“The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”, Ambassadors Theatre
Mark Shenton in the West End
12 November 2024
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button is a new British folk musical based on the F. Scott Fitzgerald short story which transposes the action to rural Cornwall. It is a one-of-a-kind show with a truly authentic local flavour, an enchanting story with dark, deep ripples of genuine originality, and a folk score that anchors it in a wealth of evocative and heartfelt melodies that make the heart soar.
Photo credit: Marc Brenner.
I simply adore it – it might just be the best and boldest new homegrown musical in the 40 years since Howard Goodall’s The Hired Man brought Melvyn Bragg’s novel to musical life in the West End. Sure, we’ve had such international behemoths as The Phantom of the Opera, Miss Saigon, and Matilda in the years in between. But I have to go back all the way to The Hired Man for an authentically English-flavoured musical that shares much of that show’s earthy, spiritual qualities of being grounded in a spellbinding sense of community and the long journey of life in such a moving way.
It is also, intriguingly, part of a new wave of innovation in British musicals. Instead of those giant hits of the Eighties that also included Cats, Starlight Express, and of course the British re-staging of the French hit Les Misérables, which were launched under the auspices of commercial producers (albeit working with the RSC in the case of Les Mis), they are now being developed via fringe London runs first.
These include the now Broadway-bound Operation Mincemeat, developed at the New Diorama then in two separate subsequent runs at Southwark Playhouse before transferring to the intimate Fortune Theatre, where it is still running. More recently, Kathy and Stella Solve a Murder!, which preceded Benjamin Button into the Ambassadors, arrived there after premiering on the Edinburgh Fringe, as did the earliest incarnation of Six, initially an undergraduate student show.
Benjamin Button, meanwhile, has had an eight-year journey to the West End, including runs at Southwark Playhouse on either side of the pandemic, first in 2019 in the Little studio, then in 2023 in the larger Southwark Elephant.
Its arrival at the Ambassadors – still one of the West End’s most intimate spaces – is a warm and embracing surprise, retaining the show’s intimate sense of connection yet now owning a larger theatre even more powerfully.
That’s partly the collective hug it extends to its audience as it quickly absorbs them into its quirky reverse-chronology as it tells the life story of its title character, born as an already old man, and gradually getting younger as the show progresses.
It is an aching, moving, and eventually overwhelming trajectory. But I don’t want to give the impression that the show is all loss and negativity; it pulses with humanity and a genuine humility as well, as Benjamin grapples with his plight and still finds happiness.
The show is a monumental achievement for Jethro Compton, who wrote the book, directed and designed it, as well as co-writing the lyrics with composer Darren Clark. Together they have created a sometimes fantastical – but always fantastic – show of real feeling, wit, and warmth.
That’s provided in spades by an exemplary ensemble cast of 13 actor-musicians, who mostly play multiple roles as well as instruments. They are led by an extraordinary John Dagleish as Benjamin, replacing Jamie Parker who played him last year at Southwark and bringing a tender vulnerability to him that is gorgeous to behold. Also thrilling in her utter generosity is Clare Foster’s Elowen, the daughter of the village midwife with whom Benjamin falls in love and has two children.
It is all framed by Compton’s rustic set of wooden platforms and fishing nets, and embedded in the often glorious melodies of Clark’s bracing score.
