Ahead of a week of performances of Madagascar the Musical at Mayflower Theatre, a couple of the cast escaped to Marwell Zoo, to get stuck in and see what is really involved in living and breathing the zoo environment.
Connor Keetley (Skipper/Maurice) and James Hilton-Foster (ensemble), got stuck in with the zookeepers; feeding the giraffes, feeding the lemurs, laying hay for the zebras, feeding the yellow mongoose, and introducing the show’s puppet penguins to the real life penguins from the zoo for a photo.
Both Connor and James have close local connection to Mayflower Theatre as Alumni of our Engage offering. Connor Keetley was the proud recipient of one of the Montague Bursaries in 2019. Connor has also starred in three Mayflower Summer Youth Projects – Guys and Dolls (2017), Pirates of Penzance (2016) and Five of the Best (2014) as well as also being a Team Leader on the 2019 Summer Youth Project, Peter Pan. James was also involved in Peter Pan, where he starred as Mr Darling, as well as staring in Les Misérables (2018) and Guys and Dolls (2017). James then returned to the Summer Youth Project in 2021 and 2022 where he was the Assistant Choreographer for both The Lightning Thief – The Percy Jackson Musical and Summer Holiday. James and Connor also both celebrated 10 years of Mayflower Summer Youth Projects at SYP10 in 2023
Laura Read, Marwell Wildlife Chief Executive, said
We’re delighted our keepers were able to show Madagascar the Musical’s Central Park Zoo crew the ropes when they visited the park to help care for some of the animals at Marwell Zoo. We hope it gave them a taste of life at the zoo and helped them get in character ahead of what’s sure to be a great run of shows at Mayflower Theatre. If you love the show and want to visit the real animals afterwards, don’t forget Marwell is open throughout the year and has over 140 species to explore.
