"Spoiler alert: 'Paddington' is a small woman (Arti Shah) in a bear costume (by Gabriella Slade), with a regular-sized man (James Hameed) doing the voice and remote controlling the facial expressions from backstage. Which doesn't sound groundbreaking but it's enough to make us believe that Paddington is really in the room with us. Which is surely the point of the endeavor."
"He's not the Paddington of the films: he looks different, more teddy-like, and Hameed's voice is much younger and more boyish than Ben Whishaw's. He looks more like the Paddington of Michael Bond's books, but he's not really him either, on account of all the singing he does and how much more wordy that makes him. He is a new Paddington. But he is, fundamentally, Paddington, right there in the room with us."
"Does that make it a performance? I mean sure, he's a triple threat: adorable, polite and also a bear. The normal rules for a musical theatre lead are suspended here. But Hameed can sing well, and there's enough expression in both face and body for Paddington to feel genuinely alive to us. Shah doesn't really dance, but a couple of elaborately choreographed sequences in which our hero pings around causing chaos are impressively physical."
Paddington appears onstage as a puppet-driven bear: Arti Shah occupies the costume while James Hameed supplies the voice and remote-controlled facial expressions, creating a convincing, present character. Gabriella Slade's design emphasizes a more teddy-like, bookish Paddington who sings frequently and feels younger than the film version. Luke Sheppard's direction and Jessica Swale's adaptation loosely follow the first movie but favour a looser, knockabout, cartoonish tone with altered characterisations. Hameed's singing and the expressive face-and-body performance make Paddington feel alive, while choreography delivers impressively physical comic chaos.
Read at Time Out London
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