#EdFringe: Voldemort and the Teenage Hogwarts Musical Parody

★★★★1/2  

I’m roaring with laughter in this Harry Potter for diehard fans, as this show delivers the perfect combination of parody and fan references, in a well-written and witty way.

Set in the 1940s, complete with swinging jazz music, Hogwarts is just a place that Tom Riddle goes to school with some mates. He’s got a Hufflepuff girlfriend obsessed with snacks named Muffin, a pet snake named Jonathan, and an upcoming battle of the bands to smash because Quiddich is cancelled. Moaning Myrtle is still alive and brewing a beer that makes you friends, Hagrid wants to be an opera singer, and Muffin is writing a love song about bread – it’s a simpler time in the wizarding world.

Combine teen urges and teen problems with one of the most successful fandoms of all time, and you have a sure fire hit on your hands – it’s gut bustlingly funny, sassy, silly but also very cleverly written and performed. Legally we have to remind you that this is a parody, they say, and it’s the perfect example of a parody musical, a naughty version of Harry Potter with dirty jokes, unending humour but just enough references to the source material and what JK Rowling has implied in the Harry Potter universe to delight the fans. It pokes fun at the plot holes and the silly bits in the original text, and smashes it together with Harry Potter double entendres and sick Dumble-burns.

Stephen Graney as Tom Riddle dazzles and charms, Alice Robinson as Muffin is hysterical as an over eager Hufflepuff, hi-fiving everyone and obsessing over snacks, and Eric Michaud (who also features in Thrones! The Musical) is excellent as the operatic hopefully Hagrid. Special mentions to Katarina Hardy as Genevieve Griffindor for doing the entire show in a moon boot, but there are no weak links in this cast of seven, they are all excellent and navigate playing a range of characters with ease and perfect comic timing.  

It’s musically very good and catchy, and the production values are excellent – from simple by very effective pull up banners creating the set, to lighting each character in their house colour lighting, and excellent sound effects, comedic timing and pace throughout the show, this really is the full package of fun.

It’s no surprise that it’s nearly a dead tie in my favourite funny shows of the festival with Thrones! The Musical, as it has two of the co-creators of the show on board, but both are just as funny, silly, magnificently awkward and magically filthy while also being for fans of the original show, books and films of both fandoms.

Voldermort and the Teenage Hogwarts Musical Parody ran at Assembly George Square Studios until 26 August. More info.

The show is touring post #EdFringe and is now on at Kings Head Theatre until 21st September – check out their tour dates at voldemortshow.com