Madagascar - A Musical Adventure

Madagascar - A Musical Adventure at Coterie Theatre

When your best friend wants something you can't imagine wanting, do you follow him into disaster anyway? Alex the lion has everything he needs at the Central Park Zoo: adoring crowds, reliable steaks, and a comfortable routine. Marty the zebra dreams of something else entirely, and his tenth birthday wish sets off a chain reaction that drags Alex, nervous giraffe Melman and no-nonsense hippo Gloria halfway across the world.

Madagascar - A Musical Adventure condenses this friendship-versus-freedom clash into an hour of songs and scheming at the Coterie Theatre. The brevity works in the story's favor, keeping the focus tight on four mismatched personalities trying to survive a landscape none of them understand. Marty's anthem Wild and Free captures his hunger for open horizons, while Best Friends tests whether loyalty can survive when friends want opposite things.

The penguins operate on their own wavelength, pursuing Antarctica with military precision while the main quartet stumbles toward Madagascar and an encounter with King Julien, who sees Alex as potential protection rather than a pal. Their separate escape scheme layers in a different brand of comedy—focused, unsentimental, relentlessly goal-driven.

The Coterie stages this all-ages adaptation of the DreamWorks film through music and lyrics by George Noriega and Joel Someillan, with Kevin Del Aguila's book keeping the stakes personal: Can Alex and Marty stay friends when one craves safety and the other craves the wild? Grab tickets for Kansas City this summer.