Criss took over for Radcliffe in 'How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying' in 2012, three years after 'A Very Potter Musical' went viral
Credit: Amy Sussman/Getty; Team Starkid/Youtube
NEED TO KNOW
- Darren Criss starred in A Very Potter Musical, a parody created while he was an undergrad at the University of Michigan
- The musical went viral on YouTube in 2009 and helped launch StarKid Productions
- Criss later met Harry Potter star Daniel Radcliffe, but said they never directly discussed the parody musical
Before there was Glee, Darren Criss was best known for a viral musical parody.
In an episode of the Dinner's on Me podcast released on Tuesday, April 14, Criss, 39, chatted with host Jesse Tyler Ferguson about his sprawling screen and stage career — including A Very Potter Musical, which was made while he was still an undergrad in college.
The musical, which saw Criss star as the titular boy who lived, was a parody of the Harry Potter novels and movies. It was performed for one weekend on the University of Michigan campus from April 9 to April 11, 2009, but was then uploaded to YouTube in its entirety.
From there, the parody musical went viral. Collectively, all parts of the musical currently have more than 42 million views on YouTube. "It was a total accident," Criss said of the parody's viral popularity.
"For something to go viral in like 2009 or something was unheard of," Ferguson, 50, added.
"I mean, and like a lot of viral moments, no one's aiming for it," Criss continued. "The more you aim for it, the farther you're guaranteed to miss. So it was a genuine sort of funny thing that we did just with friends, and we put on the internet not because we were trying to have anybody see it. It was just a way to share it with other people that were in the show."
Credit: Team Starkid/Youtube
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The parody ultimately allowed StarKid Productions, the musical theater company founded to produce A Very Potter Musical, to create a litany of other musicals and web series. A Very Potter Musical ultimately received three additional installments: A Very Potter Sequel in 2010, A Very Potter Senior Year in 2012 and the audio-only reward for Firebringer backers, A Very Potter Christmas.
"I'm very proud of the fact that I was not a musical theater major," Criss added, noting that while attending the University of Michigan, he was an acting major. "If you had told me in college that I would be doing a musical on Broadway, I would've been like, 'You're f—ing high.' "
Criss later linked up with Daniel Radcliffe, who gained his own notoriety as Harry Potter in the original eight films, when he took over for the actor for a three-week run in early 2012 as J. Pierrepont Finch in the Broadway musical How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying.
Despite getting the opportunity to meet in real life just three years after A Very Potter Musical went viral, Criss said he never spoke directly about the parody with Radcliffe. "I think he was aware of it. You know, poor guy," the Glee star said. "God knows what he thinks of me. Not like it's something I lose sleep over. But I'm sure by the time we met, I think he was aware of it for sure. "
"I think it was sort of an unspoken thing. Yeah. I think by the time we had met, and it's our, our interaction has been very brief, but by the time we had met it was when I was taking over for the role [in How to Succeed in Business], and that was a really fun passing of the baton. And so I think our conversations were mainly about that," Criss continued.
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