Nottingham Theatre Royal – until Saturday 27th July 2024
Reviewed by Louise Ford
3***
Move it, Move it!
The musical of Madagascar looks to reproduce on stage the first Dreamworks’ film which came out in 2005. It’s a tough ask to condense down the film to well under two hours on stage, especially when you add in the songs and the dance routines.
The opening scene is in New York Central Zoo and some of the four spoiled animals aren’t quite as content with their life behind bars, as others. A birthday wish by Marty, the zebra, played by Francisco Gomes, leads to the team leaving the zoo and being ship wrecked in Madagascar. The first half is a little confusing and the link between the penguins’escape plan and the four animals ending up in crates isn’t very clear. But hey we are talking about a melancholic zebra on a running machine ,so anything is possible!
The four main characters Alex (Joseph Hewlett), Melman (Joshua Oakes-Rogers), Gloria (Jarneia Richard-Noel) and Marty all work well together and move the story along. One of the best bits is when Alex and Marty duet about their unbreakable friendship and how they will stick together. However in Act 2 when Alex gets hungry and isn’t happy eating seaweed he starts to dream about eating steaks and ends up with his jaws on Marty’s (ample) rump! So maybe their friendship won’t last !
The pace hots up in the second half when the team arrive on the island paradise. They are greeted by a mix of furry creatures. Alex helps save some of the smaller animals from the fossa and is feted by King Julian (Karin Zeroual). Everyone is joining in with ”I like to move it!“
The staging is imaginative and the lighting really helps to create a smooth transition from New York to the jungle in Madagascar.
The whole cast worked so hard but special mention has to go to the chorus who had so many different roles, from zoo keepers, penguin puppets, police officers, grandmas, monkey puppets and of course the lemur puppets. The puppets were designed by Emma Brunton and directed by Darren Johnson.
Tonight’s audience was,not surprisingly, very young and they were all very excited and enthusiastic. What an excellent way to start the long summer holidays. All hail the New York Giants!