The Curious Case of Benjamin Button - Off-Broadway

The new musical, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, is an inspired piece of musical theater, both a jubiliant and somber work.  Based on F. Scott Fitzgerald story of a man who ages in reverse, the show was a big hit on the London stage, winning the 2025 Olivier Award for Best Musical.  The production is set to run at The Public Theater through December 6, 2026.  A possible extension or move to Broadway could be in its future.

 

Director Jethro Compton, who also wrote the book and lyrics and created the Scenic Design, has moved the original story from New Orleans to a fishing village on the Cornish coast, circa 1918.   His multi-level set incorporates items suggestive of a coastal fishing village – weathered wooden planks, rope, and netting.   This is combined with Zoe Spur’s atmospheric lighting design that heightens the ethereal nature of this whimsical tale.  Choreographer Chi-San Howard keeps the cast in constant motion, whirling around the stage.  There are no large-scale production numbers for the performers, just a more natural flow of energetic flourishes. 

 

The plot follows the birth of Benjamin Button as a 79-year-old man.  We first glimpse him, hunched over, dressed in a full suit, sitting on his bed at home.  His mother and father, shocked and resentful, keep him in an upstairs bedroom, away from society’s prying eyes.  As the years pass, the elderly man begins to get younger.  Compton makes the correct choice of disusing extensive makeup or special effects to simulate the reverse aging process.  Instead, the actor Andrew Durand uses his physicality, costuming, and props, like glasses.

 

Yearning to be free and see the world, Benjamin escapes from his home, where he ends up at the local pub.  There he sets eyes on the barmaid Elowen, falling instantly in love.  Their “courtship,” takes a long, circuitous path that is at times blissful, celebratory, but also full of tragedy.  Time, for many reasons, is not on their side.  It is such an important aspect of the show that, throughout the production, cast members note its passage by days, months, years, even minutes.

 

Compton paces the musical at a satisfying tempo.  He has infused the show with imagination and creativity that enhances and pushes forward the story.  The underwater sequences, for example, are exquisite theatrical renderings.

 

The score, with music and lyrics by Darren Clark (and lyrics by Compton), leans heavily into folk music, sea shanties, tender ballads, and rousing ensemble numbers.  Speaking of ensemble, the show is propelled by a nine-person ensemble, in addition to the two main characters.  This group of superb performers portrays multiple characters, they sing, dance, and each also play several different instruments.

 

Andrew Durand gives an stirring performance as Benjamin Button.  It is quite a different role for the actor, who most recently was a love-struck corn grower in Shucked and a crazed desperado in Dead Outlaw.  Here, as I stated before, he credibly transforms from an aged old man to a spry lad in his teens.  The portrayal is full of wonder, as he explores his new world, and sadness as his life moves backward.

 

Kelsee Kimmel’s Elowen is full-of-life, independent, and rebellious.  As with Durand, he convincingly goes through the aging process as she experiences happiness and sadness alone and by the side of Benjamin Button.

 

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, playing at The Public Theater through December 6.  Click here for dates, times, and ticket information.