Based on the smash DreamWorks animated motion picture, Madagascar – The Musical follows all of your favourite crack-a-lackin’ friends as they escape from their home in New York’s Central Park Zoo and find themselves on an unexpected journey to the madcap world of King Julien’s Madagascar.
Starring X Factor winner Matt Terry as Alex the Lion, Antoine Murray-Straughan as Marty the Zebra, Timmika Ramsay as Hip-Hop Hippo, Gloria, Jamie Lee-Morgan as hypochondriac Giraffe, Melman, the simply wonderful Jo Parsons as King Julien and those hilarious, plotting penguins – they all bound onto the stage in the musical adventure of a lifetime. Filled with outlandish characters, adventure galore and an upbeat score, you’ll have no choice but to “Move It, Move It!”
Since winning X-Factor, Matt has been non-stop. He’s been recording music all over the world including Miami, LA and Scandinavia. After a top three hit with Ed Sheeran penned winner’s single When Christmas Comes Around, he released his debut album “Trouble” in November 2017. His first single from the album, Sucker For You has had nearly 60 million streams on Spotify. After Sucker For You, Matt went back to his Spanish childhood by featuring on Enrique Iglesias’s smash single, Subeme La Radio, alongside Sean Paul.
Matt’s role in Madagascar has been hailed as a triumphant debut theatre performance and he has received 5 star reviews right across the tour. Before the matinee performance, I got to speak with Matt and I asked him…
Is Madagascar the Musical as much fun to be in as it looks?
Oh yeah, absolutely, it’s just the most incredible thing ever. I’m having such an amazing time touring with the show. The audiences have been fantastic and I’m so excited to be staying with the company to tour into 2019. The show brings together everything you will know and love from the Dreamworks film with an immense score and amazing sets, costumes and puppets. It’s an awesome night out for the whole family.
How did you manage the transition from your music career to playing Alex the Lion?
They are two completely different worlds, but I have always loved to challenge myself and so to find myself playing a part that’s not me is really amazing. It’s really good. I do get some really good songs for my character so it’s not like I’m not singing. but I’m singing as Alex the Lion instead of as Matt Terry.
People don’t know that I trained in musical theatre before I ended up on the X-Factor. I just wanted to sing. I was in the final selection for Thriller Live, The Book of Mormon and Kinky Boots, I was so close. And then I fell into the X-Factor and that went really well but now I’m back to my roots.
How difficult is it to recreate an animated character that is so well known?
You know what, it really wasn’t that difficult. I feel like we had a brilliant team to help us and guide us in the right direction to make sure that we stay faithful to the original Dreamworks creations, but with a bit of our personalities in there too. It took a lot of practice, and we are are still learning along the way, and we have ended up with the great show that we have now.
How hot does it get inside that fantastic lion costume?
It is boiling. It’s just so hot you wouldn’t believe it. We are just constantly sweaty. We lose so much weight that we just have to keep on eating every day. The dancing is really fast and tough so we get loads of exercise too, but that just makes us hotter. I’m in the show until next June, but it may go international after that, so I’ve got a lot more sweaty nights to come too.
And what happens to your music career while you’re being Alex?
I’m still gigging, that kind of thing, I think I will need to start album touring at some point too, so let’s see how we can fit that in. We’ll see, it’s been quite easy up until now, but obviously Madagascar the Musical is a bit full on. I’ve still been in the studio and writing, so there should be some news soon.
This wacky adventure for the whole family is brought to life by Selladoor Family, the producers behind James And The Giant Peach, Seussical and The Owl And The Pussycat and Hartshorn – Hook, producers of the Olivier Award winning Rotterdam, Murder Ballad, Urinetown and American Idiot. Madagascar – The Musical is directed by award winning Kirk Jameson with choreography from Fabian Aloise. Designed by Tom Rogers, with Lighting design by Howard Hudson, Sound Design by Chris Whybrow, Musical Supervision from Mark Crossland, Puppet design by Max Humphries and Puppet Direction from Emma Brunton.
Madagascar the Musical appears at the Theatre Royal Brighton from Tuesday 4th – Saturday 8th December before returning to the region to appear at the Congress Theatre, Eastbourne from Tuesday 14th to Saturday 18th May 2019. For full tour and booking details visit www.madagascarthemusical.co.uk