The ‘My Little Pony’ re-imagination has hit the geek community by storm. Everyone raves of its clever plots, amazing animation, great voice acting and beautiful message. There is no doubt about it…Bronies and Pegasisters FTW!
But let’s remember. It IS a kid’s show. So when I find a live action stage performance featuring 3 performers in pony costumes at a town fair, I totally understand! The kids probably adored this! Twilight Sparkle, Rainbow Dash and Applejack singing and talking about friendship! So cute!
I find the youtube comments sad though. There is a very large number of people who dis this performance as childish (duh!) and low quality. I’m sorry, but this wasn’t cheap. Read more of my theatrical viewpoints after the jump!
From a technical theatre standpoint, there are about 50 LED lighting instruments in the air and 4 gigantic monitor wedges on the apron of the stage, not including the speakers being used to project to the audience in an outdoor setting. This is not low quality stuff. This is not CHEAP. And those costumes. Ok…they don’t have necks. Their backlegs kinda just hang there. Applejack doesn’t have a cowboy hat. But the faces look right, that material is decent quality, and to engineer that body is NOT CHEAP. We’re transforming one person into a freaking pony! The cheapest thing is the set…but I’ve done these festival shows. It’s concert style and it’s all about the sound and the performers. Not the set. And then let’s include how much they had to pay for rehearsals for the performers and how much they’re paying the techs to work costumes and run lights and sound.
Trust me, this is by no means cheap. If you consider how much the entire MYP: FIM franchise is making, sure…I guess it’s not a lot of money. But I haven’t seen this performance being done like Sesame Street Live (a huge touring kids show that plays big stadiums and theatres). This is a low budget, community friendly performance. I think they got a lot of bang for their buck!
And if you think the costumes are scary, at least they look a step up from these guys. Cosplayers FTW, but these are some creepy MLP furries…
AMEN! The man hours making those costumes alone! Kill me.