In my editing and publication of the Flash Sentry Papers, I have elected to focus primarily on Sentry's account of events (however unreliable and biased his account may be). This said, while I was researching this particular volume, I happened across a review of the play by Pointed Pen, the Canterlot Times' theater critic. I have included his take on the play for completion's sake.
Shaky Bill's The Life and Times of Flash Magnus is a particularly challenging play to stage-- with its high melodrama and jingoistic overtones, a lesser director can easily turn The Life and Times of Flash Magnus into a parody of itself. Often, productions require a twist on the source material to keep it fresh-- one particularly notable production being Curtain Call's gender-flipped The Life and Times of Flash Magna.
In Canter Zoom's upcoming production, the central 'gimmick' is its stunt casting, putting Flash Sentry and Trixie Lulamoon in the central roles of Flash Magnus and Ardent Dale respectively. While it is novel to see two decorated Heroes of Equestria acting in the hoofsteps of their proverbial predecessors, we are lucky their genuine heroism is better than their on-stage imitations thereof. Sentry's take on the legendary hero is unremarkable (if somewhat stilted), but it's Lulamoon's Ardent Dale that stands out (for better or worse). If nothing else, Lulamoon's performance highlights the artifice put into the play's production values. Not only does the scenery looks impressive, it must taste delicious to judge by the way Lulamoon chews on it at every opportunity.
The new, standout twist in this production of The Life and Times of Flash Magnus comes in the final act. In a slight inversion of the Nameless Assassin scene, it is Ardent Dale that rescues Flash Magnus, rather than vice versa. This is accompanied by some of the most realistic fight choreography I've ever seen on stage, though the effect is diminished by the rather obvious use of a stunt double in Lulamoon's place. Amusingly enough, this nameless stunt double (I was unable to find her name in the playbill) has more chemistry with Sentry in just one scene than Lulamoon does in several acts.
Had Zoom embraced this fresh take on the classic (and perhaps allowed that particular stunt-pony to perform the entire duration of the play), this production of The Life and Times of Flash Magnus would be the hottest ticket in town. Unfortunately, as it stands now, I cannot recommend this interpretation of the classic play to anypony. The play has very little to offer anypony who's seen The Life and Times of Flash Magnus before, and those ponies who might be seeing the classic for the fist time would do well to wait for a different production, so as not to turn them off of the works of Shaky Bill forever.
Another sidenote: while I have not been able to track down the exact numbers involved (theatrical accounting being somewhat ... creative, at the best of times), I did verify that this particular production of The Life and Times of Flash Magnus ran for the better part of a year. Whether this is because (or despite of) Sentry's involvement remains up for some debate.
-G.M.F.