The Wizard of Crossovers

Courtesy of Parodybill

Craig Feldman won’t dispense courage or brains, but the man behind Parodybill’s curtain certainly has heart.

Preferring to stay slightly anonymous, Craig and his partner (in marriage and in parodies) Victor Maze often don’t talk about what goes into making the delightful mashups of Broadway, pop culture and art.

But as they celebrate two years of parodies today, Craig spoke exclusively with The Delta Nus about Parodybills’ origins, what comes next and why they love doing what they do.

“We're very careful with the elements that we put out there because clearly, it's all parody,” Craig said via the phone Wednesday evening (because apparently not all theatre lovers live in New York). “The art that we do is intended to be out of love and respect, so you'll never see us do anything that's too tongue-in-cheek.”

Going commercial was never the intent for them, but when fans started to ask for their art, they learned how to make it into a side business while still respecting the community, trademarks and copyrights.

“We work hard to create clever mashups of Broadway musical poster art that we hope will resonate well with fans,” said Craig, who is originally from New York and grew up on theater. “I was looking for a way to be connected to the community … and so this is my little corner of the world that I have carved out.”

Now, as they celebrate Parodybills’ second anniversary, Craig and Victor are excited for what the future holds.

“There's a never ending source of content to connect to,” Craig said, marvelling at the uniqueness of a fan community that equally celebrates a diverse range of musicals. “Every six months, the Broadway community rallies around some brand new set of properties … (and) comes together around the wildest variety of themes.”

COME WHAT MAY FROM AWAY

Coming up with the idea is the hardest part of Parodybill.

And the ones that make it past divorce and beheading, well, they make it (adjacent) to Broadway.

“We're very particular about making sure that the parody itself is clever,” Craig said. “We try to make sure that when we are going to create some artwork around something that it would actually make sense, more or less.”

Now, as spring musical season kicks off, they are workshopping ideas among themselves and their friends about how to tackle shows like Six: The Musical and Company.

“We sit around, come up with some ideas, look at song titles, look at other shows that are opening this season and try to come up with the concepts of where they could cross over into something that would make sense, that would be fun to do and that we think people would really like,” Craig said. “And then we narrow those down into a shortlist and then start prioritizing based on when the show is opening so we can try and be relevant.”

From there, it can take anywhere from a few hours to a couple of weeks to make the graphics, depending on his passion for the project and whatever is happening in his life or day job (which is not graphic design).

Although there is now a loose process to digging for parody gems, the origin story was quite spontaneous.

DEFYING GRAVITY IS A VERY GOOD PLACE TO START

Craig and Victor were flying home to Orlando from D.C. in autumn 2017 after watching Mean Girls and listening to the Dear Evan Hansen cast album when a thought struck them...what would a crossover between those two shows look like?

Would it be Dear Cady Heron?

When they got home, Craig got in front of his computer and made some sketches and layouts.

And thus Parodybill began.

“It started out to be just a fun tribute to the theatrical community,” Craig said. “Just something fun that we wanted to do and put it out there. Over time it got a lot more solidified and has become kind of a fun fan-favorite Broadway-adjacent fan-art brand.”

Although that is the “official” origin story, Parodybill actually goes a long way back, in a galaxy far, far away (Long Island)...

See, Craig’s maternal grandmother received the first iteration of Parodybill as birthday presents. 

“Parodybill has kind of been in my blood since I was a kid,” he said. “Whenever it was a family member’s birthday, I used to make them custom parodies.”

This is before his current tools -- Adobe Illustrator or Adobe Photoshop (or any of the Adobe Creative Suite for that matter) -- existed and so Craig got creative with his process.

“I used to do it in the most rudimentary way possible by cutting out pictures and then photocopying them onto other pictures,” he said with a laugh. “It was horrible. They came out terrible.”

But the concept was there. After she died, Craig found these mementos he had made among her things.

“It’s kind of neat to go back and reclaim these artifacts that you could trace the genesis of Parodybill back to,” he added. “It’s a fun to look through this Instagram account and see that it’s kind of always been a part of my life.”

SUDDENLY SOMETHING NOT SO ROTTEN

Parodybill has also been an opportunity to collaborate and give back to the theatre community.

A regular at BroadwayCon since Parodybill’s inception two years ago, they also attend the annual Florida Thespian Festival, a theatre festival for high school students across the state.

“As amazing as the Broadway community is in New York, it is sometimes even cooler to be with the younger generation who is so passionate about it yet geographically disconnected,” Craig said. 

He and Victor have also started working with Scenery Bags, which upcycles theatrical waste (backdrops, curtains, stages, props, etc.) into bags, and anyone who has gone to see “The Office! A Musical Parody” off-Broadway at the Jerry Orbach Theatre might notice that the “playbill” is in fact a Parodybill.

Craig said a team from “The Office!” reached out shortly after Parodybill was formed and wanted to collaborate on that and two other parody productions (Friends and Love, Actually).

“That was, I think, one of the biggest surprises I got so early on,” he said. “Other people saw it as more than I ever thought it could be.”

He said it is still wild to see photos on Instagram of people holding their programs and knowing that it’s a Parodybill product. And since this is a fun hobby and not their livelihood, Craig and Victor donate a portion of their profits to Broadway Cares Equity Fights AIDs.

“It's truly a fun way to connect with the arts community that we love,” Craig said. “It's amazing the people I never would have met otherwise, if this didn't exist.”