Even if you didn't grow up with the Paddington books as many Brits did, the musical will feel familiar if you saw the movie starring Ben Whishaw, Nicole Kidman, Julie Walters, Jim Broadbent, and more. The gist: After his aging aunt becomes unable to care for him, a young bear travels from Peru to London and is taken in by the Brown family, who name him after Paddington train station.

Paddington seeks out an explorer who discovered him and his family in Peru years ago, hoping the explorer will offer him a permanent home. As Paddington searches, he runs afoul of a vengeful taxidermist who wants to hunt down Paddington for her collection.

Paddington The Musical is a kind of successor to the globally successful The Lion King and War Horse with their groundbreaking animal stagecraft. But while those shows employed stylized puppetry, the character of Paddington looks much more realistic, closer to the CGI Paddington from the live-action movie. I'd never seen an onstage animal that looked quite like that before.

That's because Paddington isn't a puppet. An actor under 4 feet tall performs his physical movements inside a cuddly bear costume, while another actor voices him from (mostly) off stage.

When it comes to iconic childhood characters, Paddington has a close equivalent in Winnie-the-Pooh. They're both beloved, adventurous bears with a sweet tooth — but while Pooh is all about honey, Paddington is obsessed with orange marmalade.

In fact, Act 2 opens with a song called "Marmalade." Paddington and Mr. Curry, a taxi driver, sing the jam's praises as lights, props, and previously hidden set pieces drench the stage in orange. And like marmalade, the song's tune is so sticky, you won't be able to get it out of your head. See and hear it for yourself below.

Paddington The Musical has played since November 2025 at London's Savoy Theatre, attached to the historic and elegant Savoy Hotel. It's fitting, as a key Act 1 scene unfolds at a party in the hotel.

Was the Savoy written into Paddington before or after the show's venue was confirmed? Will this reference change for the Broadway production? We don't know. The show will still be set in London, so that scene can't take place in, say, the Hirschfeld; it'll lose that meta layer in New York no matter what. But we'll have to wait and see if writers Jessica Swale (book) and Tom Fletcher (songs) change any other niche British-isms.

Even non-Londoners probably know that the British Museum, containing the world's largest permanent collection of artifacts, has long been controversial for how it acquired those artifacts. Paddington indirectly satirizes the situation in "The Geographer's Guild," a tongue-in-cheek number in which snooty historians gloat about the treasures they've stolen from other countries. Even if you're not British, you'll get the joke.

If the Britishness of the whole affair still feels foreign or daunting to you, don't forget that Paddington feels the same way. It's his first time in London, after all! He's right on this adventure with you.

When he first arrives, the bear is greeted by commuters too busy to give him directions; impatient taxi drivers; and pigeons (who talk!). Paddington may be in London, but that sounds like stereotypical NYC — we New Yorkers should feel right at home.

Paddington isn't an interactive show, but it doesn't stay firmly within the bounds of the stage, either. In the snug Savoy, the design occasionally stretches onto the walls and ceiling, enveloping the whole audience in the Peruvian jungle, a marmalade sea, and a sky full of stars (including the Ursa Major constellation, naturally).

This closeness heightens the show's senses of both awe and danger. I found myself nervous when the villain brandished a whirring, sparking chainsaw! Luckily, she, and it, stay firmly on the stage and far from us. The pyrotechnics, though — yes, sparks literally fly more than once — are thrilling. I can't wait to see how the designers expand their work to fit the massive Hirschfeld.

Who is Michael Bond? He's the author of the Paddington series, writing 29 books featuring the bear. He even made a cameo in the first Paddington movie three years before his death in 2017.

It's only fitting that Bond appears in the musical, too. Look closely at Mr. Curry's license plate, which reads "THX MB58." That is, "Thanks, Michael Bond, 1958" — the year the first Paddington book came out. Paddington wouldn't be a global phenonemon without the man who started it all.

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Photo credit: Paddington The Musical in London. (Photos by Johan Persson)