by Sarah Becker
Members of the cast of Madagascar
The art of good theatre lies in its ability to transport the audience into another world.
“Madagascar the Musical” achieved just that, especially for the children who attended the show at Northampton’s Royal & Derngate. They clearly loved it.
They were ‘transfurred’ into the world of Marty the zebra, (Francisco Gomes), Alex the lion, (Joseph Hewlett) King Julien (Karim Zeroual) , king of the lemurs, Gloria (Jarneia Richard-Noel) the hippopotamus and Melman the giraffe (Joshua Oakes-Rogers) and a whole host of other animal characters including a gang of puppet penguins.
The animal adventures began when Marty the zebra, tired of life in the zoo, desired to experience the wild which led him and his friends into adventures beginning in New York City and ending on the African island of Madagascar.
Let’s ‘gaze’ at the positives.
CBBC TV presenter and ex Strictly star, Karim Zeroual stole the show when he appeared on stage after the interval – slightly diminished in stature if not in stage presence as King Julian, king of the lemurs. He was on his knees throughout, yet still managed to bust some cool moves.
The song, ‘I like to move it’, lifted the show to another level – the energy in the room rose, so did the children on the seats behind in and front, who put down their hariboes, ice creams and slushies, to sing and dance along.
Karim’s facial expressions were also very charismatic, and he boogied around the floor with a certain breeziness gained from months of touring the show, I was told later by a cast member.
The animal characters’ personality traits were fun and enjoyable to watch; Francisco Gomes and Joseph Hewlett captured Marty and Alex’s chemistry and portrayed their friendship well, with more characters introduced throughout the first act.
I asked a handful of children in the audience who their favourite characters were and their loyalties were split quite evenly among the different characters.
The clever set design by Tom Rogers was effective at transforming the stage into locations ranging from a zoo, to New York City to a cargo ship.
The puppetry in the show was a hit with the children particularly the penguins.
The way the actors blended parts of their characters into the puppets was interesting to watch.
I couldn’t help but wonder if a human ensemble of singing and dancing penguins or lemurs would have added a certain pizzazz and increased the overall vibrancy of the show. The show needed a certain ‘je-ne-sais-quoi’ to be a complete hit. Although the puppetry was deftly handled by the cast, the puppetry didn’t evoke an emotional response in the audience.
At times I couldn’t fully hear the dialogue which meant I couldn’t appreciate the animals’ characters fully.
At the end of the show, some of the audience; adults and children were invited onto the stage to mingle with the some member of the human animal cast and have their photos taken, which went down a storm. The vibrant costumes were even more eye-catching up close and the actors were warm and good fun, making the experience a real treat.
All in all, Madagascar The Musical was a fun-filled night of humour and great set design.
The children loved seeing their favourite characters on stage and were all up and dancing at the end as they were invited to party along to
“I like to move it, move it.”
