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A week of pure theatre joy collided with our favourite kind of head-scratching: we cheered the Wicked concert on telly, melted over Paddington the Musical’s adorable staging, then rolled up our sleeves for a frank, funny tour of Pippin’s brilliant weirdness. From marmalade charm to circus edge, the theme is the same: how musicals seduce us with shimmer while nudging us toward something real.

We start with the big headlines. Wicked’s TV special hints at the future of musical marketing, mixing a 37-piece orchestra with world-premiere sneak peeks. Paddington opens in London with a quietly dazzling twist: two performers share the bear, one inside the suit and one off-stage handling voice and facial animation. It looks warm, inventive and right. And yes, Avenue Q has the West End buzzing again, because who doesn’t want a two-puppet day?

Then we zoom in on Pippin. Stephen Schwartz’s score is a treasure box: Magic to Do, Corner of the Sky, Morning Glow and No Time at All sound fresh, hooky and surprisingly tender. Yet the show’s conceit—a troupe led by a charismatic ringmaster luring a prince toward meaning via spectacle—still splits rooms. We unpack why the story confuses, where Fosse’s fingerprints sharpen the edge, and how Patina Miller’s leading player in the 2013 revival reframed the role with gender-flipped power. Along the way we dig into the show’s odd milestones, like Broadway’s first TV ad showing onstage footage, and the way schools love Pippin for its ensemble, even as parents ask what on earth just happened.

The takeaway is simple and thorny. Beware charisma that promises the perfect ending. Compromise is not failure; it’s adulthood. And sometimes the bravest choice is a quiet life with the people you love. Cue a final nod to the cast recordings, some lyrics worth framing, and a few laughs about overtures, puppets, and the eternal pull of a hummable tune.

If this mix of hype and honesty hits home, follow the show, leave a quick review, and share this episode with a theatre friend who still argues about Pippin’s ending. What should we see first on our London trip—Paddington or Avenue Q?

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