No Hollywood star, no singer, no high-kicking showgirl nor gleaming screen legend has ever been so warmly greeted making their debut on a London stage as a little furry bear was on Saturday night.
Just a few minutes into the world premiere of Paddington The Musical, the actors, who were crowded across a set designed to look like a busy railway station, stepped aside to reveal a small, furry figure in their midst.
He wore a funny red hat. His little brown eyes blinked. And when he raised his snout to sniff the air, the audience gasped with delight.
As the bear ambled across the stage, everyone in the 1,100-capacity crowd cheered, roared and rapturously applauded. Little children bouncing with excitement on their theatre-supplied booster seats waved their toy bears in the air. For Paddington was here at last. And he did not disappoint.
Exactly how producers were going to bring Paddington Bear to life on stage has been one of the best-kept secrets in showbusiness for more than five years.
Ever since this West End production was announced speculation has been feverish. There had been plenty of announcements about the rest of the cast, including Bonnie Langford appearing as the housekeeper Mrs Bird and Teddy Kempner starring as antiques shop owner Mr Gruber.
And it was no secret that the creative team, led by music composer Tom Fletcher (of McFly boyband fame), writer Jessica Swale and director Luke Sheppard were cooking up something spectacular, based on the much-loved books by Michael Bond and the three charming Studiocanal films of recent years.
Yet detail on how they were actually going to bring the famous bear to life was hush-hush. And to be honest, I was worried.
Just a few minutes into the world premiere of Paddington The Musical, the actors, who were crowded across a set designed to look like a busy railway station, stepped aside to reveal a small, furry figure in their midst, write Jan Moir
He wore a funny red hat. His little brown eyes blinked. And when he raised his snout to sniff the air, the audience gasped with delight
 Would Paddington be a disappointing hologram or a mere puppet, with all the physical constraints the latter suggests? Would he be another dreary avatar, maybe a cluster of bear-bore drones. Or perhaps some sort of animatronic that was impressive but never quite convinced?
Would he be – please, no! – little more than a panto donkey with a painted smile, clip-clop hooves and a limited range?
Thankfully, he is none of the above. For this production has come up with something both captivating and ingenious.
Paddington comes to life via a two-person team; an offstage singer/voice performer who also doubles up as Paddington’s puppeteer – animating his face and lip-synching his mouth – as well as an onstage performer inside the perfect little pot-bellied bear costume.
James Hameed gives Paddington his lines and his singing voice, while the 4ft actress Arti Shah – who has previously appeared as various elves and droids in productions of Lord of the Rings and Star Wars – is inside the bear suit onstage.
It works brilliantly. This Paddington sings, he dances, he blinks his little button eyes, waggles his paws and we believe in him totally.
‘I’ve never had my own bedroom before,’ he says in one early scene, climbing inside his little gingham bed in the Browns’ home at 32 Windsor Gardens. By then, we are all completely in love with this magical creature.
Later, he gives his famous ‘hard stare’ when he comes across bad guys doing bad stuff and he tries not to cry when he is chained up inside a case at the Natural History Museum where evil, deranged taxidermist Millicent Clyde (Victoria Hamilton-Barritt) is making plans to have him stuffed.
‘I’ve never had my own bedroom before,’ he says in one early scene
The show is currently in preview but already taking bookings until October next year
What a splendid baddie she is, right down to her showstopper big number Pretty Little Dead Things, where she sings of her urge to ‘stuff a pup with fluff’. Absolute peak villain. Marvellous.
There is a moment of peril towards the end – spoiler alert, sensitive children look away now – when someone fires a crossbow arrow into Paddington’s furry chest and our ursine hero goes down like a sack of spuds.
This leads a chorus of horrified bawling from the kiddies in the theatre, which gave me a good laugh until the little boy behind my seat in the dress circle screamed hard enough to powder my eardrums – but don’t worry boys and girls! Paddington soon recovers and lives to eat another marmalade sandwich.
Guidelines for this production say the show is suitable for children aged six years and up, although four-and five-year-olds are admitted, too. So basically, if the little ones have a meltdown, it’s on you.
The critics will have their say on the official opening night later this month, but what I can tell you is that on Saturday night at the Savoy Theatre everyone absolutely loved Paddington The Musical, no matter what age.
The show is currently in preview but already taking bookings until October next year and no wonder.
Beautifully constructed, packed with laughs and adorned with some absolutely banging songs and performances, it is a production that is destined to become a classic, a show that will run and run.
Cleverly, it pitches itself as ‘the London musical’ and is a rosy-hued celebration of the city itself – with Cockney rhyming slang, dancing policemen, high-kicking guardsmen in bearskins, lollipop ladies, brollies and trollies – as well as a salute to everyone’s favourite bear.
For the appeal of Paddington has barely dimmed since Michael Bond wrote his first bear-based book in 1958. He found his inspiration from a teddy bear in Selfridges, which he bought as a gift for his wife. A train enthusiast, he named the bear Paddington, as it was close to where he lived.
A legend was born.
Bond would write 15 more books but the tone, themes and character were all there, from the first pages.
The bear is spotted by the Brown family over by the bicycle rack, wearing ‘a funny kind of hat’ and with a label around his neck saying, ‘Please look after this bear’. Soon they are feeding him sticky buns and cream cakes before taking him home to Windsor Gardens.
Today there is a flagship Paddington store at Paddington station and a Paddington Bear Experience on London’s Southbank. There was a BBC stop-motion series in the 1970s and then the three hit films, Paddington, Paddington 2 and Paddington In Peru.
In 2020, a new Paddington TV series for a pre-school audience on Nickelodeon won several Emmy awards while millions and millions of stuffed Paddington Bears have been sold along the way.
Why do we love this bear so much? Perhaps it is because he embodies the best of our national traits and in a quiet way makes us all proud to be British.
He has endearing qualities, such as politeness, gentleness, tolerance and kindness. He gets things wrong but he means well and is always sincere and decent.
He is an immigrant who finds a new home and a family in London – and he even had tea with the Queen during her Platinum Jubilee, a rare honour for a bear, even one who is nearly 70 years old.
He is unifying and timeless and all that makes us feel good about ourselves. ‘Kindness isn’t ever complicated,’ says Mr Gruber, in the musical.
Well, who could argue with that?
