Team StarKid (or at least the NYC branch) performed their latest musical Twisted: The Untold Story of a Royal Vizier in concert at 54 Below on Monday, March 17. We caught the second of the two performances.

There were seven actors performing. Only Jeff Blim (Aladdin) was from the original cast in Chicago. AJ Holmes (Joey’s Heart in Me and My Dick, Lockhart in AVPSY), who is the composer of Twisted, filled in for Dylan Saunders as the lead. Sounding just as good as Saunders, he blew the crowd away as Jafar. Team StarKid veteran Tyler Brunsman (Lucius Malfoy and Cedric in the Very Potter trilogy) took over the role of Achmed, played to goofy perfection in the original by Joe Walker. He did not get to flex his comedic chops as much since most of the dialogue was cut out, but Brunswick gave Achmed’s big solo a rousing rendition.

That left StarKid newbies to take over the rest of the roles. Andrea Ross took over the role of Jasmine, George Salazar filled in as the Sultan, Holly Grossman stepped in as Scheherazade and Rebecca Spigelman covered the rest of the female roles, including a spot-on impersonation of Lauren Lopez’s lines. The entire cast also served as the ensemble, creating the illusion of a full-fledged chorus singing during the group numbers.

The show was introduced by non other than Darren Criss, who talked about how incredibly proud he was of Twisted, despite having nothing to do with it. He mentioned that this was Team StarKid’s first foray into the Broadway community (54 Below is well-known as a place for Broadway performers to perform cabaret-style). Indeed, the Broadway community was out in full force to support Team StarKid – spotted in the audience were Matthew Morrison and Andrew Keenan-Bolger, among others.

The performance itself consisted mostly of the songs from Twisted, with very little dialogue interspersed. All sixteen songs from the soundtrack were included, though several had sections cut out (notably, the girl impregnated by Aladdin in “I Steal Everything” and the part about returning “Wicked” the book in “Dream a Little Harder”). In terms of non-musical dialogue, the only major bits revolved around Aladdin. Included was Aladdin’s revelation about killing his parents, and his ultimate fate as a peddler of junk before being killed by a thief. The entire subplot about Pixar was omitted.

The staging was minimal. There were no costumes – though, appropriately, “Jafar” was in a black suit with a red tie, and “Aladdin” was in a purple t-shirt (there was also a fully costumed Aladdin in the audience, but that’s beside the point). The only props used were cardboard cutouts of the scarab and the genie’s lamp, as well as things identifying the Disney villains during the song “Twisted” (seashell necklace for Ursula, cutout of Scar’s head, Maleficent’s headpiece, shotgun for Gaston, and Hook’s hook).

The entire cast gave superb performances. Each song was followed by raucous applause, and all the jokes had the room roaring with laughter. Team StarKid should be very proud of this performance, and in Twisted in general – since, anecdotally, it appears to be the new favorite among StarKids.

The audience was very respectful, not singing along nor mobbing the stars as I’d feared. (I therefore attribute the frenzied mob at Darren’s solo concert to the Gleeks.) After the show, all the stars aside from Tyler stuck around to chat with fans and take pictures. Darren, lyricist Kaley McMahon, and producer Jama McMahon joined in as well. There was a sense of community, as the StarKids chatted among themselves, and the night was periodically punctuated by the shrieks of long-lost friends reuniting. When 54 Below chivvied everyone out at 2 a.m., Darren and the creative team stuck around talking to fans until 2:45. Among the information gleaned is that Darren is not planning anything for this summer, nor does he have any immediate plans to star on Broadway (though he does want to in the future). Team StarKid also wants to do more events in the NYC area, perhaps even mount a full production of a musical. Judging by the response tonight, that would be more than welcome!