The Curious Case of Benjamin Button is frankly remarkable. Jethro Compton’s book, lyrics and direction alongside Darren Clark’s music, own lyrics and orchestrations weave together a musical that speaks from the heart about belonging, acceptance, and love.
This musical has turned this story from a pop culture reference into folklore.
Based on the short story by F Scott Fitzgerald, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button follows the titular character, Benjamin Button (Jamie Parker), a man who is born at the end of his life and keeps getting progressively younger. After falling for Elowen Keene (Molly Osborne), Benjamin leaves his village, and goes on a journey to search for a home and love whilst battling his internalization of otherness.
This musical is not a faithful adaptation of Fitzgerald’s short story, but rather takes the original concept of the source text a step further, making it an uplifting tale about self-love and overcoming difficulties rather than dwelling on society’s fear of the ‘other’ and propriety. In fact, it does more in its 2 hours than Fitzgerald in 20 pages (give or take), for Fitzgerald seems to condemn Benjamin Button to misery, whilst this musical tries to lift him out of it. Compton and Clarke have taken the central idea of Benjamin Button and made it their own, transferring the story from the antebellum Deep South to north Cornwall, jumping forward in time from 1860 to 1918, and adding additional thematic relevance and depth to Benjamin and Elowen’s relationship - the expansion of which adds to the bittersweetness of this adaptation. They’ve made the story their own and in doing so have improved upon it.
Compton and Clark’s score provides a very clear example on the power of storytelling and myth, building on a trend started by Dave Malloy and Anaїs Mitchell of creating overwhelming musical soundscapes, using the cast to drive the musical forward through narration and accompaniment. The score is as elemental as the sea, with the pair showing a mastery of the genre, moving between different traditional and folk music tropes, from dark and ethereal melodies that haunt our subconscious like The Kraken’s Lullaby to upbeat, foot-stamping jigs like When E’re She Looked at Me, to whispered love songs and gravelly voiced longings for home. The score brings a lot of clarity to the themes and motifs explored in the show, from the exploration of self-acceptance and society, but also uses recurring elemental symbols like time, the moon and the sea as a representation of the characters themselves. Compton and Clark are explicit in what they are trying to say with this musical, adding depth where Fitzgerald’s story lacks. They’ve created an overwhelming, acoustic harmony; a thunderous determination and demand to be heard.
The creative team has built their design on recurring motifs in this musical, essentially focalizing the unstoppable forces of nature. From the start, Luke Swaffield’s sound design envelops us with the sound of the sea; waves crashing, seagulls crying which contextualizes the action for us and sets the stage for the story to come. Swaffield’s sound design adds extra details throughout the musical, inserting realism in an otherwise mystical show. Anna Kelsey’s costume design makes the cast into a swirling whole of greens and blues that are a blend of being period-specific - especially noticeable in the design for the male cast members - whilst also layering materials that are inspired by the land and sea, whether it’s netting or rope-like patterns and even scales. Kelsey’s costume design is also the main way in which we see the progression of Benjamin’s de-ageing, an unexpectedly simple and elegant series of transitions that are incredibly effective. With Chi-San Howard’s choreography, the green and blue-clad cast mimic the sea, the constant observer of Benjamin’s story, as they spin around the stage, rising and falling like the waves.
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button uses actor-musicianship in order to build its folk atmosphere. The songs require the cast to act as narrators and signpost the progression of the story, whether it’s to give more narrative detail or to give us a glimpse into the character’s mind at a particular moment, switching from individual characters to a chorus, borrowing from the oral tradition of storytelling. With their high-energy movements and playing, they look like a community having fun, an energy that breaks the 4th wall and leaves us in higher spirits than before.
Parker is truly tremendous as Benjamin Button; it’s a complicated role but he makes the de-ageing process look so seamless and natural. Even though he’s helped along by costume and make-up, there’s a gradual change in his demeanour, voice and movements that makes this process noticeable. There’s an innate goodness in his being, especially in his interactions with Osborne, a settled happiness that is endearing and sweet. At no point does he lose the weight that Benjamin’s secret has on him. It's subtle, but we can tell that it’s there, which is why his performance causes feelings of anticipation in us, almost as if we, like Benjamin, are waiting for something to go wrong. In this way, Parker makes us feel what the character feels, and the fact that we are emotionally in step with the character makes us empathize with him, and our hearts hurt. But seeing Benjamin’s transformation at the end is really touching; Parker has really outdone himself in this role.
In Fitzgerald’s short story, Benjamin Button marries a woman who is shallow, unlikeable, and makes his life miserable. None of this can be used to describe Elowen, nor Osborne’s performance. She just radiates warmth, light and love, and yes it helps that she is dressed in warm colours as opposed to the rest of the cast, but from her first appearance we can just tell why Benjamin is drawn to her. Osborne has a mischievousness in her performance, a lilt that goes beyond her Cornish accent. And although her character’s ageing process is linear, she still emanates goodness, but with an emphasized sense of serene tenderness. The character is almost like an embodiment of hope and home for Benjamin, and Osborne’s performance really personifies that feeling for all of us.
This musical has turned this story from a pop culture reference into folklore. The cast creates a whirlwind of activity onstage; just constant fast and furious motion onstage that is visually overwhelming. We learn from this musical and it provides us with insight into our own lives, making The Curious Case of Benjamin Button more than a must-see musical, but an imperative for everyone to watch, for there is nothing out there that is quite like this show.
