Last night at the Olivier Awards at the Royal Albert Hall, Paddington the Musical won big-time with a total of 7 awards.
Best actor in a musical, unusually went to two people: James Hameed plays the voice of Paddington and operates the puppetry, and Arti Shah, who, as a little person, inhabits the body of the lovable bear.
The villains of the show, played by Tom Edden and Victoria Hamilton-Barritt, took home the awards for best supporting actor and best supporting actress in a musical. The show’s director, Luke Sheppard, was the best director, and there were also awards for costume design and set design. You could call this a clean sweep
It’s great to see a new musical in town, especially as the West End has so many long-running shows. I’ve nothing against those shows, but new writing often finds it hard to find a place. Musicals in particular are very expensive to mount, and producers are understandably reticent to commit their money unless they know they are going to get a return. Paddington, of course, is much loved from the original stories by Michael Bond, written from the late 1950s to the 1970s. Then, of course, there was the animated TV series and later still the very successful feature films starring Ben Whishaw, Sally Hawkins and Hugh Bonneville. Perhaps the clincher to become the nation’s treasure when Paddington arrived at Buckingham Palace to film a segment with Her Majesty for the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee celebrations in 2022.
Years ago, our accountants had a large Paddington bear on the mantelpiece in their Hertford offices. We discovered they also handled Michael Bond’s accounts. So, Paddington is everywhere. There is something warm and sweet, naive even, that makes people of all ages respond to him. Marmalade sandwiches strike a charming chord, and of course, he is an immigrant who has to innocently find his way around, leaving would-be nasty people in his wake.
I love the concept of two people playing the same role every night and working as a team. At the presentation, Arti Shah, who is 4 feet high, had her excited young son at the awards. When, in her acceptance speech, she said. “Mummy is gonna keep making you proud, and I am gonna keep showing you that being different is a good thing,” she became, to my mind, a national treasure herself. Her young son was so excited by the attention that he hid under his chair.
If you want to book tickets, good luck. You’ll need to wait a while, and that’s great.
