JADAR

★★★☆☆

Madagascar is a weird and wild rollercoaster sure to entertain the kids but possibly fall a little flat for older fans of the franchise.

Despite showcasing some amazing puppetry, including the Gloria-sly accurate (sorry!) Melman, the giraffe costume, lemurs and monkeys, the show was let down by outdated references and a tone comparable to an exaggerative and almost patronising pantomime performance.

While it is understandably aimed at kids, other shows like Shrek and the recent Jack The Beanstalk panto at the Opera House have proven that a strong story can be carried by good writing and strong musical numbers that entertain both children and adults that grew up with these animations originally.

Based on the 2005 film of the same name, the story follows a group of zoo animals in Central Park with the famous Alex the Lion (Joseph Hewlett), sassy Gloria the hippo (Jarneia Richard-Noel), hypochondriac Melman the giraffe (Joshua Oakes-Rogers), and the wise-cracking but unsettled Marty the Zebra (Francisco Gomes), who decides to trek outside of the zoo in search of freedom but
unwittingly sends his friends out of their comfort zone when they are accidentally transported to the titular Republic.

Sadly, most of the musical numbers also suffer from the same puerile tendencies and slightly cringey mixtures of 2000s rap and hip-hop tracks thrown into one song, and a clash of rather antiquated dances like flossing and twerking, along with a jumble of phrases like “I’m a hip hip hippo… boom boom”, “Such a groovy kitty”, “Chill out”, “Bungle my jungle”, and “No Havana left in my savanna”.

I understood the attempt to harken back to the music of the 2000s, when the film came out, but it did feel a little out-of-place for a modern audience of kids who will not understand those references – and they’re too cringey for adults to enjoy.

However, there are a few strong catchy numbers like ‘Best
Friends’ used as a motif for Marty and Alex’s friendship prevailing through the hardest times like the boat transit segment and their later troubles when Alex struggles to suppress his animalistic urges.

Other good tunes included the penguins’ ‘Sea Shanty’ and the ever popular ‘I Like to Move It’ with King Julian. While I didn’t particularly like ‘Steak’, its swinging vibes, the steak puppets, choreography and the creativity were rather comedic and well-crafted, and every song was sung with great enthusiasm and harmonising by the whole cast, with Joseph Hewlett (Alex) having a particularly strong voice and balancing his performance with graceful lion-like movements.

I was a little disheartened with the simplification of the penguins’ character. Skipper and Private were the only two to keep their characteristics from the movie; Skipper being the head hancho,
Private being the “cute and cuddly” one. But there were also Kowalski, the intelligent strategist, and Rico, the practically silent but crazy one.

Despite any issues the show had, the audience was filled with its own little zoo, with adults and kids alike wearing animal headbands (including me) and getting into the spirit of what is a simple yet well-loved tale of friendship and lots of monkey business in between.

The show gets into its full swing in the second half, by the time CBBC star Karim Zeroual transformed unrecognisably into the lively party animal King Julien, with his little puppet legs dangling hilariously as he shuffled across the floor with an outstanding performance as the mad king who had everyone on their feet in his final rendition of ‘Move it, Move it’ in the encore, which seemed to tucker out the kids before the 8:45pm finish.

Set design was simple yet certainly effective and unpredictable, mainly being comprised of wooden crates like the ones they end up in before the interval; many of the boxes had trap doors that would reveal the monkey puppets or flapped open to create greenery when they arrived in the jungle.

Additionally, a large rock with holes, a comedic skeleton of a dead pilot, and a digital sunset backdrop created the lemur filled jungle. There was only downside to these flap doors: one door which opens to create the surprisingly accurate crate segment as the characters realise they are trapped in the crates next to each other refused to stay closed in the first half of show – but the cast continued strong regardless of any mishaps or malfunctions.

All in all, Madagascar the Musical is a mixed bag, with brilliant puppetry, staging and costumes, a few catchy songs and a charismatic cast of fun and energetic performers but a simplistic and sometimes outdated script that took the wind out of my sails at moments in their adventure.

While I was desperate to enjoy it despite the pantomime-like acting, it was clear that the show was mainly aimed at children, in spite of the droves of adults accompanying them or going to relive the nostalgia of the beloved Dreamworks classic and slightly limited itself as a result.

However, the sheer entertainment from the second half, the comedy of king Julien, and again the accuracy of the costumes, really boosted the my view of the show.

Madagascar The Musical runs at Opera House Manchester until February 11 and tours the UK until August 24.

Photo: Scott Rylander