Madagascar Jr.

The familiar story of Madagascar follows the tale of King of the jungle, Alex the lion, and his friends Marty the zebra, Melman the giraffe and Gloria the hippo. Marty is curious about what lies outside the Central Park Zoo. When he lets his curiosity get the better of him, adventures and danger lie ahead.

Emily Hamilton gives a confident performance as Marty the Zebra. What a voice she has! Niamh Turner is a sassy hippo named Gloria, providing several laugh out loud moments with her perhaps non-intentional put downs!

Alex the lion is in the safe hands of Grace Lindley, and proved to have as much prowess on stage as her character is well known for. Completing the animal quartet, Matthew Shalliker is fabulous as Melman the giraffe. He has funny bones and displays great comedy timing which is great to see in a young performer.

All four gave us great vocals, and as a team were generous to each other, resulting in a balanced performance, ensuring the story was told in style.

As the four friends find themselves in Madagascar, they are befriended by lemurs, led by their King, Julien. Who better to play this role than Theo Lindley. This was a full on, throw caution to the wind performance as he went for it. Brilliant.

With a rousing opening number, complete with good vocals, boundless energy, and oodles of confidence from each and every member, the pace was set for a cracking nights entertainment.

With super support from a well drilled ensemble, and many cameo performances, this production hit all the right spots from start to finish.

Scenic cloths provided perfect settings and the lighting by Norman Bowers and Nathan Emmison offered a realistic vision complete with sunset – just brilliant.

Costumes were stunning. Life-like animal costumes and a mix of symbolic animal costuming worked well. The 4 penguin costumes were particularly good.

Director, Lara Crombie and Assistant director Lindsay Farnworth have provided a fantastic opportunity for these young people to showcase their talents, and with choreography by Hannah Freakin, assisted by Bethany Bentham, what a fantastic job this production team have done.

Thank you to Chairman, Nora Howcroft for your hospitality.

Paul Cohen

Walmsley Church AODS AKT production Madagascar A Musical Adventure JR., based on the DreamWorks  Animation motion picture voiced by a few Hollywood greats and our own Sasha Baron Cohen and Christopher Knights. The Junior version is abridged but still containing the well know I Like To Move It originally by Erick Morillo who collaborated on the movie with Sasha BC on vocals.

With simple set we are taken on a journey of the Central Park Zoo, the streets, on board ship and of course Madagascar. In front of the stage was a raised platform and some entrances were through the audience. Small item of furniture and props were used in scenes.  I did think the stage staff could have been dressed in black or even as zoo staff as scene changes were done in full lights and their ordinary day wear was a distraction. Great Props - loved the big chunks of meat. Lighting and Sound all added to enhance the show. Lighting by Norman Bowers and Nathan Emmison and Sound by Lea Royce and Elodie Perrier. Choreography again was simple ensuring all standards kept up to make it aesthetically pleasing with the floss thrown in for good measure by the character Alex. Choreography Hannah Feakin and Assistant Bethany Bentham.

Lara Syddall Directs with Assistant Lindsay Farnworth this 20 plus all-inclusive cast, (I am sure I saw some signing) talent was evident on the stage and giving a space for young ones to perform and be the up and coming generation for amateur theatre at Walmsley Church, Bolton and maybe professional is lovely to see. It’s also live theatre, which is wonderful, cast just be careful when things go wrong to keep a straight face. I know it’s hard but maybe we don’t know as the audience that that wasn’t meant to happen.

The ensemble and supporting cast worked well together, Ensemble/Foosa were Milo Kraan, Samuel Dixon, Milla McClellan, Beatrice Whitaker. Sophia Carroll as Mort/Ensemble. Ships Captain/Foosa/Ensemble was Emily Tate. Zookeeper Zeke/Foosa/ Ensemble was Oscar Stokes. Candy Hammernose/Ensemble was Anna Bardsley. Lioness/Lemur were Hannah Corley and Phoebe Corley. Ava Greenhalgh played Mason/Lemur

Darcey Elston led the escapologist penguins as Skipper. The other penguins were Private played by Annabel Clarke, Kowalski played by Isabelle Percival and Rico by  Alexander Bardsley - their walk was very funny and the line “my monochromatic friend” – great!  Theo Lindley gave us the over-the-top and scared-of-the-Foosa King Julien.

Niamh Turner was the friendly caring Gloria. Grace Lindley was the show-off Alex who loves performing and is friendly to everyone as long as he is fed - if not his friends start looking tasty. Emily Hamilton played Marty who is bored and on his birthday decides to do something about it thus starting a whole catalogue of events. Emily had great energy and dance moves. Last but not least was Matthew Shallicker as Melman the hypochondriac giraffe. Starting off stage left in bed he comes complete with hand sanitizer and face mask and boy, did he use that hand sanitizer! Some funny moments created - hilarious and great character. The four leads came across as good friends and great casting. Well done AKT!

Thank you so much for the invitation and hospitality from my guest Kathryn and I.

Liz Hume-Dawson