The original Dreamworks film franchise of Madagascar was a huge success, generating over two billion pounds for the studio, and now the hugely popular computer generated characters come to life on the Congress Theatre stage in the superbly colourful, laugh-a minute show – Madagascar the Musical.
Staying faithful to the original, uncomplicated, storyline, the characters start off by introducing themselves to the crowd watching the show at the New York Zoo. Marty the Zebra (Antoine Murray-Straughan) is the first of the main characters to take centre stage, and he wastes no time in showing off some wordy raps and some really nifty dance moves as well.
Gloria (Played at this performance by Jessica Niles, due to the indisposition of Timmika Ramsay) uses her superbly soulful voice to let us know that she is a hip-hop hippo and Melman the hypochondriac Giraffe (Jamie Lee-Morgan) arrives in a wheelchair to explain why he won’t be entertaining us – in a very entertaining way!
X-Factor winner Matt Terry, making his stage debut, uses his wonderfully crisp and clear voice to introduce his character, Alex the Lion, and, throughout the show, he really excels vocally – with some fabulous falsetto lines included in the eclectic mix of musical numbers that he performs so well.
After the zoo show is over we learn that Marty is unhappy with the sanitised life inside the zoo and, as it is his birthday, he wishes that he could visit “The Wild”. When he overhears the penguins talking about an escape plan a chain of events is set in motion which culminates in all of the previously mentioned animals being shipped to a wildlife reserve in Kenya – yes, even the penguins.
Of course, Africa is not the most natural habitat for penguins so, as the sequence of events gets more and more unlikely, the four penguins, Skipper (Shane McDaid), Kowalski (Laura Johnson), Private (Darren John) and Rico (Victoria Boden), take over the ship and, while turning wildly towards the south, manage to tip our four heroes over the edge and into the ocean.
The lush vegetation that is added to the set in the interval shows us that Alex, Marty, Gloria and Melman are no longer on the ship, but have been safely washed ashore on the island of Madagascar. There is very little in the way of story to take us through the second act, but it is here that we meet Maud, a seriously cute baby Lemur, Lars (Matthew Pennington) another of the Madagascan animal residents, Maurice, the assistant to the king (Brandon Gale), and, in a performance that undoubtedly steals the show, the incredible Jo Parsons as King Julien XIII.
The moment that all of the children, and a unnecessarily large number of the adults, in the audience have been waiting for arrives. In a blaze of coloured lights and with a thumping bass line, King Julien launches into the showstopping hit, “I Like to Move It” and, for a man performing on his knees, he “moves it” really very well!
All too soon the last pieces of the storyline fall into place and we head toward the finale and, as memories of the jokes about rectal thermometers, monkeys throwing “poo” and even Gloria’s starfish playmates (you have to see the show to understand that one) fade away, the volume is turned up just a little higher for an all singing, all dancing end to the show.
In costumes that must be sweltering, and with energetic choreography by Fabian Aloise that ensures the costumes are sweltering, the 10 strong cast do a fantastic job of bringing these iconic characters to life in such an amazingly convincing and entertaining way.
Although a little short, at just 100 minutes (including the interval), Madagascar the Musical is a fun-sized fiesta for young and old alike.
**** Four Stars