![\"Giovanna](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Giovanna-Fletcher-Tom-Fletcher-and-Carrie-Hope-Fletcher.jpg\" "\\"Giovanna")
Giovanna Fletcher, Tom Fletcher and Carrie Hope Fletcher, \u00a9 WhatsOnStage<\/p>\n Giovanna Fletcher, Tom Fletcher and Carrie Hope Fletcher, \u00a9 WhatsOnStage<\/p>\n
Perhaps one of the most hotly anticipated shows of the entire year, the West End celebrated the official opening of\u00a0Paddington The Musical\u00a0last night.<\/p>\n
Crowds of VIPs, industry heavyweights and theatregoers gathered at the Savoy Theatre for this world premiere production, described as \u201cso emotionally and tonally perfect\u201d by WhatsOnStage lead critic Sarah Crompton in her glowing, five-star review<\/a>.<\/p>\n We decided to let the familiar faces in attendance pose the questions yesterday and the principal cast gladly answered them at the show\u2019s afterparty at the gargantuan Freemasons\u2019 Hall.<\/p>\n Check out all the highlights below:<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Paddington The Musical features a score by Tom Fletcher<\/a> and a book by Jessica Swale<\/a>, and is directed by Luke Sheppard<\/a>. It is based on A Bear Called Paddington\u00a0by Michael Bond and the film\u00a0Paddington, by special arrangement with StudioCanal.<\/p>\n The full cast includes\u00a0James Hameed<\/a> (Young Man \/ Paddington off-stage performer and remote puppeteer), Arti Shah<\/a>\u00a0(Paddington on-stage performer),\u00a0Timi Akinyosade<\/a>\u00a0(Tony),\u00a0Amy Booth-Steel<\/a>\u00a0(Lady Sloane),\u00a0Tarinn Callender<\/a>\u00a0(Grant),\u00a0Delilah Bennett-Cardy<\/a>\u00a0(Judy Brown),\u00a0Adrian Der Gregorian<\/a>\u00a0(Mr Brown),\u00a0Tom Edden<\/a>\u00a0(Mr Curry),\u00a0Brenda Edwards<\/a>\u00a0(Tanya),\u00a0Amy Ellen Richardson<\/a> (Mrs Brown),\u00a0Victoria Hamilton-Barritt<\/a>\u00a0(Millicent Clyde),\u00a0Teddy Kempner<\/a> (Mr Gruber), and Bonnie Langford<\/a> (Mrs Bird),\u00a0with Joseph Bramley, Leo Collon, Stevie Hare and Jasper Rowse sharing the role of Jonathan Brown, and alternate Paddington on-stage performers Abbie Purvis<\/a> and Ali Sarebani.<\/p>\n The ensemble includes Esme Bacalla-Hayes, Tiago Dhondt Bamberger, David Birch, Aim\u00e9e Fisher, Jacqueline Hughes, Kellianna Jay, Sam Lathwood, Natasha Leaver, Katie Lee, Sunny Lee, Vicki Lee Taylor, J\u00e1iden Lodge, Andil\u00e9 Mabhena, Rose Mary O\u2019Reilly, Ben Redfern, Hugo Rolland, Simon Shorten, and Hassan Taj.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n The team responsible for the bear includes\u00a0Tahra Zafar<\/a>\u00a0(Paddington bear designer),\u00a0Audrey Brisson<\/a>\u00a0(Bear physicality associate director), Phill Woodfine (remote puppetry coach), and Annabelle Davis (Paddington bear casting director).<\/p>\n The creative team also includes Matt Brind (musical supervisor, orchestrations and arrangements), Ellen Kane (choreographer), Tom Pye (scenic designer), Gabriella Slade (costume designer), Tahra Zafar (Paddington Bear designer), Neil Austin (lighting designer), Gareth Owen (sound designer), Ash J Woodward (video designer and animation), Campbell Young Associates (hair, wig and make-up designer), Majid Adin (illustration and additional animation), Laura Bangay (musical director), Natalie Gallacher for Pippa Ailion and Natalie Gallacher Casting (casting director), Nick Hockaday (young persons\u2019 casting director), Davis (Paddington casting director), Javier Marzan (physical comedy consultant), Tobago Crusoe and Felix Ruiz (additional music consultants).<\/p>\n Paddington books, beginning with\u00a0A Bear Called Paddington\u00a0in 1958, have sold over 35 million copies worldwide. Paddington has been adapted for television by the BBC and in the Emmy Award-winning series\u00a0The Adventures of Paddington\u00a0by StudioCanal. StudioCanal has also produced three films:\u00a0Paddington\u00a0(2014),\u00a0Paddington 2\u00a0(2017), and\u00a0Paddington in Peru\u00a0(2024).<\/p>\n The production is currently booking until 25 October 2026.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Giovanna Fletcher, Tom Fletcher and Carrie Hope Fletcher, \u00a9 WhatsOnStage Perhaps one of the most hotly anticipated shows…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":606531,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7757],"tags":[748,393,4884,257,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-606530","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-london","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-england","10":"tag-great-britain","11":"tag-london","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115647768632989339","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/606530","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=606530"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/606530\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/606531"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=606530"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=606530"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=606530"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}