What Has Team StarKid Been Up to Lately?: Welcome to Hatchetfield

A Very Potter Musical, Me and My Dick, Starship, Holy Musical B@man!… StarKid Productions has been nailing virtual theatre since well before COVID.

With hilarious parodies, refreshing new music, and a surprising amount of heart, this ragtag group of students from the University of Michigan became massively popular with the help of video cameras and Youtube. And of course, it’s worth mentioning that this company is where Darren Criss got his start, well before we ever saw him on Glee...

But what have they been up to lately? As someone who spent years as a massive fan, I’m frankly a bit disappointed in myself. I haven’t seen a new StarKid musical since I tuned in to watch Firebringer four years ago!

But then it hit me. If I’m looking for quality theatrical entertainment online during this pandemic, I don’t have to look any further than the Team StarKid Youtube channel. With hilarious and well-filmed musicals galore, I could spend hours enjoying the energy of live theatre from the comfort of my own home.

So began my mission to catch up on StarKid’s latest projects and to rediscover my love for the group.

This is how I found myself in Hatchetfield, the fictional setting of StarKid’s most recent projects. A seemingly ordinary town filled with ordinary people, it’s hard to imagine why it would attract such strange and even supernatural activity. But Hatchetfield is definitely no ordinary town.

Starting with their hilarious production, The Guy Who Didn’t Like Musicals, released two years ago, Hatchetfield became home to the likes of Lauren Lopez, Joey Richter, Dylan Saunders, Jaime Lyn Beatty, and other StarKid favorites. And so the horror began!

What happens when a meteor falls on the town, and suddenly, Paul, the titular “guy who didn’t like musicals”, discovers that the people around him have begun singing and dancing as if it were totally normal? What terrible monsters could be behind this constant musical theatre agony?

And then there’s their latest full-length show Black Friday, released in early 2020. How can our heroes survive when the Black Friday sale of a certain silly children’s toy triggers absolute madness among the residents of the town?

Hatchetfield is a horror magnet perfect for hilarious musical adventures filled with singing, dancing, jokes, aliens, and some truly lovable characters. And I have loved getting to know its residents and jumping into the latest ridiculous world of StarKid.

To build on the Hatchetfield universe during COVID, the company has also released a 3-episode series called Nightmare Time. Originally live-streamed using Zoom, familiar actors from the recent full-length productions joined together to tell a series of spooky Hatchetfield stories featuring new jokes and new songs. Now available on Youtube, these readings are the latest extension in the Hatchetfield series.

But it doesn’t end there. Keep an eye out for Nerdy Prudes Must Die, the latest full-length musical set in the Hatchetfield universe. With confirmation from the company that this show has been fully written and will be a continuation of the saga, the only thing stopping its production is the pandemic.

Will we have a brand new show from StarKid once it’s safe to gather in person again? I sure hope so!

If you’re bored during this pandemic and find yourself yearning for some theatrical joy, give StarKid a try. But be careful entering Hatchetfield… You may never escape!