Madagascar Jr

What better way to spend a Saturday evening taking a musical adventure with some animal friends as they escape from their home in New York’s Central Park Zoo and find themselves on an unexpected journey ending up by accident on the island of Madagascar in the world of King Julien. The show, Madagascar is a Musical adventure Jr from a book by Kevin Del Aguila with original music and lyrics by George Noriega and Joel Someillan, is based on the DreamWorks 2005 animated motion picture of the same name and follows all our favourite characters that we see in the film, who are Alex the lion the king of the urban jungle, the main attraction at New York's Central Park Zoo. He and his best friends Marty the zebra, Melman the giraffe and Gloria the hippo, have spent their whole lives in captivity performing for an admiring audience with all their meals and comforts provided. However, Marty yearns to see what the world is like outside their comfortable safe environment, and would love to explore, so letting his curiosity get the better of him he makes his escape with the help of some tenacious and smart penguins. Worried about Marty, Alex Gloria and Melman brake out of the Zoo and follow Marty, they search for their friend and find him, but they are caught and shot with Tranquilizer guns, but when they wake up, they are locked in crates and on a ship that is taking them to a game reserve. Meanwhile, the Penguins are also on the ship, as they want to go back to their natural home in the Antarctic, they plan to take over the ship. However the consequences of this are that Alex, Marty and their friends are swept overboard and stranded on the island of Madagascar and the kingdom of King Julien, where they meet different animals and have adventures, however Alex finds the vegetarian diet is not right for him and begins to crave meat. He is frightened that he may eat his friends, so he takes himself away from them. The friends find Alex and realise that it’s time to go home to New York and meanwhile the penguins have decided that the Antarctic is too cold for them and want to go home, so they take the ship back to Madagascar and together with Alex and friends they set off for home.

Directed by Jamie Mather assisted by Gemma Briscoe, this was a very entertaining production full of energy and enjoyment where we were treated to wonderful performances and upbeat music, we had no choice but to do as the song says which is to “Move It, Move It!” Jamie had an exceptionally talented cast who were enjoying themselves immensely, a feeling which was also experienced by the audience. I would love to mention everyone in the cast as they all worked together to make this show a success producing some wonderful characters with good comic timing, first-rate acting, good singing and excellent dancing. However, I will mention the names of the principal characters. The four very strong and talented main characters were Alex the lion played by Alex Sheeran, Marty the Zebra was Joel Morley, Gloria the hippo was Erin Oakley and Melman the giraffe was Emily Mayne. We had the lovely comedic Penguins played by Darcy Main as Kowalski, Evieanne Allen as skipper, Mia Beqo as Private and Jasper Simm as Rico. King Julien was played by the talented Megan Lawson who has great stage presence. Then we also have Charlie Geldart as Maurice, Hannah Arnold as Zelda, Ben Auriac as Zeke and Olivia Dutton as Zoe. The chorus of Lemurs and Foosa – a cat like animal which are native to Madagascar, and Lionesses along with various other animals and people were a vital part of this production and performed with energy and precision, while supporting the principal cast superbly. The excellent Choreography was by Beth McClelland and was performed proficiently and superbly both by the dancers and the chorus.

The band led by Musical Director the very talented Marley Ellis-Brennan were outstanding supporting the cast on stage expertly and confidently. The band included Marley Ellis- Brennan - keyboard 1, Daniel Procter- keyboard 2, Benjamin Lawson- guitar and Jess Smith- on Drums.  I also must mention that the indomitable Nancy Wells was rehearsal pianist.

The set was bright and colourful and was a good representation, of the shows tropical island setting. Scene changes were efficient which kept the show running smoothly and at a good pace well-done Stage Manager Sarah Casey and all the backstage crew. There was also very efficient technical input for lighting and sound which added atmosphere and drama to the production. Costumes were bright colourful, and especially important to the success of the production. It was clear, a lot of thought and preparation had gone into getting these costumes exactly right, each animal species was obvious and could be easily identified by the audience. Well done, everybody involved.

I am sure this adventure was a very enjoyable experience for both adults and children, it highlights the importance of friendship and having new experiences. Congratulations to everybody involved in bringing this outstanding production to the stage it was a pleasure to be an audience member, my friend and I really enjoyed our evening with you.

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