted borrows its villain's-eye-view premise from which hit Broadway musical set in Oz?

Wicked retold a famous tale from its witch's side, and Twisted does the same for a royal vizier whose good intentions go unnoticed.

Which crowdfunding site raised over $140,000 for StarKid's Twisted, roughly quadruple its goal?

Kickstarter also saved the troupe by accident: a writer listed StarKid as the page's creator, and what was planned as an outside project became a company show.

Which StarKid actor played Dumbledore in A Very Potter Musical and the vizier Ja'far in Twisted?

Dylan Saunders also played the dim space ranger Tootsie Noodles in Starship and the Scarecrow in the troupe's Batman parody.

In StarKid's Twisted, which Disney villain is shunned even by the other villains who visit Ja'far?

Cruella de Vil is the one baddie nobody will defend, while the rest insist their own stories were warped in the retelling.

In StarKid's Twisted, the Djinn of the lamp confuses Ja'far by speaking entirely in what?

Movie quotes are all the Djinn speaks in, which leaves Ja'far baffled. He spends his second wish on becoming a powerful sorcerer instead.

In Nerdy Prudes Must Die, bully Max Jägerman returns from the grave as what kind of vengeful being?

A ghost with a grudge, Max hunts the classmates whose haunted-house prank went fatally wrong.

In Nerdy Prudes Must Die, the fatal prank on Max is staged at which supposedly haunted house?

The Waylon Place gives way beneath him: the floor collapses, and the panicked pranksters hide the corpse under its floorboards.

In StarKid's Black Friday, holiday shoppers will kill to get their hands on which doll?

Wiggly returns in a later Hatchetfield musical as the leader of the sinister Lords in Black.

Darren Criss described StarKid's Starship as The Little Mermaid meets which science-fiction film?

Aliens was his shorthand for a show whose hero is a giant insect longing to join the human Starship Rangers.

Which StarKid musical about cave dwellers spawned an internet meme from its song We Got Work to Do?

Firebringer follows Zazzalil, a restless cavewoman whose labour-saving schemes lead her to discover fire.

After its founders graduated, Team StarKid moved where in the Midwest and opened Starship there?

Chicago was the troupe's base for several years, until a later move took it to Los Angeles for its first Hatchetfield show.

Which surname is shared by Matt and Nick, the siblings who co-founded StarKid in 2009?

Lang is the name on the script of the whole Potter trilogy and much else: Matt directed the early hits, while Nick also performs.

StarKid's 2012 tour Apocalyptour was named for a doomsday scare tied to which people's calendar?

Maya Long Count reckoning reached the end of a 5,126-year cycle on 21 December 2012, which fed predictions of a catastrophe that never came.

A Very Potter Senior Year was performed as a staged reading at which Harry Potter fan convention?

LeakyCon hosted the trilogy's finale in August 2012, and a microphone fault meant the lead actor's audio had to be rebuilt from other mics.

Many early StarKid members met through which student-run theater organization at their university?

Basement Arts also co-produced the troupe's follow-up to its Potter debut, which began life as a short play written for its 24-hour theatre festival.

StarKid teamed up with which famous improv institution for its 2013 sketch show Airport for Birds?

The Second City staged the revue at its UP Comedy Club, and the partnership returned that autumn with a spoof of 1990s pop culture.

StarKid regulars Corey Lubowich and Brian Rosenthal co-founded which group behind Spies Are Forever?

Tin Can Brothers grew out of friendships made at university and went on to create the web series Wayward Guide for the Untrained Eye.

In A Very Potter Musical, which enchanted kitchen object transports Harry and Cedric to a graveyard?

A ladle is the trap that carries the pair off mid-argument at the Yule Ball, and Harry grabs it again to escape back to school.

Which film studio lets StarKid host A Very Potter Musical online as long as it earns nothing?

Warner Bros. allows the free upload, but StarKid cannot license the show to other theatre companies because it does not own the characters.

Which StarKid actress went on to play Regina George on the first national tour of Mean Girls?

Mariah Rose Faith played both Alice and Zoey in The Guy Who Didn't Like Musicals before touring as the queen bee of North Shore High.

In Holy Musical B@man!, which villain seizes control of Gotham's Council of Rogues?

Sweet Tooth later holds thousands of people hostage and meets his end in a vat of boiling hot chocolate.