Starkid's lack of professionalism as a studio, in both their writing and financing, is something that I feel has seriously come back to bite them in ways that have been showing themselves as of recent. I believe that any company should have a level of responsibility no matter their size, but when you have been running a theater company for over 15 years, including shows that have reached millions of views and a production on the West End, the mentality of giving them the benefit of the doubt as a scrappy group of college friends making a show gets weaker and weaker.
First off - the way they go about financing is unsustainable and seems to (unintentionally or not) prey on their most closest fans.
Instead of launching some kind of monthly subscription service such as Patreon or Ko-Fi to help have a consistent flow of income for projects, they launch Kickstarters for every production. This is not necessarily a bad model, as there are plenty of other independent creators who do this to fund a full project, but there have been instances where rewards are either disproportionate to certain value or promised but not given.
One of the lower tiers to a lot of these Kickstarters are early access to tickets, but most people - especially since Starkid's brand is accessbility to theater via online access - are going to be unable to attend and renders this "reward" a moot point. In other situations, most notably for Starkid Labs, there were 2 other projects (besides Space Baby, which has come out) that were promised - and by all accounts should have been made given that the goal was surpassed - that have had radio silence upon them for the 4 years since they were announced.
Some content that they've done - including the Hatchetfield Halloween Party - were paywalled and made inaccessible. Some of their merch, like the Youtooz Pokotho plushie, were largely reserved for high paying Kickstarter backers, making it so at launch, the plush sold out in less than 30 minutes, making it so that most couldn't get it.
Most of these payment options are based around a limited time window, and I've noticed it can make viewers feel very indulged to just shell out the money anyways because there is a fear they're missing out or a drive to support something they really love.
I'm not saying that they shouldn't try to drum up funds, because theater is expensive. But I feel like there are better ways to do this. A lot of independent productions on their crowdfunding campaigns have itemized cost breakdowns of how they're going to spend the money, and what exactly is going to where. And as I mentioned, monthly subscriptions with a consistent upkeep of rewards or updates can really be beneficial - Shipwrecked Comedy their sister company does a really good job at running their Patreon!
Secondly, and what I feel is a lot more egregious - the writing. Most of these shows are written by the Lang brothers, and a lot of times things seem to fall in the same kinds of relationships. And I like paulkins! I do! But a kind of dorky guy who falls in love with a strong take charge girl has been doneโฆ a bit too much for me with these people. Not to mention the other tropes they fall back into (the sleazebag character, or the highschool sweethearts).
And like I get it! These are two 30 year old white dudes- but I feel like it would be more beneficial if they brought on more writers, esp queer or POC writers, to help them write those kinds of characters without them feeling like jokes or stereotypes. Taz from Starship is written as a blatant Mexican stereotype. Holy Musical Batman...exists. Ruth's mention of her bisexuality comes as a joke to her expense after her death. Even Firebringer, their arguably most queer show, gives more time to the straight relationship (as well as plays it more straight than Zazzalil and Jemilla). Funnily enough, their other sister studio Tin Can Bros has actually done a better job in queer writing (see spies are forever or this could be on Broadway).
I have heard others say that Cinderella's Castle is a counterargument to how the studio has improved, given its first lead Black roles, but this is an exception, not the rule. Its proshot release was very quickly overshadowed by the announcement of the Guy Remount kickstarter, which, given it being their most popular show, will of course take attention away from this new show.
And then there's Tomb Quest, which gives its only Black cast member 5 minutes of screen time, the role of dead best friend, and nowhere anywhere on the merchandise- which gives our main dynamic over to a straight couple with a dorky guy falling in love with a take charge woman, with both of them being high school sweethearts - and which gives its only queer character canon representation via a single line being a joke at her expense.
Not to mention having a 500k budget with props that end up looking worse than CC (with no offense to Meg Lloyd, I'm sure she was working with what she had), including only one set of elf ears unable to be the size and skin color for the understudy that wears them.
And for whatever reason? Ticket sales are not selling - the digital ticket got released unexpectedly early without any announcement prior.
And if Starkid doesn't start to fulfill their prior promises, both spoken in terms of projects they haven't made good on, or unspoken in terms of putting their POC actors at the forefront (or even hiring new talent or writers), there's only so much time before their old ways aren't going to sustain them anymore.
The audience and the players deserve a more professional-acting company.
(Please do not use this post as an excuse to harass anyone that works at Starkid.)
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