If you like to move it, move it, Madagascar Live! at the Dubai World Trade Centre is the place to be this weekend.
Running on Friday and Saturday, the theatrical representation of DreamWorks’ first Madagascar film (2005), will transport audiences to an almost magical setting.
“It’s a musical created by a Broadway, Tony-award winning team,” producer Michel Boersma told tabloid!. “It’s the entire adventure from the zoo friends, Alex, Marty, Gloria and the penguins escaping New York zoo and ending up on Madagascar, where King Julian rules.”
The show is nearly identical to the film, but on stage, the beloved characters and props are close enough to touch. A YouTube search of Madagascar might result in videos of actors in clunky animal suits walking around theme parks, but the stage show is much more nuanced.
“With us, you see the actors’ faces. They’re made-up, they’ve got beautiful costumes on by [two-time Tony Award-winning] Gregg Barnes, so you can see the emotion,” said Boersma. “The story that we’re telling, you can connect with the characters on the stage, which is different than when you’re watching the movie.”
There’s one scene during the show wherein the zoo animals spill out of a metro station, and audiences will get to experience it all as the train driving onto the tracks on stage.
“The New York subway in Time Square is right in front of you — you can touch it, if you wanted to,” he said. “It’s like an emotion that you get with theatre and not with movies. We’re doing it right in front of you.”
The show is heavy on the props and visuals, according to Boersma, and it’s bigger than the usual family shows that come to our neck of the woods.
“We’ve got six containers full of scenery, lighting and sound, which is big for a show. We have 35 people on tour, which again, is big for a family show,” he explained. “I know the kind of shows that are coming to Dubai and the region. Family shows, like Dora. Great shows, but not even half the size [of Madagascar Live!]. When the Dubai team from Live Nation, who are the presenters in Dubai, came to see the show in Istanbul, they were a bit gobsmacked — it’s a very big production.”
The visuals include “a lot of curtains”, a “huge bridge”, and even a bunch of talking, dancing steaks that appear in a dream sequence, courtesy of a very hungry Alex.
“At the end of the first act, you hear the first little bit of Move It, Move It [from the popular song I Like to Move It], and you hear the audience explode,” said Boersma, clarifying that the music for the tour was pre-recorded in America. “It doesn’t matter whether you’re in Amsterdam, London, Jeddah, Istanbul, or hopefully Dubai, there’s this explosion of children dancing.”
The song kicks in fully at the end of the show, turning it into one big party as the chatty penguins go into the auditorium to dance with the audience. And of course, so does King Julian.
“It’s very difficult to keep King Julian on the stage,” Boersma added, laughing.
The show just came back from Jeddah (female dancers had to be replaced with male ones there, Boersma said, but the show has been reverted to its original form for Dubai), and will head to China afterwards. It has already toured countries in North America, South America and Europe.
“We’re in discussions to bring another one of our shows to Dubai,” Boersma said, keeping a tight lid on which one it might be. “We’re finishing things up this weekend. If you like Madagascar, you’re going to love this one. It’s a big one.”
The show is open to all ages with two shows per day at 2.30pm and 7.30pm. Tickets range between Dh125-Dh650, via ticketmaster.ae.
