Paddington The Musical made me cry – it really is that good

As I left this hotly anticipated new musical about everyone’s favourite Peruvian marmalade-lover, one question resounded in my brain: Is it possible to give a show six stars?

Yes, it really is that good. Given it’s been in development for nearly a decade, and with super-producer Sonia Friedman at the helm, you’d expect it to be a supremely polished piece of work. But it’s so much more than that, brimming over with wit and humanity. And it made me (and, I noted, other audience members too) shed more than a few tears.

The furry one is played by two people combined – Arti Shah on-stage in the costume itself, and James Hameed, providing his voice and controlling his facial expressions from off-stage – and the result is magical and seamless.

Never for a moment do you feel like Paddington is any less real than any of the other humans on stage. All credit too, to Tahra Zafar for designing him to look at once so expressive and yet perfectly teddy-bear-like. His sad face is more devastating than the entire Ibsen plays.

Broadly following the events of the first film, the story contains all the fun japery and emotional beats you’d expect. But in some respects, it is even better, adding in some great extra detail, big and small – from expanding on Mrs Brown’s frustrations as a burned-out mum, to including the glorious new character of pompous Geographers’ Guild head Lady Sloane. 

The latter is played with extraordinary vowel sounds by Amy Booth-Steel – her hysterical pronunciation of ‘member’ as ‘mumba’ will stick long in the memory – and she is one of a few comic supporting performers who do their best to steal the show; another is Tom Edden, as the Browns’ infuriating, meddling neighbour Mr Curry, who is perfectly snivelling and has some great audience interaction. 

Meanwhile, musical theatre stalwart Victoria Hamilton-Barritt is fabulously camp as the vaguely Miss Trunchbull-coded villainess, taxidermist Millicent Clyde. 

But, in their relatively straighter roles, the actors starring as the Brown family are also heart-tuggingly superb. A particular stand-out is Amy Ellen Richardson as Mrs Brown: radiantly kind but also very real in her life anxieties, alongside Paddington himself, she is the show’s other true anchor. 

Credit for this triumph should go to three people most of all, though: the director Luke Sheppard, who marshals the action grippingly and delivers some brilliant set pieces, like Paddington’s clumsy ruination of his new home; the show’s book writer Jessica Swale, who knows exactly how to cut sentimentality with proper funnies; and Tom Fletcher, frontman of McFly, whose songs consistently hit the spot. 

From The Rhythm of London, a calypso-infused paean to our capital, to the sultry Adele-like pastiche of Millicent’s Everything you Never Were, they’re playful and eclectic. 

And at the beginning of the second half, there’s even a gloriously OTT tribute to Marmalade, choreographed like an old-school Hollywood musical number, and featuring bouncy oranges and a marmalade fountain; it makes for a delightfully surreal Interlude.

Oh, and I haven’t even mentioned Tom Pye’s gorgeous, towering set design, which features beautiful, atmospheric takes on Paddington station and 32 Windsor Gardens, among other locales. Just as Paddington finds safe haven in the capital, so I have a feeling this show has found a home in the  West End for a long time to come.

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