These days, Brian Holden is an in-demand audiobook narrator and co-founder of a musical theatre company with a growing list of famous alumni. But back in the early 2000s, Holden was finding his voice as an entertainer on the stage of Traverse City Central High School. The Ticker caught up with Holden to hear about his increasing notoriety, famous connections, and the unique niche he’s carved out in the entertainment industry.
A drama production at East Middle School called Who’s Dying to Be a Millionaire? was Holden’s entrée into the world of entertaining. He then joined the choral program at Central High School to get involved with the school’s annual fall musicals, landing lead roles in shows like Guys and Dolls and Singin’ in the Rain. He also emceed Central’s annual pop music variety show, Rendezvous, where he discovered his love for off-the-cuff improv comedy. By his estimation, he was “always interested in making people laugh.” After he graduated from Central in 2004, that urge drove Holden to University of Michigan’s Theatre & Drama department.
In Ann Arbor, Holden helped launch StarKid Productions, the stage performing company that would become his biggest claim to fame. StarKid’s calling card? Laugh-out-loud parodies of iconic franchises like Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter, which it performed to sold-out college crowds nationwide.
“There was an opportunity for student-produced theatre at U of M, called Basement Arts,” Holden recalls. “A lot of the shows that got put on there were students testing their limits, maybe putting on edgy material. We went in the opposite direction: we just did really stupid and funny stuff. And I think that drew in quite an audience, especially since it was parody material. People want to see you poke fun at something that they love.”
StarKid Productions quickly became a word-of-mouth hit around campus. In spring 2009, StarKid’s Harry Potter parody – called A Very Potter Musical – caused so much buzz at U of M that the team decided to put it online to see how it might perform to a broader audience.
“The reaction to [A Very Potter Musical] on campus was immense,” Holden says. “I had never seen the theater so packed before. There were people lined up on the floor of the studio space. It was sold out at every performance, and we even added a performance. It was super popular, and that made us want to put it on YouTube to see who else could see it.”
As it turned out, a lot of people saw it. Today, the Act 1, Part 1 video of A Very Potter Musical has more than 17.5 million views on YouTube.
“It was pretty big back in 2009,” Holden says. “I don't even know if, by today's standards, you would call it viral. But it was definitely 2009 viral.”
Holden says the warm online reception showed StarKid how it might continue to thrive even after its members graduated from college.
“Based off the popularity of [A Very Potter Musical], we were able to keep making shows and figuring out ways to produce theatre on our own that we then transferred to the web,” Holden tells The Ticker. “We were able to reach a huge audience with theatre. And that’s one of the limiting factors of any live performance, as anyone who in the last five years wanted to see Hamilton can attest: until it got put on Disney+, you had to go to one of the touring productions, or see it in Chicago, or actually go to Broadway. I think that was one of the appeals of StarKid Productions: we put all of our shows on YouTube for free, once we were done producing them live.”
A Very Potter Musical also solidified the early core players of StarKid Productions – several of whom went on to become major stars. Holden collaborated with co-founders Nick and Matt Lang to write the script, while fellow co-founder Darren Criss wrote the music with another early StarKid member named A.J. Holmes.
Criss, who also starred in A Very Potter Musical as Harry Potter, would go on to join the cast of the Fox musical comedy/drama series Glee a year later; he eventually won Emmy and Golden Globe awards for his performance in the 2018 TV miniseries, American Crime Story: The Assassination of Gianni Versace. Holmes, meanwhile, spent five years in various Broadway, touring, and international productions of The Book of Mormon, playing the lead role of Elder Cunningham. Carlos Valdes, who played in the band for A Very Potter Musical, is another noted alumnus, known for his role as Cisco Ramon on the CW television series, The Flash.
In the years since A Very Potter Musical, StarKid has staged more than a dozen other original musicals at a variety of venues in Chicago and Los Angeles, as well as a pair of North American tours. In 2019, the team mounted a 10-year reunion show in L.A., funded by a Kickstarter campaign that raised over $547,000 from 11,704 backers. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the team has leaned on its web following to continue producing original content.
Holden’s career, meanwhile, has drifted increasingly toward a different type of performing: audiobook narration.
“After doing such collaborative projects for so many years, through StarKid and through improv comedy, I wanted something that was basically just me,” Holden says. “And [audiobook narration] is just me, for very long periods of time, in the guestroom closet that we've converted into a voiceover booth. It turned out to be the perfect job for the pandemic, because this is something that I can do from home, and it’s something that didn't really slow down because the audiobook industry wasn't affected by any of the constraints that the rest of the world was.”
Now living in Chicago with his wife – also a StarKid alum – Holden looks back fondly on his days in Traverse City, particularly those as part of performing arts programs at Traverse City Area Public Schools.
“Traverse City was a great place to get a taste for what it's like to be in the performing world,” Holden says. “So, if anybody's reading this and is wanting to get into a career of performing or being an actor, just keep doing it. Find those outlets in Traverse City that can allow you to find the fun in those things.”
PHOTO: Holden as Superman in StarKid’s 2012 production of Holy Musical B@man!, a DC Comics parody.
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