Live My Little Pony show enthralls children at Show Me Center

If a My Little Pony Live! show had rolled through the Show Me Center 20 years ago, Lisa Ham of Scott City probably would have been there.

Ham has a love of My Little Pony cultivated through two generations, starting with her daughter Jessica and continuing with her 6-year-old granddaughter Diamond.

"I definitely remember My Little Pony," Ham said before the show, decked out in a pink feather boa and a sparkly tiara, a toy microphone with a glowing tip in her hand. Jessica, now 23 and living in Benton, also remembers -- she was a fan of the big-eyed, pastel cartoon ponies when she was a child, as her daughter Diamond is now.

Friday night all three generations were at the Show Me Center, watching the first of four My Little Pony Live! shows taking place this weekend at the venue.

Parents, grandparents, toddlers too young to walk and children just old enough for school -- 797 in all -- turned out to view the colorful 90-minute interactive musical, a touring show based on characters from the popular My Little Pony cartoons, brought to life by dancers in pony costumes.

The characters were first introduce to children in 1982, and have since enjoyed a resurgence in popularity.

The narrative of the show, called "The World's Biggest Tea Party," follows a group of the ponies as they try to put together the biggest tea party ever. Characters with names like Sweetberry (a pink pony who owns a bakery), Thistle Whistle (a flying blue-green pony), Minty (a clumsy green pony) and Spike (a sophisticated purple dragon) took turns singing songs about playing and being happy. They received joyful responses from children like Diamond, who told her mother on the way to the show that she was "so excited I'm just shaking."

Some children sat in their seats, eyes glued to the stage, while others stood up dancing and waving at the stage, and the three ladybug characters with sparkling purple hearts on their pink shells that periodically left the stage and played with audience members. Diamond stood in her seat, sometimes holding up her pony toy (the pink pony known as Pinky Pie), sometimes waving her lighted microphone in the air.

For the adults in the audience, there were many other ways they could have spent a Friday evening, but Bob and Lawana of Perryville, Mo., like the Hams, were getting their own entertainment watching their granddaughter, 4-year-old Jasmine French, enjoy seeing one of her favorite cartoons come to life.

The Bells brought Jasmine to the tea party as an early birthday present -- she'll turn 5 this month. Lawana also remembers My Little Pony from when her own daughter was a child, and said Jasmine plays with her mother's My Little Pony toys saved from childhood.

If the Bells weren't at the show, they'd be at home watching the St. Louis Cardinals play baseball on TV. Instead, they're bonding with their granddaughter.

"We knew this was something she'd like," Lawana said.

msanders@semissourian.com

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