CREDIT: TEAM STARKID
Tickle-Me-Wiggly is the snuggly harbinger of doom in Team StarKid's latest play, Black Friday, which you can watch for free on their YouTube channel.

Black Friday is a play written and produced by Team StarKid (a.k.a StarKid Productions), which premiered on YouTube Feb. 29.

Team StarKid is an American musical theatre company founded in 2009 at the University of Michigan. StarKid was created by Darren Criss, Brian Holden, Matt Lang and Nick Lang. Their first show was a musical about Harry Potter Called A Very Potter Musical, and since then Team StarKid has produced 12 musicals, the most recent one being Black Friday.

Black Friday is a horror musical about everyone’s favourite shopping day, Black Friday. When a new toy called Tickle-Me-Wiggly hits shelves, the people of Heathfield go insane for it. The musical shows the hype people go through to get the hottest toy on the market for their children.


This show features characters from previous StarKid shows: Tom Houston, Becky Barnes, Lex Foster and a few more. This show also introduces us to a few new faces as well.

This musical is an alternate reality to their previous musical The Guy Who Didn’t Like Musicals. So initially my first thought while watching was “woah, this is seriously weird.” Kind of like a déjà vu moment, but then when I did my research and learned it was a sequel to The Guy Who Didn’t Like Musicals I was able to understand more of what is going on.

The themes in this musical are basically murder, how far people will go for their loved ones and what happens when the afterlife takes over the world. What I like best about this musical is although it is set in an alternate universe of The Guy Who Doesn’t Like Musicals, both these musicals could never coexist in their universes together because they are separate stories themselves. So, you could watch one and not have to watch the other.

The songs are interesting, and all intertwine with one another really well. There are 18 musical numbers in total and the first song after the prologue is the “Tickle-Me Wiggly Jingle,” which is pretty catchy if you ask me. This song sets the tone for the rest of the story to follow.

The story revolves around Black Friday shoppers who end up being possessed by the Tickle-Me-Wiggly doll. Throughout the story we see a reconnection between Becky and Tom as they are trapped in a movie theatre. While that’s going on, Wiggly is taking over the world outside.

Curt Mega, who originally was on Glee with Darren Criss, one of the creators of Team StarKid, is one of the stars of this show. Mega not only plays president Howard Goodman, but he doubles as a shopper. His girlfriend Kim Whalen reprises her role of Becky Barnes. A few other notable names of the cast members are Dylan Saunders who plays Tom Houston, and Angela Giarratana who plays Lex Foster.

What I like most about Team StarKid is not only do they do live performances, but they upload all their shows on their YouTube channel Team StarKid so everyone can watch. Not many people can afford to travel all the way to Michigan to see performances, so they make it accessible for all their fans by uploading them to YouTube.

Black Friday has to be one of my favourites by them because it was very weird but very expected for them to do something like that. I really enjoy dark comedy, and this has a lot of dark and gritty humour. Not many theatre companies choose to do a dark musical as dark as this and Team StarKid really pulls it off.

I live for Team StarKid and their shows. My all-time favourite by them is Fire Bringer which is the origin of the “I don’t winna do the work today” meme. Overall if you are into watching musicals that are not classic or have a classic ring to them, I definitely suggest watching anyone of StarKid’s productions.