Darren Criss Talks GLEE Tour, Potter Musical, and More!

By: Apr. 18, 2011
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Currently starring as Kurt's new love interest in FOX's mega-hit GLEE, Darren Criss recently chatted with Billboard about everything from his humble beginnings to his current gig. When asked about preparing for GLEE's summer tour, Criss commented: "Everything is so much bigger than myself, it's hard to comprehend. A year ago, I was so psyched that my first show in L.A. was at the Troubadour. I grew up dreaming of playing the Troubadour one day. Talk about so much for baby steps. It's like, "Wait -- Staples Center, are you kidding me?" I was happy to drive around in a beat-up, crappy old van with my bandmates and just go to small clubs around the country."

On starring in viral Youtube hit 'A Very Potter Musical,' he added: "The day we put it on YouTube was the day my life turned completely upside down. There was a completely unanticipated, bizarre reaction where we fell ass-backward into this phenomenon of the Harry Potter fan community. Within a week we had like the No. 1 viewed video in 50 countries. We thought, "We have an audience -- we should start a production company." We put my "Human" EP out at the same time as the StarKid albums ["Me and My Dick" and "A Very StarKid Album"], so we had three albums charting in a year. I think the record labels were like, "What? How is this happening? Who are these kids?" It's a testament to what's possible in our generation. Case in point, Rebecca Black."

As for how he became interested in musical theatre, Criss commented "For me, it was Disney. I remember seeing people's reaction to "Aladdin" and thinking, "Oh, man, I want to be a genie when I grow up!" Robin Williams is a pretty big character in San Francisco. I was like, "I want to do whatever that guy does. What does he do, Mom? He's an actor? OK, I want to do that." I was all over the map, musically. I had all the "Les [Miserables]" and Andrew Lloyd Webber records, and I was a kid growing up in the '90s, so [I listened to] whatever pop was out at the time."

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