The 39-year-old has written the music for Paddington The Musical, which will debut at London’s Savoy Theatre on November 1, and follows the small bear from Peru as he lands in London where a chance encounter with the Brown family leads to him finding a new home.
Speaking about the production, Fletcher told the PA news agency: “We’ve seen it a lot of times now, and we’ve witnessed that moment of the impact and step out on to the stage, and it still makes me well up and makes me cry every time.”
Michael Bond’s famous bear has starred in TV series and films (Andrew Matthews/PA)
Jessica Swale, who wrote the play, added: “Tom needs to be investing in Kleenex.
“It’s incredibly moving, and for me, there’s certainly this joy in seeing what theatre can do, that even though we all love Instagram and TikTok and Netflix, and people’s attention spans become shorter, this feels like a way that theatre is staying very much on the cutting edge of storytelling.”
It has not yet been announced how Paddington will be portrayed in the show, with Swale saying there is a “great mystery surrounding” how he will be brought to life, describing it as an “innovation”.
Fletcher does not think the music for the film sounds like his own band, with Swale praising his songs for their “absolute range”.
The singer added: “I feel like the music sounds like Paddington, it wasn’t like we sat down to try to figure out what it should sound like.
“It’s so inspiring, these characters and stories, that it just kind of happened, and we got to the end of it, and this show feels like the music just captures the heart of what you think Paddington should sound like, and what this story should sound like.
“I’m not sure if it sounds like McFly, no one said that yet.”
Fletcher said he was watching the Paddington 2 film with his three sons when he received the phone call asking if he wanted to write the music for the stage production.
The Paddington books written by Michael Bond were first published on October 13 1958, and they have seen a number of adaptations over the years, including a BBC TV version in 1976, voiced by the late Sir Michael Hordern.
Recent movies, which feature Ben Whishaw as the voice of the bear, released in 2014, 2017 and 2024 have all performed well at the box office.
Priority tickets for Paddington The Musical will be available from May 13 before going on general sale on May 15.
The performance schedule and casting is to be announced at a later date.
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