Start spreading the marmalade, Paddington’s leaving today, the Bear wants to be a part of it, New York, New York! I’ll back up a moment: last year, Paddington The Musical premiered on the West End in London. The show was a smash hit — obviously, Paddington is a National Treasure in the UK — and went on to win seven Olivier Awards earlier this year, including best new musical, director, three out of the four acting categories (more on that later), costumes, and sets. With that kind of success, it was practically a given the production would transfer to Broadway, and now it’s official: this week it was confirmed that Paddington The Musical will begin previews at the Al Hirschfeld Theatre in late March 2027, with opening night slated for April 18. Paddington himself filmed a delightful video to mark the news, in which the world traveling bear tips his signature red hat to Lady Liberty as his ship arrives in New York Harbor. The video sweetly ends with a kind request to NYC that we “Please look after this bear.” Aw. We’ll do our best, but the critics can be vicious!!
The musical, which brings Michael Bond’s children’s books and their award-winning film adaptations to the stage, features music and lyrics by Tom Fletcher and a book by Jessica Swale. Luke Sheppard will again direct the Broadway bow, reuniting his West End creative team… The musical has become a major hit in London’s West End since premiering there last year, thanks in part to a technical marvel of a main character. The stage production brings the sentient stuffed bear to life via a state-of-the-art robotic puppet head worn by a diminutive performer, voiced by a separate offstage performer. The musical was the big winner at this year’s Olivier Awards, taking seven total categories including Best Musical.
“It has been the greatest adventure of my career to be entrusted with bringing Paddington’s story to life on stage alongside my brilliant creative collaborators Jessica, Luke, and our producers Sonia and Eliza,” says Fletcher in a statement. “The response from West End audiences of all ages has been unlike anything I’ve ever experienced. It’s a great privilege to welcome New York audiences into Paddington’s world of curiosity and I am absolutely thrilled at the opportunity for this very rare and special bear to be on Broadway.”
“I couldn’t be more excited to bring Paddington to New York,” adds Swale. “As a city that breathes theatre, storytelling, and imagination, Broadway is the perfect place to celebrate this exuberant and heart-filled story. I can’t wait. Let’s just hope Paddington loves Big Apples as much as he loves oranges.”
“Producing Paddington The Musical with our extraordinary writing and creative team has been an immense privileg,” say Friedman and Lumley. “Paddington Bear has endured for generations because he reminds us of the best of ourselves: kindness, curiosity, empathy, and the belief that everyone deserves to belong. Wrapped inside a joyful theatrical adventure, with Tom Fletcher’s exceptional score at its heart, is a story about finding home, family, and community in unexpected places. We have been genuinely blown away by the response to the production so far and are thrilled to be bringing it to Broadway. As the home of so many of the world’s great musicals, there is no more exciting place to produce new work than New York, and we cannot wait to share Paddington’s world with Broadway audiences.
I’ll be blunt: the first thing I thought when I heard about this musical was, “Holy hot box, Paddington!” That poor actor has to perform a three-hour show under professional stage lighting not only in a furry bear suit, but also donning a heavy wool coat?? And you know what, I wasn’t that far off! As Playbill briefly touches on here, the Paddington Bear character is performed by two actors. James Hameed voices PB from off stage, where he also controls the facial expressions remotely. Embodying the character on stage (in a heavily padded suit!) is four-foot actor Arti Shah. Shah is a prolific actor (and motivational speaker!) who works consistently in new Star Wars projects, among other TV and films. And her initial instinct on the part was along the lines of my own, as she told The Guardian last year that “before we started rehearsals I sat in the sauna for a whole week, every day,” fully clothed. Dang, that’s a hot job! And for their very unique double act, Shah and Hameed jointly won best actor at the Oliviers, which I do believe is the first time a woman has won in the actor category. Their speeches were very moving, and I hope both of them come for the New York production!
PS — Despite sharing a last name and trade, no, Arti Shah is not related to Kiran Shah, the actor whose scale double work was pivotal for making the Lord of the Rings and Hobbit trilogies.
I saw this in London last year, it was joyous and charming.
I saw it in London last month and thought it was impossibly treacly and uninspired theater. It’s everything that is wrong with Broadway today–make something risk-free that will appeal to the least discriminating customer. They should bring My Neighbor Totoro over instead. Now that was spectacular family entertainment.
Was this hint deliberately dropped during Pink’s Tony opener? With the co-host skipping on stage with a Paddington doll and singing a bit of a (different) marmalade song? Joking about next season and spoiler alerts.