{"id":292288,"date":"2025-12-01T01:03:09","date_gmt":"2025-12-01T01:03:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/292288\/"},"modified":"2025-12-01T01:03:09","modified_gmt":"2025-12-01T01:03:09","slug":"paddington-the-musical-review-theyve-looked-after-this-bear-quite-splendiferously-musicals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/292288\/","title":{"rendered":"Paddington: The Musical review \u2013 they\u2019ve looked after this bear quite splendiferously | Musicals"},"content":{"rendered":"

Here is the Peruvian bear as we have never seen him before \u2013 or so we are led to believe from the marketing of this musical, which is based on the beloved 2014 film, based on Michael Bond<\/a>\u2019s beloved books. But this is in fact exactly how we have seen him before: initially alone in Paddington station with marmalade sandwiches under his felt hat and a pleading look in his eye for strangers to be kind to outsiders such as him.<\/p>\n

This is not new fare, even if Paddington<\/a> is brought to life with state-of-the-art animatronics: James Hameed is his voice and remote puppeteer, while Arti Shah is under his furry skin on stage (puppet design by Tahra Zafar). The Brown family are recognisable from the star-studded film: risk-averse dad (Adrian Der Gregorian), arty mum (Amy Ellen Richardson), adolescent Judy (Delilah Bennett-Cardy) and encyclopaedia-chomping wee Jonathan (Jasper Rowse on the night of attendance), along with houseguest Mrs Bird (Bonnie Langford, in national treasure mode).<\/p>\n

So why do we need this Paddington in our lives?<\/p>\n

Well, because it simply comes together so well. Splendiferously well, in fact. This is the new Mary Poppins: a well-known story imaginatively staged, immaculately performed and utterly winning.<\/p>\n

Paddington gives a hard stare. Photograph: Johan Persson<\/p>\n

Tom Fletcher\u2019s songs are marvellous, Jessica Swale\u2019s book earnest, Ellen Kane\u2019s choreography vigorous. Directed by Luke Sheppard, it is really very beautiful in its set design (by Tom Pye), beginning in Mr Gruber\u2019s shop of curiosities and featuring sweeping immersive effects (with next-level projections designed by Ash J Woodward). There are confetti, \u201clost bear\u201d leaflet drops, and surprise water jets fired at the audience.<\/p>\n

The family experience their tensions, though not enough to dampen our spirits, while puppet Paddington is adorable: pensive and childlike by turns. Hameed\u2019s singing voice is astounding, and when he wanders on for some solo numbers as a human shadow, it is strangely moving. There is fabulous ensemble song and dance, polished to a gleam, with nods to musical theatre across the board, from vaudevillian slapstick to chorus numbers (Hard Stare is great fun) and big show tunes (Marmalade is an absolute blast).<\/p>\n

But it is Victoria Hamilton-Barritt who steals the show as Paddington\u2019s nemesis, the taxidermist Millicent Clyde. Her song Pretty Little Dead Things is the best of the lot. Add to that Hamilton-Barritt\u2019s extraordinary vocals, her sultry, comic performance, and a shoulder-padded foxtail look reminiscent of wartime Marlene Dietrich, and you have a magnetic villain with serious daddy issues.<\/p>\n

The kindness of strangers \u2026 the Brown family in Paddington: The Musical. Photograph: Johan Persson<\/p>\n

Sure it is full of schmaltz and cliched Englishness \u2013 Beefeaters, church bells, men with umbrellas, and dustbin men who look like Dick Van Dyke\u2019s chimney sweep. But it is self-consciously done and knowingly verges on parody \u2013 Geographers\u2019 Guild members march on to speak of empire and the Elgin marbles, as one example.<\/p>\n

The plot follows that of the film without being parasitic, with some added strands and characters, such as Judy\u2019s boyfriend Tony (Timi Akinyosade) and his British Caribbean mother (Brenda Edwards), who bring a too-smiley multiculturalism but also some great calypso undertones to songs such as The Rhythm of London.<\/p>\n

\"PaddingtonPaddington the Musical bear revealed \u2013 video <\/p>\n

Some characters do seem derivative, such as Mr Curry (Tom Edden), the lanyard-wearing taxi driver who here channels Alan Carr with a jingoistic twist. Messages about the importance of kindness and acceptance are laid on with a trowel. Paddington, it is clear, is the foreign outsider being othered. Ideas around offering refuge work better in the subtle reference to Mr Gruber\u2019s Kindertransport journey<\/a>. It chimes importantly in today\u2019s landscape of anti-immigrant fear and loathing.<\/p>\n

It is evident that the production is not driven by cynicism to cash in on a very British brand \u2013 although it will likely bring in tourists in their hordes. The final few scenes feel extraneous and it is slightly over-long, but you would have to be a cynic yourself to find fault in this gorgeous world of bearish adventure.<\/p>\n

At the Savoy theatre, London<\/a>, booking to 25 October<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Here is the Peruvian bear as we have never seen him before \u2013 or so we are led…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":292289,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[49,50,51,47,52,48],"class_list":{"0":"post-292288","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/292288","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=292288"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/292288\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/292289"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=292288"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=292288"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=292288"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}