Edinburgh Fringe 2019
Voldemort and the Teenage Hogwarts Musical Parody
Genre: Comedy, Fringe Theatre, Musical Theatre
Venue: Assembly George Square
Festival: Edinburgh Fringe
Low Down
“Before Voldemort was He Who Must Not Be Named, he was just Tom Riddle, another moody teen that couldn’t talk to girls. Join Tom and his Hogwarts classmates on a hilarious musical adventure packed with magic, hormones and more than a few murders.”
Review
My 15 year old son and I enjoyed this so much last year we came back to see it again, and it didn’t disappoint. It’s had some fine tuning, some changes to the cast and it is back this year slicker, ruder and funnier.
We have a cast of familiar characters; Myrtle is here, Hagrid, Dumbledore and of course Tom Riddle – and we know who he turns out to be. The year is 1942, a world war is on and the school term is in full swing. We have wands and Hufflepuff and singing lecherous ghosts a plenty. We have a murderous plot, some cheeky one liners and some fabulous songs most of which you will be humming for weeks. My son’s favourite line in the whole show is too rude to print here but it is worth seeing the production just for that moment. We have such a strong and talented cast here that we dive right into this parody with gleeful delight.
This is the whole package; music and comedy, a strong narrative, well-developed characters and a great origin story that lands like a darkly philosophical pebble in the middle of a bucket of green goo. The actors come together seaminglessly in this high quality production and work quickly to move us through different scenes. We stay with them throughout, characters are strong and the story is clear.
Hagrid seems to be even more moving this year in his solo scenes of song, which truly take us somewhere else melancholic and bittersweet – an unexpected joy in the midst of this clever parody. There’s true talent to being able to fit that in and make us feel so deeply. The atmosphere of the theatre space was quietly electric in these moments. Bravo Hagrid.
And if you missed it in Edinburgh this year, Fringereview last year predicted it was good enough for the West end and now it’s currently showing in London, a mark of its huge popularity with audiences.
Fabulous writing, highly enjoyable, one of the best of the Potter shows I think you will see and I hope to see it continue to grow and develop.
