Madagascar

The Adelaide Youth Theatre is one of the best ‘youth theatres’ in Australia. In viewing this South Australian Premiere production of Madagascar, based on the 2005 Dreamworks animated film, it is easy to see why. The high standard of excellence in all fields – the singing, dancing and the acting. This hour-long original adaptation allows for a relatively large cast of young performers to excel – and excel they most certainly did.

The storyline is the same as the movie – a group of African animals, namely Alex the lion, Marty the zebra, Gloria the hippo and Melman the giraffe, plus a motley crew of conniving penguins, escape from the New York City Zoo and due to unforeseen circumstances, wind up on the island of Madagascar. There they meet a tribe of lemurs, led by the eccentric King Julian. These zoo animals have never been in the wild and their dreams are quickly shattered as they help King Julian and his lemurs defeat the ravenous ‘Shizas’, as well as confront natural matters, such as the lion’s desire for steak, which leads to him biting his best friend, the zebra. However, it all ends happily and they return to the New York Zoo, with the classic ‘Wizard of Oz’ message – there’s no place like home.

The original music for this show by Grammy award-winning writers George Noriega and Jole Someillan is good, and the cast sing and perform the respective songs wonderfully. However, the ‘show-stopper’ is, as in the movie, Erick Morillo’s 1994 ‘electro-dance’ hit – "I Like to Move It". This is sung by King Julian, supported by the entire cast. In this production, King Julian was played with delicious relish and dazzling bravura and skill by Nathan Stafford. King Julian is the fabulous eccentric ‘trickster’, and was originally voiced by the great Robin Williams. There are elements of Robin Williams’ performance, but Nathan Stafford makes this wild character very much his own.

The other leads were all very good, but you just can’t beat the attractive looniness of King Julian – plus he gets "I Like to Move It" as his song, and it comes back in the joyous finale of the show.

At this performance, which was full of parents and children, I suddenly felt like I was in a New York audience, with people jumping up and singing and dancing "I Like to Move It" with the cast. Simply wonderful.

Congratulations to all involved, especially the young director, Georgia Broomhall, who has led her creative team and young actors to deliver a truly knock-out show.

One final note in regards to the exceptional Adelaide Youth Theatre: in the final curtain call, Joshua Spiniello, who had played Alex the Lion, brought forward a nine-year-old member of the cast. This young boy then proceeded to deliver a well-rehearsed, articulate and extremely moving speech.

The Adelaide Youth Theatre also raises money for charities. The young boy told the audience that last year he was operated on because he had a tumor on his brain. Subsequently, the money that the Adelaide Youth Theatre had raised during the run of Madagascar was to go to other children who were suffering from cancer and brain tumors.

Well - this craggy old reviewer just burst into tears. Here was this amazing child who had suffered a horrendous, life-threatening experience, but now had been singing and dancing with his wonderful colleagues. This was a fantastic reminder of the healing power and potency and importance of the theatre.

Thank you Adelaide Youth Theatre.

Tony Knight