Members of the cast from Madagascar the Musical have swapped the stage for zookeeping.

Connor Keetley, who plays Skipper and Maurice, and James Hilton-Foster from the ensemble cast visited Marwell Zoo ahead of the show's ongoing run at The Mayflower Theatre in Southampton.

Together they got busy feeding the giraffes and 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.

READ MORE: Review of Madagascar the Musical at Mayflower Theatre

Both Connor and James have close local connection to the Mayflower as alumni of the theatre's offering - Engage - for schoolchildren and young people.

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.”

Connor was previously the proud recipient of one of the Montague Bursaries in 2019.

He 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.