This production is chronically lacking in almost every department The fact that he has no history on stage and has not trained as a dancer or actor was all too evident throughout.

Unnecessarily ostentatious vocal flourishes throughout were perhaps designed to distract the audience from quite how bored he looked throughout the entire performance. In reality, what Terry lacks in acting ability is barely redeemed by his singing. The advertising for this production lauds X Factor winner Matt Terry (Alex the Lion) as the star of the show. Cutting a relatively fast-paced 116-minute film down to a slow and repetitive 100 minutes on stage has left these cartoon characters even more two-dimensional than they started. Ultimately, Madagascar the Musical is very disappointing: poorly written, with no memorable songs to sing on the way home, no memorable take-away message, and no character development to speak of.

Just because a production is aimed at children is not an excuse for standards to slip. The curtain rose as my heart sank, and this underwhelming, under-rehearsed, and unambitious production began with over a minute of supposedly tension-building music and flashing lights that did little more than to make me overly conscious of the hundreds of empty seats in the New Theatre.

Oxford movie theatre