This isn’t a sponsored post.
BrumHour saw Madagascar The Musical at the invite of The Alexandra.
For Brum Radio’s Interval Theatre, Joseph Hewlett talked about his role of Alex The Lion in this UK touring production. Listen below:
By Dave Massey twitter.com/BrumHour
Review: Madagascar The Musical at The Alexandra
⭐⭐⭐⭐A great family adventure!
Directed by Kirk Jameson, book by Kevin Del Aguila, original music and lyrics by George Noriega and Joel Someillan
Alex the Lion (Joseph Hewlett) is pretty happy as the King of Central Park Zoo in New York City, and Melman the Giraffe (Joshua Oakes-Rogers) along with Gloria The Hippo (Jarnéia Richard-Noel) all find themselves out of their depth when they go looking for their friend Marty the Zebra (Francisco Gomes) who has escaped the Zoo.
This is a fun family-friendly musical adventure which features a largely ensemble-style cast led with confidence by Joseph Hewlett, Jarnéia Richard-Noel‘s vocals are excellent and really elevate the performance. Despite featuring on the touring posters Karim Zeroual has just become a father (Congratulations!) so is unlikely to appear at all in Birmingham and his role of King Julien was seamlessly played by Connor Keetley.
The set is made up of large crates which play home to elements of the story, it does obscure the views if you are sitting further to the sides rather than central and younger audiences will be vocal if they can’t see. The costumes are fun and raise a smile even though they look very, very warm to me.
Whilst, I Like To Move It isn’t an original song from Madagascar, it is particularly connected to the film franchise and is very welcome during this story and at the curtain call, as apart from one line there isn’t any other audience participation.
I wasn’t expecting to explore themes of nature vs nurture during this production which on the surface looks like it would be quite fluffy. The diverse New Yorkers become out of their depth once they leave The Big Apple and its great to see topics considered when they are about to fend for themselves.
At only one hour and forty-five minutes, this is one of the shortest touring stage shows and really suits those who might not be able to sit still for longer than forty-five minutes in one go.
Madagascar The Musical is at The Alexandra until Sunday 17th March. Book tickets here: atgtickets.com/shows/madagascar-the-musical/the-alexandra-theatre-birmingham
