Everything you need to know about 'Paddington The Musical' on Broadway

Paddington The Musical is about a young bear who travels from his home in Peru to London and meets the Brown family, who take him home with them. However, the wicked Millicent Clyde, a collector of exotic creatures, has her eye on Paddington, and the Browns must help save him.

All sorts of adventures ensue, and the Browns realise they need Paddington as much as he needs them. The family-friendly show is a celebration of family, friendship, community, and marmalade!

Paddington The Musical plays at the Al Hirschfeld Theatre on Broadway for an open run starting March 30, 2027. Located at 302 W. 45th St. in the Theatre District of Manhattan, the venue has a capacity of 1,404 seats over two levels, including accessible seating.

Notable shows at the Al Hirschfield include the original Broadway productions of Oliver!, Into the Woods, Kinky Boots, and Moulin Rouge! The Musical.

Paddington The Musical runs 2 hours 45 minutes, including an intermission. This is a typical length for a musical, though the runtime of the Broadway production is subject to change slightly once performances begin.

Paddington The Musical is a family-friendly show recommended for ages 6+. Please note that children under 4 are not permitted in Broadway theatres.

Paddington The Musical starts its Broadway run on March 30, 2027. The show generally has eight performances per week, with two performances on Wednesdays and Saturdays and no performances on Mondays.

The standard schedule is subject to one-off changes, particularly around holidays. Visit New York Theatre Guide's Paddington page for a complete performance calendar.

Paddington The Musical had its world premiere at the Savoy Theatre in London's West End in November 2025. The Broadway production debuts at the Al Hirschfeld Theatre in NYC starting March 30, 2027.

Paddington The Musical features music and lyrics by Tom Fletcher and a book by Jessica Swale. Fletcher is best known in his native Britain as the founder and lead singer/songwriter of the band McFly, and he was also a child actor in West End musicals. Swale has previously written plays including Blue Stockings and Nell Gwynn, both of which premiered at Shakespeare’s Globe in London.

One of the most beloved children's book characters of all time, Paddington was created by the late writer Michael Bond, and he first appeared in the 1958 book A Bear Called Paddington. Bond produced around 30 volumes of Paddington stories over six decades.

Casting for Paddington The Musical on Broadway is to be announced. Uniquely, the show features two actors playing the title character: a actor voicing the bear off stage and an actor inside an animatronic Paddington costume on stage. Olivier Award winners James Hameed and Arti Shah jointly originated the role in London.

Paddington The Musical features a large cast of (mostly!) lovable characters who become part of Paddington's world. Even the villains, though, are scene-stealers.

• Paddington: A young bear from Peru, trying to find a home in London. Good hearted, generous-spirited, and well-meaning almost to a fault, he gets up to plenty of mischief on his arrival in London and helps heal his found family, the Browns. He has impeccable manners but will respond with a “hard stare” if someone has forgotten theirs.
• Mr. Henry Brown: An anxious risk assessment consultant who is overprotective of his family.
• Mrs. Mary Brown: An open-minded author and illustrator of graphic novels. She is the first member of the family to take Paddington under her wing.
• Judy Brown: The Browns' teenage daughter, who finds her family deeply embarrassing.
• Jonathan Brown: The Browns' son, an avid collector of trivia.
• Millicent Clyde: The villainous daughter of an explorer who befriended Paddington’s family in Peru, and a collector of rare species.
• Grant: A security guard and Millicent’s henchman.
• Mrs. Bird: The Browns’ lodger and a woman of many talents.
• Mr. Gruber: The kindly owner of an antique store and a former Kindertransport refugee during World War II.
• Mr. Curry: The Browns’ bad-tempered and nosy next-door neighbor.
• Lady Sloane: The snobbish president of the Geographers’ Guild.
• Tony: A neighbor and Judy’s potential romantic interest.
• Tanya: Tony's mom.
• Aunt Lucy: Paddington’s aunt, who raised him and now lives in the Home for Retired Bears in Lima.

Tom Fletcher's "effectively varied" score for Paddington The Musical mixes "contemporary ballads and energetic rock with old-school jazzy numbers," per a five-star review in London Theatre. Below are all the songs in Paddington The Musical.

Act 1

• "Overture"
• "Mr Gruber's Curiosities"
• "I've Arrived"
• "The Taxi Driver's Code"
• "Don't Touch That"
• "One Page at a Time"
• "Pretty Little Dead Things"
• "The Rhythm of London"
• "Hard Stare"
• "The Explorer and the Bear"
• "Risky Business"
• "One of Us"
• "The Explorer and the Bear (Reprise)"

Act 2

• "Entr'acte"
• "Marmalade"
• "Worth the Work"
• "Where's Paddington"
• "Everything You Never Were"
• "It's Never Too Late"
• "Aunt Lucy's Prayer"
• "The Geographer's Guild"
• "Unstoppable"
• "Everything You Never Were (Reprise)"
• "Worth the Work (Reprise)"
• "Mr Gruber's Shop (Reprise)"
• "Missing Beat"
• "Dear Aunt Lucy"

In 2026, Paddington the Musical was nominated for a record 15 Olivier Awards in London and won seven, making it the most Olivier-winning new musical of all time and tying the record for Oliviers ever won by any musical, including revivals. Its accolades included Best New Musical, Best Director, Best Set Design, Best Costume Design, and three acting awards.

The London production also won nine WhatsOnStage Awards out of 13 nominations and the Critics Circle Theatre Award for Best New Musical.

Yes! Paddington The Musical is partly based on the 2014 movie Paddington, directed by Paul King and starring Hugh Bonneville, Sally Hawkins, Nicole Kidman, and Ben Whishaw as the voice of Paddington. The franchise spawned the sequels Paddington 2 and Paddington in Peru, with a fourth installment in development.

There isn't a Paddington movie musical yet, but maybe the worldwide success of the stage show will lead to one in the future!

The story of Paddington goes way back. Learn more about the origins of the character, Paddington's royal encounter, and more.

• Michael Bond was inspired to create Paddington when he bought a lone teddy bear languishing on a shelf in Selfridges department store as a Christmas present for his wife in 1956. The couple lived near Paddington Station at the time, which inspired the character's name.
• Bond, who died in 2017, is buried in Paddington Old Cemetery, and his epitaph reads, "Please look after this bear. Thank you."
• Paddington, however, is not a teddy bear. He is based on the spectacled bear, also known as the South American bear or Andean bear. He is fully anthropomorphic, and no one in Paddington-land finds that unusual!
• The musical's unique casting of Paddington — whose voice is provided by one actor off stage, while another actor performs his movements in a bear costume on stage — was kept secret until the first performance in the West End! The concept took six years to develop.
• In London, Paddington is portrayed Arti Shah (onstage Paddington) and James Hameed (Paddington voice). Shah is female and Hameed is male. For the Olivier Awards, they chose to be jointly nominated for Best Actor in a Musical, per Paddington's gender.
• Paddington lives in the Notting Hill neighborhood of west London (Portobello Road, to be precise), which is known for its colorful houses, antique stores and market, and annual carnival.
• Paddington is famous for his love of marmalade. He joined the late Queen Elizabeth II for tea and marmalade sandwiches at Buckingham Palace to celebrate her Platinum Jubilee in 2022.

Get Paddington The Musical tickets on New York Theatre Guide soon. With the family-friendly spectacular amassing a devoted fanbase even before its stateside debut, seats are sure to be snatched up as quickly as a plate of marmalade sandwiches!