A couple weeks ago, I went to Puffs, or: Seven Increasingly Eventful Years at a Certain School of Magic & Magic, a Harry Potter parody play that’s currently playing off-Broadway. I’m not the biggest Harry Potter fan--truthfully, I only watched the first four movies and read the first book--but it’s such a big part of popular culture in my generation that it’s impossible to not know at least the basics of it. Though people warned me going into this that “if you’re not a Potterhead, you won’t understand,” I got by just fine watching this alternate story line.
Puffs is a show that focuses on the oft ignored, neglected, and necessity-questioned Hogwarts house, the Hufflepuffs--though it’s important to note that, in order to avoid getting sued for copyright infringement, there is not a single mention of any proper name actually associated with the Harry Potter world (at least to my memory); this adds an extra level of hilarity, as we watch the cast wordsmith their way around obvious references. Despite not being as well-versed in Harry Potter as I’m sure most other audience members were, I found that the show was absolutely hysterical all on its own. The original characters were incredibly compelling, and the twist and elaboration on canon characters was delightful.
The friend who I went with, who is obsessed with all things Harry Potter, got just as much enjoyment out of it as I did. After the performance, we were riding on such a Harry Potter parody high that we went back to our dorm and watched A Very Potter Musical (which was actually my first introduction to Harry Potter in middle school, that I can’t recommend more if you’ve never seen it).