In 1995, there was a stage show featuring the Power Rangers (Tommy, Kim, Billy, Aisha, Adam and Rocky). I heard about this when it came out, but I never saw it because they didn't come to my town. Cities where performances took place include San Diego, California, Baltimore, MD, Toronto, Ontario, Denver, Colorado, Cincinnati, Ohio, San Antonio, Texas, Philadelphia New Haven, Connecticut, and New York City at Radio City Music Hall. It only had the voices of the actors, everything was in suit, combined with video of Zordon, a newcaster and footage of the Megazords. It is very much like Super Sentai stage productions, except they dont' use video and when the series is about to end, they have the real cast do a special performance. Here is an overview of the video of the stageshow:
The story is fairly simple, Zedd's palace lands on Earth and releases his new monster Lumintor, The Fire Lion and kidnaps the Yellow and Black Rangers. Like the Super Sentai stage shows, the costumes are really minimized. The Ranger helmets are even of lesser quality. We see Alpha in the Command Center with Zordon in video and then we see the taller and bigger headed version on stage. We occasionally see a news reporter in the video as well.
Zedd's palace lands on Earth and for some reason, two alien beings try to open it. They say they are drawn to it, it is assumed they never met Zedd before--judging by their dialogue but they have giant Zs on their chests. They remind me a bit of Brickneck form Time Force. Lord Zedd's suit looks almost the same as the real one except no blue veins and his neck is thicker (probably because it is a bigger mask to fit anyone). Zedd states his plan. Rita, for some reason is in a purple outfit. For people who do not know,
in promotional stuff, Rita was in a purple and pink outfit. She does mention causally almost at the end that she has a 'new gown.' But her young appearance is not mentioned. She is shrunk twice and thrown to the Moon. And in one part, she acts drunk, once she 'landed from the moon.'
Goldar is more obvious his costume is much simple and his face is fatter. Much like in the Mutiny two-parter, he is against Rita. It is unclear if Zedd and Rita are married. In fact, Zedd acts more like his 'terrifying' persona than his later softer personality. Above is a picture of one of the 'Z' aliens. The Z-putties remained mostly unchanged. They are used for comic relief as well.
Squatt and Baboo look the strangest in their simplified forms. Baboo actually looks much more hellish. In the original Super Sentai Zyuranger, the costume was a human face with make-up, but this was a mask. Unlike season 2, Squatt and Baboo are used much more in this show, much like they were in Season 1. They are left in charge of Adam and Aisha when they are kidnapped.
Luminor the fire lion may not be much to look at. He is an original creation and not from Super Sentai. He also goes against Lord Zedd's sthick which was to make monsters out of existing items or animals. It is not mentioned exactly how he created it. Of course, the monster is hyped up throughout the show. When the Rangers fight him, they say they can't touch him because they will be burned. Three times are the kids in the audience asked to do something to defeat a villain. This one is to be defeated with rain, so they ask the kids to yell for rain.
There is another monster, this one made out of pieces constructed by Goldar, Baboo, Squatt and the Putties. Adam and Aisha know how to defeat it but since they are turned into cockatoos, they can't communicate with the Rangers. They do manage to say one word so they say 'Hollow' and 'Sound.' Saba the talking saber is actually used in this show and he communicates with the two and tell the Rangers to defeat the monster with sounds. The kids are asked to make a lot of noise in order to dismantle this one.
As I mentioned before, Aisha and Adam were turned into birds. Firstly, they were turned into monkeys by Zedd, real life monkeys, while these birds were clearly puppets. Maybe this was the inspiration to turn Bulk and Skull into monkeys for Turbo? Since Rocky, Aisha and Adam came late into the game, I doubt they could really have their personalities shine through in this one. Rocky is barely used, Adam and Aisha remain without much personality, but they use the real actor's voices, so it does add to personality. Billy does use his smarts, where in the movie he didn't. The most embarrassing part of the show is the 'Megazord' battle. It was just Lumintor on stage with smoke coming out and the Megazords on the screen. Basically it was the Thunder Megazord and Tigerzord doing their attacks and being attacked. It would have been nice to see Megazord costumes. Oh yeah, and in the end we get a big Lord Zedd balloon (he became 'giant') and he is defeated---not destroyed, he goes back to the moon. All together, the show was mildly entertaining.
I got the video at
Power Ranger Planet.
I didn't know about this movie, I just found out about it today. It came out in 2007 straight to DVD and is about a deranged fan of a fictional show that was like Batman/Power Rangers and he kidnaps them to make an last episode of his favorite show. It starred Brian O'Halloran (Clerks and Clerks 2) and Jason David Frank. Funny enough, Jason David Frank dressed in purple spandex, not Red, Green, Black or White. His character's name was even Tommy! I haven't seen it but I heard it was funny. I am surprised David even agreed to do it, probably because it was a parody of a show similar to one he was on.
