Friedman’s Company Also producing music with studiocanala European film and television studio that owns worldwide Paddington rights, and Eliza Lumley Productions On behalf of Universal Music UK, a one-time subsidiary of StudioCanal. At a time of growing concern about Broadway ticket prices, producers say their tickets will start at $69. (The Hirschfeld Theater seats approximately 1,400; in contrast, the Savoy Theatre, where the show is running in London, seats 1,100.)
Freedman and Lumley, speaking in a joint video interview, said they expected to make some changes to the show before it came to Broadway – fixing things they didn’t get before the London opening, and removing some British references that are unlikely to resonate with American audiences; Overall, however, he believes that the Britishness of the story will be an asset and not a liability. “Anything that goes over the audience’s heads, we’ll repurpose, but we’re not going to suddenly set it in Brooklyn,” Friedman said.
The show took over six years to develop; Central to that process was figuring out how to portray Paddington on stage. After experimenting with different forms of puppetry, the producers and creative team decided to go in a different direction, partly because they realized the narrative need and emotional power of seeing Paddington isolated and alone, which prevented the use of visual puppetry.
Instead, he adopted an unusual and, thus far, successful solution – an actor of shorter stature portraying the bear in costume, working in conjunction with another actor, usually offstage, who provides the bear’s voice. The production considers that pair of actors as its joint stars. (The bear is usually about 3 feet 9 inches tall, depending on the height of the artist.)
And why is the show going on? Lumley said, “One of the things that Paddington does is he looks for the best in everyone and everything, which is something that resonates with the audience very deeply.” “As the world has grown darker, the lightness and joy of the story has become more relevant.”
