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Marmalade rules! Paddington: The Musical, about the beloved Peruvian bear, is previewing at London’s Savoy Theatre ahead of a gala official opening night on November 30. Director Luke Sheppard and his creative team are tasked with molding the show into shape by the end of the month. It’s doable if Sheppard can be ruthless in trimming a first act overstuffed with exposition and songs that you can’t hum. You can almost forgive all of that because, as soppy as it sounds, this bear’s adorable. I’m reminded of director Trevor Nunn’s maxim: “That’s what previews are for — to get it right.” Yeah, but doing it under pressure in the heart of the West End, and not in some remote spot outta town, won’t be easy. The show, based on Michael Bond’s A Bear Called Paddington and StudioCanal’s 2014 movie, features music and lyrics by Tom Fletcher, founding member of of pop band McFly, and a book by filmmaker and screenwriter Jessica Swale (Summerland). The cute cub arrives at London’s Paddington railway station, and he’s all alone. The Brown family discovers said bear and takes him home. Cue for audience to swoon every time the bear thinks of home and his Aunt Lucy back in Peru. That sense of home is a powerful force in Paddington. The symbolism of a Caucasian family welcoming a stranger — an immigrant who doesn’t look like them — to share their abode, forcefully counters how immigrants to our shores often are othered and ostracized. It’s in the headlines every second, minute and hour of every day. You don’t require me to spell it out. The secret’s already out about how they get the bear to work, so this isn’t a spoiler. A kid behind me squeaked to his father: “Daddy, there’s someone inside the bear!” Give that boy a tub of marmalade popcorn. On Tuesday night the onstage performer inhabiting the creature created by Tahra Zafar was Arti Shah, and it was voiced by James Hameed. There are other magical bear touches that I won’t reveal here. Fab sets are by Tom Pye. We’ve witnessed crashing chandeliers in The Phantom of the Opera and a helicopter landing in Miss Saigon, but Pye gives us stagecraft with a wink and a smile in Paddington. There’s a London taxi! Giraffes! And a bathtub gets its moment too. I already knew the folk on either side of me in Row L in the orchestra seats because we’re asked to say a hearty “Hello” to the person next to us before the show starts. The lady on my right was very audible with her “oohs” and “aahs” whenever Paddington took center stage. I kept my “oohs” and my “aahs” to myself until after the interval when the show is jolted into blessed life with a number called “Marmalade.” You know, that’s the preserve made with oranges that Paddington enjoys when it’s slavered over slices of bread. Remember, he shared a marmalade sandwich with Queen Elizabeth II when they had tea at Buckingham Palace during the Platinum Jubilee celebrations in 2022. Bliss for me is toasted sourdough spread with marmalade made from three citrus fruits — oranges, lemons and grapefruit — by a very nice lady called Karly in Ramsgate, Kent. I get through a jar a week. It has magical properties. So, when Paddington and a taxi driver (with the night’s best line: “I’m a taxi-driver, not a taxidermist!”) played by musical comedy genius Tom Edden (One Man Two Guvnors, Crazy for You), burst into the number that is “Marmalade,” I was in heaven, along with audience members invited to sing along with the chorus, “Mar-ma-lade, mar-ma-lade, marvelous in every way!” Even the corny lyric, “It’s great to share, if you can bear it!,” had us in raptures. It’s one of the best, and daftest, original songs to come along in a new musical in ages. Is one number enough to make Paddington soar? I mean, there are other songs, but only “Marmalade” truly transports us. There’s “The Rhythm of London” in the first act, that could take off, but Sheppard and choreographer Ellen Kane will need to finesse all the busy business around it to make us snap our fingers. The ensemble cast includes the aforementioned Edden, and other theater standouts including Bonnie Langford, Victoria Hamilton-Barrett, Teddy Kempner, Brenda Edwards, Tarrin Callender, Adrian Der Gregorian, Amy Ellen Richardson and many others, and they’re all solid. The difficulty is that they’re all given an opportunity to shine and we feel crowded out. Again, Sheppard, Kane and their teams will fix that by November 30. Key producer Sonia Friedman, working with StudioCanal and Eliza Lumley Productions on behalf of Universal Music UK, has assembled an award-winning team to collaborate with Sheppard, Kane and Pye. They include costume designer Gabriella Slade, lighting designer Neil Austin, sound designer Gareth Owen and video design & animation by Ash J Woodward. There’s a stall selling merchandise — I love that they call their stock “souvenirs” — that you trip over as you exit the theater. And if that’s busy, the marketing people have helpfully opened a store that’s impossible to miss as you leave Savoy Court. However, I wasn’t tempted by the hoodies with a Paddington logo and all the rest of it, though I did treat myself to a mug. But was I a mug to shell out £16.99 ($22.35) for it? A charming thug bumped into me as I left the shop. The mug shattered when it made impact with the pavement. I laughed and hummed “Mar-ma-lade” and all was well. Which is a whole lot better than I felt after enduring a recent preview of The Hunger Games On Stage at the soulless purpose-built Canary Wharf Theatre. It’s adapted by Conor McPherson from The Hunger Games books by Suzanne Collins and the film starring Jennifer Lawrence. There’s nothing more to say about it.
