Graham Conway and Nathaniel Bacon in ‘My Little Brony’, image provided by the company
Though I’ve never watched My Little Pony, save for random clips, and I’m not particularly knowledgable about the “brony” fandom, I think I… get it. Adult men identifying with a fanciful cartoon about the friendship adventures of anthropomorphized ponies is a notion that appeals to me. Sky Gilbert’s latest, using this phenomenon as a backdrop, is a quaint little venture called My Little Brony: The Musical.
Like his Greg’s Cookies back in the fall, this is presented in the Epochal Imp on the Danforth. To prime patrons for rainbow revels, Skittles and unicorn headbands are left out on tables. I’m always down for candy and campy accessories, so I indulged. You’d expect sight lines to be a bigger issue in the narrow bar venue, but the considerate blocking gives all a chance to experience the whole affair reasonably well.
Cecil (Graham Conway) is a sensitive, artistic young man whose father doesn’t understand him at all. With giddy, manic enthusiasm he tells us about his unhappy home life and how his obsession with My Little Pony has given him comfort and purpose. Clutching his sketchbook, he shows us a drawing of a pony character he invented (Prism Bashful, great name!) and reveals his dream of becoming an animator.
Maximillian (Nathaniel Bacon) is equally intense, but his attitude towards us is guarded, pragmatic, his voice clipped. He’s a computer programmer and he wants us to know how the algorithms he designs control our lives and how much smarter his is than all of us. People and their emotions are nebulous to him until he meets Cecil.
The very simple, clichéd story is about how these two nerdy, eccentric misfits find meaning in the brony fandom, meet at a convention and have to work through their feelings for each other. Spoiler alert: they’re gay. That’s where this is leading. I don’t think that’s much of a surprise because all the signposts are florescent and this is, after all, Sky Gilbert.
Milking the campy, self-awareness for all its worth, Conway and Bacon are genuinely endearing. Their heightened sincerity punctuates Gilbert’s arch, storybook dialogue, making their interactions very charming. Most of this plays out, quite obviously, like a children’s cartoon. And there is something sort of… well, magical about it all.
David Benjamin Tomlinson makes an ethereal appearance as the Beach Boy blond and winged Greg from Greg’s Cookies. In this extended universe, it seems he’s the patron saint of all things gay. After a fight leaves Cecil stranded and Maximillian sobbing in his car, Greg guides them towards their reconciliation and eventual coming out. Tomlinson is hilarious. His dogged patience during a phone call where he can barely get a word in is a comic highlight of the show.
The songs aren’t particularly memorably, but Gilbert’s lyrics and Stewart Borden’s music work well enough in context. They certainly have a suitably musical theatre flavour. It helps considerably that Bacon and Conway’s vocals sell the numbers with zeal.
I enjoyed myself all the way through this 80-minute piece, but found the story, ultimately, limp and tiresome. I don’t think Gilbert’s intention is to have these characters represent the whole brony fandom, but his narrative does sort of posit the culture as a gateway to gayness—that My Littles Ponies are what closeted or vulnerable men can bond over until they feel safe to come out. I’ve no doubt there is some truth there—that the gentle, feelings-forward phenomenon can be a haven—it just seems reductive here and flattens the expansive and nuanced potential of intimate male connection.
Not that gay bronies aren’t, y’know, a hot concept. I don’t think this tame and sugary coming out storyline is the most interesting version of that. Imagine the SEXY DRAMA if this went to an edgier, raunchier, wilder place with that concept.