Marmalade, Mischief and a Very British Bear

Paddington | Savoy Theatre | Currently booking until 25th October 2026

A Marmalade Marvel – A joyful, inventive musical that brings the bear to life with heart, humour and puppetry magic

Paddington on stage is everything you hope for – small, earnest, and utterly believable.

The musical follows the basic shape of the first film. Paddington arrives, meets the Brown family, and gradually makes himself at home. It doesn’t pretend to be anything other than a family-friendly, feel-good show. That’s not a criticism. The story’s familiarity is part of the pleasure. What matters here is how the team bring it to life. And they do.

There have been plenty of questions about how Paddington could work live. The answer is clever and simple: two performers share the role. One is in the suit doing the movement, the other supplies the voice and subtle puppet control for the face. The combination is astonishingly successful. From the front row I could see the little details, the blink, the tilt of the head, the shuffling, the way Paddington puffs after a big number, and those details made him feel alive. There’s a moment, in the show, when Paddington does a hard stare; it is utterly Paddington – absurd and tender at once. You believe him.

Victoria Hamilton-Barritt is the show’s standout. She is gloriously in panto mode as the villain – high camp, disciplined, and hugely entertaining. Her big number (the one that explains the baddie’s backstory) is a showstopper: vicious fun, precise comedy and real vocal power.

There’s also a lovely mix of musical styles. Tom Fletcher’s songs are catchy and theatrical; they sit comfortably between pop and musical theatre. Some tunes are instant stick-in-the-head numbers, the sort you hum on the way home. There’s a marmalade sing-along that gets the whole theatre joining in, and there are quieter moments, a Mrs Brown solo, for example, that land with real feeling. The whole score knows when to lean into comedy and when to soften to sentiment.

The puppetry and mechanics of the production deserve special praise. For a show that depends on a creature working on stage, the inventiveness is impressive. The design uses projections and scenery tricks in playful ways: sometimes you think it’s a cloth but it’s a projection; elsewhere a pigeon seems to talk from a wheelie bin, and you catch a glimpse of the puppeteer for a heartbeat before the illusion snaps back into place. Those brief reveals are clever; they give you the thrill of the trick while keeping the magic intact. The decision to have the voice actor control the face makes perfect sense, the sync is tighter, the emotions read truer.

Tom Edden’s physical comedy as a grumpy local is a highlight. Bonnie Langford, as the housekeeper, brings boundless energy and warmth, and can still do the splits.

The children in the cast hold their own with charm and timing. It’s a genuinely ensemble piece.

The show can feel a little long in places. Act two loses a little momentum, a few stretches could be tightened. This is really nit-picking though, as the songs, the performances and the visual invention keep pulling you back. The running time matters less when the audience is smiling. There’s a strong sense that the team has taken care to get things right, even when that care adds a little padding.

At its heart, Paddington is about kindness. That might sound obvious, but here it’s presented with real conviction. It is also about welcoming strangers and about decency being contagious. Those two messages are handled without sermonising. Given the state that the world is in, these messages couldn’t be more timely or needed.

Paddington is a joyful, inventive British musical that brings everyone’s favourite bear to life with brilliant puppetry and warm heart. Victoria Hamilton-Barritt’s campy baddie, Tom Edden’s fizzy physical comedy, and the themes of kindness and welcoming strangers make this a show for all ages. A bit long, but utterly joyous.

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