Did the critics have a fur-vent reaction to Paddington The Musical?

We know he loves marmalade, but was Paddington’s stage musical the critics’ jam? We round up the reviews from last night’s opening night at the Savoy Theatre. 

Sarah Crompton, WhatsOnStage

★★★★★

“It begins with the bear. Much has been written about the way Paddington is played by two actors: Arti Shah, who inhabits the bear suit, and James Hameed, who provides the voice and the “remote puppeteering” of his face.

“But all this doesn’t prepare you for just how magically that works. This Paddington, designed by Tahra Zafar, looks more like the Peggy Fortnum drawings in Bond’s original stories, slimmer and shaggier than in the films or as a toy. But he is also utterly real, his little grey eyebrows rising in surprise, his jaw dropping open when he is shocked, his nose wrinkling in search of marmalade.”

Tim Bano, The Standard

★★★★★

“Luke Sheppard – the director behind Starlight Express, & Juliet and other hits – creates a show that’s constantly full of motion, so tight and seamless despite all the many moving parts. In just the first twenty minutes we get smoke, fire, explosions, collapsing furniture, rain, and whipped cream. It’s a multimillion pound piece of theatre that feels warm and fun and intimate, with no opportunity missed for a bit of extra silliness or a burst of theatricality.”

Arifa Akbar, The Guardian

★★★★★

“It is Victoria Hamilton-Barritt who steals the show as Paddington’s nemesis, the taxidermist Millicent Clyde. Her number ‘Pretty Little Dead Things’ is the best of the lot. Add to that Hamilton-Barritt’s extraordinary vocals, her sultry, comic performance, and a shoulder-padded foxtail look reminiscent of wartime Marlene Dietrich, and you have a magnetic villain with serious daddy issues.

“Sure it is full of schmaltz and cliched Englishness – Beefeaters, church bells, men with umbrellas, and dustbin men who look like Dick Van Dyke’s chimney sweep. But it is self-consciously done and knowingly verges on parody – Geographers’ Guild members march on to speak of empire and the Elgin marbles, as one example.”

Alice Saville, The Independent

★★★★★

“Writer Jessica Swale has got most excited about this story’s oddballs – the caricatures that capture the essential weirdness of the English society Paddington is so keen to join. Neighbourhood Watch stalwart Mr Curry (Tom Edden, who feels like he’s been transplanted from a particularly funny old British sitcom) is a horribly odd Little Englander who’d love to send this furry interloper back to where he came from.”

Fiona Mountford, i News

★★★★★

“Tom Fletcher of McFly supplies a score of agreeable, tuneful and family-friendly songs. ‘The Rhythm of London”, with its Caribbean inflections, is a jaunty number praising London’s diversity – Nigel Farage probably won’t be popping this on his Spotify playlist any time soon. Paddington gets the bottom-wiggling solo ‘Hard Stare’, while ‘Marmalade’ is a showstopper of a number that transforms the stage into a giddy orange fairground. I defy anyone not to snuffle during the quiet heartfelt cry for connection and security that is ‘The Explorer and the Bear.'”

Clive Davis, The Times

★★★★

“Adrian Der Gregorian wins applause, too, as Mr Brown, the ultra-timid risk analyst and former rocker who has been ground down by years of parenthood. Amy Ellen Richardson wins our sympathy as his wife, although the notion of her as a creator of comic-strip heroes never quite takes root. Bonnie Langford adds an engaging cameo as the salty Mrs Bird, the housekeeper now transformed into a lodger. As the children, Judy and John, Delilah Bennett-Cardy and, at this performance, Stevie Hare, are perfect.”

Dominic Cavendish, The Telegraph

★★★★

“Luke Sheppard’s production is cannily upfront about the bare-bones theatrics. Performer Arti Shah toils silently inside Paddington’s furry costume, giving us the physical essence of this polite innocent abroad. It’s amazing how eloquent a downcast posture, a panting frame or an expectant turn of the head can be, while the blinking bear eyes express all manner of emotions.”

“After the interval… the plot thickens and it’s as if the show, in step with the theme of necessary adventurism, itself becomes more devil-may-care.”

Sam Marlowe, The Stage

★★★★

“However crudely drawn the human drama might sometimes be, objections evaporate when Paddington blinks those blackcurrant eyes, wrinkles his snout or swivels his ears. All the vulnerability, mischief and innocence that make him so entrancing are here – as are some demolishing hard stares – and even when everything around him seems teetering on the brink of disintegration, he has only to toddle into view to restore your faith.”

Andrzej Lukowski, Time Out

★★★★

“Writer Jessica Swale has been quite free: it’s certainly not trying to simply transpose Paul King’s film onto the stage. It has a looser, more knockabout air, less droll, more cartoonish. The plot beats are basically the same but the specific details and characterisations often play out differently. Which is all to the good. Paddington’s adopted family the Browns are more troubled here, which puts greater tension at the heart of the story. The addition of a talking Cockney pigeon is a choice, but is genuinely a lot of fun.”