Preview: CINDERELLA'S CASTLE at the El Portal Theater

StarKid Production's dark musical adaptation of Cinderella may not have opened yet — but it already has a fanbase of more than 800,000 people. 

At least, that's by the looks of the theater company's YouTube page, where legions of online followers lap up the theater troupe's buzz-building content like Swifties waiting for a new album. 

"We've been very lucky to have a very, very devoted fan base," said StarKid co-founder Nick Lang, who created the show (and the company) along with his brother, Matt Lang. "They love picking up on little things; they like figuring out puzzles and all this kind of stuff. They spend a lot of time thinking about it." 

A dark retelling of the classic damsel-in-distress fairy tale, the show (which will play at the El Portal Theater in Hollywood July 18-27) features an original 80s-esque "synth-pop" soundtrack, elaborate puppetry, and a cast of 10 including Bryce Charles as Ella, Angela Giarratana as The Stepmother, and James Tolbert as The Prince. 

It also stars six fantastical puppets, which Nick made himself ("I took a puppeteering class a long time ago," he said casually). With moving glass eyeballs and intricately sculpted faces, the whimsical foam creatures look like something out of Jim Henson's 1986 fantasy film, "Labyrinth." 

"We added trolls into the story, and it's way darker and funnier and way more adult," Matt said. "As people are watching it, they'll probably think it's more extreme — then once they finish, they'll sit back and go, 'Oh, yeah. That was pretty simple. It was just Cinderella."

The story follows "Ella" as she tries to take down her wicked stepmother, an evil troll intent on casting humanity into eternal darkness.  It's not a show made for kids, though Disney inspired it.

Sort of.

 "We had just finished watching one of the Disney live-action movies," Matt said, "and I was like, 'Well, that was just the same as the cartoon. If you're going to remake something and it's live-action, wouldn't you want to make it more mature? Why not just have swearing and sex and violence in it, too?

"We were joking about it, and at a certain point, we said, 'Oh wait, this is actually a good idea.'"    

ONCE UPON ONLINE… 

It's easy to see why the Chicago Tribune called StarKid "the future of musical theater." While the company has done 15 stage musicals since 2009 (including comedy parodies of Disney, Star Wars, Batman, and The Oregon Trail), the web is where StarKid stories really come alive. 

The Team StarKid YouTube page — which posts all of its musicals as well as readings, sketches, and other content — has 824,000 followers. In addition, its Wiki portal on Fandom contains 1,935 pages outlining everything from the plotlines to actors' resumes. 

"We're not a very traditional theater company," Nick said. "We'll run the show, and then where it really lives is online." 

StarKid fans also gather on Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube to discuss the details of the imaginary worlds created by the Langs.

"It's to the point where they'll notice if we get something wrong," Matt said. "If I contradict myself, they'll notice it. So it's kind of like a tit-for-tat: They start paying attention, so then we start paying attention. Then we make it even harder and add more details." 

Of course, creating a massive online fanbase not only helps generate interest; it also helps with funding. As such, Team StarKid is no stranger to crowdsourcing: Its 2018 Broadway musical parody, The Guy Who Didn't Like Musicals (about a musical-averse man thrust into a pandemic where the afflicted can't help but sing and dance), raised $127,792 on Kickstarter. 

Cinderella's Castle upped that ante, raising $529,230 during its 28-day campaign and wooing Kickstarter investors with things like VIP show tickets, T-shirts, and small-scale models of the puppets. 

It was over twice the original fundraising goal, making it the highest-funded StarKid show ever. Nick said the windfall helped create more lavish sets, pay equity actors, and build the puppets for the show.

A Cinderella Story of Its Own

While producing fairy tales is a new venture for StarKid, the theater company's existence is a Cinderella story in itself. 

It all started when the Lang brothers — along with fellow University of Michigan students Brian Holden and Darren Criss (who later went on to star in the Fox TV series "Glee") — decided in 2009 to make a musical parody of Harry Potter. 

The show was a surprise hit, packing the university's tiny black box theater for all four of its performances. One of those performances was recorded and uploaded to YouTube, and Team StarKid was born. 

"We didn't know how good it was going to be because we were college kids — we thought it was probably going to be pretty bad," said Matt. "And then, it just so happened to get a really good audience response. Like, people heard about it, and the theater was absolutely packed."

Soon after, the show went viral, garnering more than 19 million views and a worldwide following.  

"We were in our early twenties, so we were all really giddy and excited," Nick said. "It felt fun. Then we decided, "Let's try and keep doing shows and take advantage of this opportunity that we just kind of fell into. And so we built our company around it."

And that was that. 

Or, more appropriately: And they all lived happily ever after. 

At least, that's the goal.

"We'll see," Nick said. "I've been doing this since college. If StarKid crashes and burns, then we're all going to be in trouble."

Cinderella's Castle will run July 18-20 and 25-27 at the El Porto Theater in North Hollywood. For now, the show is sold out, but new tickets may become available closer to the opening day and during the show week. Recommended for ages 14 and up. 

*Photos courtesy StarKid Productions

To post a comment, you must register and login.