When you think of Harry Potter, what comes to mind? Muggles? Mudbloods? Magic? Mischief managed? Man on man action? At the center on Saturday night, I had my understanding of Harry Potter expanded somewhat.

Hogwart’s Express: the musical is a retelling and reworking of the Harry Potter story with dance numbers, lip-synching and adorable actors in drag. It tells the story of Harry, Ron and Hermione getting accepted to Hogwarts, and making the journey there. At Hogwarts Harry falls deeply in love with a confused Ron and battle Draco Malfoy for his affections. Meanwhile, they form the Hogwart’s Gay-Straight alliance and engage in political issues. All the while the cast dances and lip synchs to songs like “Magic” (from Xanadu), “Wind Beneath My Wings,” or “Lean On Me.”

I laughed and cheered throughout the entire performance. Check their MySpace page for upcoming shows, or check out this brief clip on YouTube if you’re curious.

The second show of the night was Micia Mosely’s “Soul Selections,” which was her one-woman show (with outstanding audience participation) about African-American Lesbian speed-dating. Micia plays herself as the host, but also her three friends that she is testing the idea of speed dating out with. Audience volunteers come up on stage and go on very publc dates with these characters.

The audience also had a chance to write first-date questions for the volunteers to ask. The first question of the night set the scene perfectly: Micia was playing Ziggy, a very academic woman who is too much in her own head and examines every problem in terms of it’s socio-cultural significance. The audience volunteer (who was lovely, but I can’t for the life of me remember her name) drew a question from the pile of slips the audience has contributed and asked: “When was the last time you fisted someone?”

The entire audience leaned forward and shock and errupted in laughter. And we kept laughing and hooting and clapping until the very end of the brilliantly insightful show.