Manchester Palace Theatre – until 18 August 2018
Reviewed by Lottie Davis-Browne Date
4****
Following in the footsteps of Dreamworks “Shrek” which was reworked into a well-loved stage musical, the latest screen-to-stage adaptation comes from Dreamworks 2005 movie Madagascar, from the team at Selladoor.
Telling the tale of a group of unlikely friends at New York’s Central Park Zoo; hypochondriac Melvin (Jamie Lee-Morgan) the Giraffe, Marty the Zebra (Antoine Murray-Straughan), the hip and funky hippo Gloria (Timmika Ramsey), and the pride of Central Park Zoo, Alex the Lion (X-Factor’ 2016 Winner Matt Terry), whom upon celebrating Marty’s tenth birthday, he (Marty) begins to wonder what life is like outside the zoo and dreams of living “in the wild”. Marty’s thoughts are distracted by the zoos penguins (Skipper, Rico, Kowalski and Private) who are secretly planning their very own great escape. Marty then decides to follow them and escape and is shortly pursued by the rest of his friends.
Soon the animals are causing havoc in Grand Central Station, but Alex – not realising humans do not understand animals – is mistaken for an aggressive dangerous animal and is shot with a tranquilliser gun and his friends rounded up into shipping crates on a boat to be transferred to a zoo. But it isn’t long until disaster strikes and the friends end up washed up on a beach – in what they presume is another zoo, that is until they meet a conspiracy of lemurs, who inform them that they are indeed in the wild – the “wipe yourself with a leaf” type of wild. I won’t spoil the rest of the story as I am sure most people have seen the animated movie of Madagascar, but what I will say is that the story remains true to the original movie with similar running times (a total of 1 hour and 50 minutes – perfect for younger children which of course this production is particularly aimed at).
The main stage set comprises of stacked wooden shipping crates which Central Parks Zoo to the tropical island of Madagascar, with the island of Madagascar being the main story setting comprising of palm trees and the distant sound of the ocean.
What really makes this production stand out and memorable are the fantastic costumes and puppets – from the lovable penguins which are so cleverly done you soon fail to notice the talented puppeteers, but particularly Melman the Giraffe (Jamie Lee-Morgan – an experienced puppeteer, having been the head puppeteer for Joey, the horse in War Horse, as well as the Giant in James and The Giant Peach) and the somewhat comical costumes (giving Matt Terry an impressive six-pack as Alex the Lion) and the voluptuous Gloria the hippo. There’s plenty of child friendly humour throughout and although at first I was surprised at how quick Act One was over, I recalled the movie running time and found that the two are similar but found this refreshing as compared to some other musicals I have seen that has young children as the target audience, it was great to have one that did not have such a long running time as I know how younger children can struggle to stay awake for evening performances that run well past their bed times.
The songs – other than the popular “I Like To Move It” from the original movie were less memorable, with the only other stand out song being “Best Friends” – a duet between Alex and Marty. The audience – myself included – particularly loved dancing along to “I Like To Move It” – with King Julien (Jo Parsons) providing the majority of the laugh-out-loud moments, even adding some “flossing” into his dance routines as he showed Manchester how to “Move It!”
Matt Terry is loveable as Central Park Zoos’ most popular animal resident, proving that not only can he sing, but he can act and dance – all whilst wearing a tight fitting lion costume and huge lion feet! I particularly loved Lee-Morgan as the over thinking, over worrying Giraffe – probably because I saw a lot of myself in his character, but it was Parsons as King Julien who really won the hearts of the audience, bringing in so many side-splitting moments as the eccentric King of the Lemurs.
The show is fast-paced, high energy and laughs-a-plenty making it the perfect treat for the long Summer Holidays.