Paddington, as he's named after the station where he was found, is a chaotic presence whose curiosity quickly smashes the Browns' house up, but he soon turns into the force that keeps the family together, and unites them in an adventure when he comes into danger.
This is a big-budget piece of event theatre but the reason it barely seems to put a foot wrong is that it has the heart that most appealed to people about the films. In the characters and their relationships but also in the sense that it represents a celebration of the kind of traditional British values that the media is generally keen to pretend don't exist: Those of inclusivity and acceptance of difference, the idea that multiculturalism and variety are a large part of what makes London worth living in in the first place, and even the odd dig at Britain's greatest treasures being largely stolen from abroad.
So as well as the Peruvian misfit of the title, the framing device sees elderly curiosity shop owner Mr Gruber (Teddy Kempner,) a WWII refugee, find a stuffed bear for the young man who will end up voicing Paddington himself. Meanwhile in Millicent Clyde (Victoria Hamilton-Barritt,) the Cruella de Vil figure Fletcher and Swale have written better than anything the actual 101 Dalmatians musical ever managed, we've got a villain defined by joyless pillaging of the natural world.
Tom Edden gets another show-stealing comic role in Mr Curry, the taxi driver and accidental henchman with a hilarious list of reasons women have dumped him. Stopping the heartwarming show from being too cloying are slightly darker gags, often involving Hank the Pigeon (Ben Redfern,) as well as little knowing nods to the audience, like Mrs Bird's (Bonnie Langford) role in the original production of Cats.
But ultimately the show is dependant on an incredibly sophisticated piece of technology, and Tahra Zafar's Paddington design could easily have fallen into the uncanny valley. Instead the puppet, with Arti Shah in the costume and James Hameed providing the voice and operating the facial expressions, is every bit as lovable on stage as it's seemed in the clips that have charmed social media. The actors absolutely bring him to life and I was a bit tearful every time Paddington was on stage, so that's almost the entire show. In fairness I did also have head trauma earlier in the day, but I think it was mainly the cuteness doing it.
Tom Pye's sets and Gabriella Slade's costumes really take to the theme of celebrating London itself - Mrs Brown's come dressed as the Bakerloo Line. For a family show it may be a bit too long - even with an early start time I saw some groups leaving before the end. But otherwise everything has been done with care and sensitivity, but it all comes down to the bear, and thanks to the great pair performing in a bit of tech that, for a change, is actually designed to make the world a brighter place, Paddington lives on stage.
Paddington by Tom Fletcher and Jessica Swale, based on the book by Michael Bond and the film by Paul King and Hamish McColl, is booking until the 25th of October 2026 at the Savoy Theatre.
Running time: 2 hours 50 minutes including interval.
Photo credit: Johan Persson.
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