By: Alex Angelini

Image Credit: therealteamstarkid on Instagram

In 2018, Starkid Productions, previously known for their Harry Potter parody musicals and other comedic parodies, launched a Kickstarter campaign for their all-new original musical, “The Guy Who Didn’t Like Musicals.” It is one of their most popular musicals, and was my introduction to their work. In 2025, they launched a Kickstarter campaign for a reprise of the musical. I was given a digital ticket (a rental of the recorded live show that lasted three days), and I can say with certainty that my friends and I’s contribution to the Kickstarter was well-spent. 

“The Guy Who Didn’t Like Musicals” is, you guessed it, a musical about a guy who didn’t like musicals. Paul, an average man with an average life, is horrified to find that the world around him is slowly becoming a musical after a strange meteor lands in the local theater. He, his work friends, and his love interest Emma all work to get away from the music and avoid becoming a part of it themselves. But one by one, they all succumb to the infectious song and dance, ending in a tragedy where Emma, as the sole survivor, is overwhelmed and taken by the musical zombies. “The Guy Who Didn’t Like Musicals: Remount” (which, from this point on, I will be referring to as “TGWDLM”) was an excellent show of how a few more years of experience and a few thousand more dollars can really make a difference for a production. It’s an improvement on the original in every conceivable way: set design, choreography, acting, all of it is so much better in ways that made me realize a few flaws of the original that I didn’t notice before. 

For one, the acting quality has significantly increased. One of my favorite things about the original “TGWDLM” is the background acting, essentially how the characters react to the environment around them, which makes this work endlessly rewatchable to me. The reactions and microexpressions from the cast have become more subtle and realistic. One particular example is during the song break, which presented “Not Your Seed,” where Paul and one of his co-workers, Bill, go to save Bill’s daughter, only to find her infected and singing about Bill’s flaws in how he parented her. In the original, Bill tries to snap his daughter out of it, despite already knowing that infected people can’t come back, but in the remount, we see his pain and hopelessness throughout the song build until the climax, where he’s completely given up, and his daughter gives him a gun. During the bridge, instead of standing idly by while his daughter asks why it hurts to love him like in the original, he goes to embrace her, and there’s a quiet moment where they sit together, the audience has a sense of hope that she can break out of it, but then she pushes him away and proclaims that she’s not his seed. It’s very powerful to see Bill’s emotion, knowing how much he loves his daughter, in reaction to the infection, using this to manipulate him and break him mentally.

Additionally, the set design is another notable difference from the original run of “TGWDLM.” They had a very simple set, with a background of squares with color-changing LEDs and a few simple props to allude to different locations. The new set has a larger-than-life building that, with a few clever prop placements and lighting changes, can be any location from an average office building to a back alley to a kooky biologist’s manor. The first time the curtains opened, I audibly gasped, and it immediately set the expectation that I was in for a night of entertainment with a larger scale and scope than it had originally provided in “TGWDLM.” 

Finally, the choreography has also improved. The juxtaposition of the normal, uninfected characters going about their day and the infected characters making dramatic leaps and movements is a good reference to visual comedy, and a lot of the songs take advantage of that, such as “What Do You Want, Paul?,” “Show Me Your Hands,” and “Show Stoppin’ Number.”  But it goes beyond comedy, with the choreography in numbers like “America Is Great Again” having slow-mo sections that send chills down my spine, and “Let It Out” with Paul’s actor (Jon Matteson) doing an amazing job showing the physical and mental struggle against himself as he becomes infected.

Overall, I would highly recommend “The Guy Who Didn’t Like Musicals: Remount.” It’s a fantastic showcase of what theater can do with enough funding and talent, as well as just being an overall great time. I’m excited for the proshot to come out on YouTube, and I hope I’ve convinced you to go check it out when the time comes!