My Little Brony: The Musical - pony-loving nerds in heat
12 Apr 2024 - photos by Lissa Bobrow

After decades of consciously cultivating a persona that is a combination of queer sex radical, contrary curmudgeon, and strident non-monogamist, the last thing any of us expected from Sky Gilbert (Greg's Cookies, Inside, Kink Observed, Who's Afraid of Titus?, I Cook, He Does the Dishes, Sad Old Faggot, It's All Tru, The Terrible Parents, To Myself at 28, My Dinner with Casey Donovan, A Few Brittle Leaves, Dancing Queen, Hackerlove, ;The Situationists) was a sweet old-fashioned love story. In the musical form of My Little Brony: The Musical. Not that all is sweetness and light: satirical targets are hit, obsessional foibles are exposed, and the script is very careful to include cocksucking as one of the criteria for romance. But the fumbling attempts of two nerds to connect despite their internalized homophobia, father issues, general geekiness, and cumbersome My Little Pony accessories, is charming. The emotional connection, already primed by online introductions, is quickly established as they meet and experience suppressed lust at first sight. They are immediately best friends. The cocksucking will require divine intervention.

We first meet Graham Conway (The Ding Dong Girls, Peter Pan) as Cecil, an aspiring animator, who incrementally lures us into his obsession with My Little Pony. He also shows us, and explains, his hilarious design for a "new" My Little Pony character, Twilight Sparkle. While his analysis of his daddy complex is questionable—his assessment of the film Equus even more so while being a comically brilliant showcase for Conway—his pronouncement that ponies are preferable to horses because they are babies, cute, and "not sinewy at all" reveals his level of self-delusion. And then a song. We then meet Nathaniel Bacon (Shakespeare's Criminal, Saving Hope, Hedwig and the Angry Inch, My Dinner with Casey Donovan, St Francis of Millbrook, Sherlock and Watson: Behind Closed Doors, Bent, Queer Idol) as Maxim, a computer programmer with a healthy ego about his intelligence and a complete lack of faith in his ability to be attractive to another human being. As Maxim notes, "All the people you used to make fun of are now running the world." And then a song, "Algorithms," that expands his theories in amusing ways. In the intimate space of The Epochal Imp, their vocals are under intense scrutiny. Neither miss a note or overemote even when nailing a sustained high note that requires cheeky bombast and a certain restraint, due to the proximity of the audience.

Both Conway and Bacon are delightful. We are invited to laugh with them instead of at them, and their love of a cartoon that posits that "Friendship is magic" is magic. Conway is an energetic and flamboyant twink, who just needs to accept  and own it, while Bacon is a hand-wringing twitchy mass of insecurities masquerading as a braggart. Bacon uses, except when singing, a very low register of bottled up testosterone that takes on a creepy dimension during their first quarrel, a cautionary after school special about taking rides from first dates. They both sing and dance with grace and style but never break character, not even when basking in the inevitable applause. That is the sole quibble with My Little Brony: The Musical, the musical numbers by Gilbert and Stewart Borden (Musings, Music & TRANSmeditations, The Case of the Golden Purse) are so contagiously catchy and fun, that many more would be warranted. Demanded. Cecil and Maxim's initial circling of each other is a tango of thwarted desires begging to be sung, Cecil's side of the road lament is a tortured ballad, Maxim's jealous fury would make a delicious patter or bitter blues number, etc. There is a note at the bottom of the program that this version of My Little Brony is a "first draft" that Gilbert and Borden hope to develop into a "full length piece." I would vote yes, this brisk and entertaining 75 minutes has whetted my appetite.

The program also deliberately excludes one vital piece of information. I am loathe to divulge it in case it is a spoiler. Suffice it to say that there is a deus ex machina that stars a character from elsewhere in the Gilbertverse. Yes, like Marvel, DC and Stephen King, Gilbert has been prolific enough for characters to take on lives of their own and wander into other productions. In this case it is a previously questionable character artfully used, essayed by a beloved and benevolent performer who is deadpan comic perfection, sweet as arsenic-laced angel cookies. Gilbert is a clever lyric writer and the songs propel the narrative forward while carefully echoing key points from the plot and characters. The melodies could stand on their own as pop songs, but are most interesting when they subvert or gently parody the Broadway format. Much mileage is milked out of Borden beginning a song cue before being silenced with a look or mimed throat slash (we usually wish it had blossomed into another number). My Little Brony wallows in the romantic saccharine that is a musical love story, but is astute enough to not let it be quicksand. Gilbert's writing is tight and focussed. A joke that lands with a thud, is then picked up, repurposed, pummelled and punned, repeated to escalating laughter, before becoming a brilliant and nasty punchline that scores in context and linguistically. Turns out that two pony-loving nerds in heat can melt the most jaded of hearts. Friendship is magic and so is My Little Brony.