The Curious Case of Benjamin Button – 18 October 2026
The story of a wandering soul dreaming of just a little more time, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button follows a man whose peculiar circumstances of his birth cause him to age in reverse. This man, Benjamin (Andrew Durand) is lucky in love with his beautiful Elowen Keene (Kelsee Kimmel), but fears people knowing the truth about his aberration. Anchored by the masterful storytellers in the ensemble cast, Benjamin is obsessive about time, yet still manages to fall into the human pitfall of wasting some of his allotment. Clever, playful, and winsome, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button ebbs and flows through a story that is deliciously effervescent.
The music is a folksy sea chanty, with delightful fiddling (Britney Coleman, Sachiko Mae). The score is rich with both vocal layers and instrumental textures, all of which are provided by the actors onstage. The joy in this performance is palpable, and the ensemble’s unbridled energy and happiness is infectious. The world moves around Benjamin, and characters pop in and out of the ensemble as needed; these changes are shown with postures and sometimes costume piece adjustments. This production sometimes makes an interesting choice to have ensemble members portray characters of opposite genders. These caricature moments help build the whimsy of the world and also gently play with the idea of normalizing lives lived backwards. Obviously aging backwards is an extreme example, but The Curious Case of Benjamin Button is fundamentally a story about someone who is afraid of his differences finding love in his life and winning the hearts of the audience in the process. While society might find men playing women and women playing men when not strictly necessary to be a tad unconventional, in the world of the show so many elements are topsy turvy and unconventional that this device barely registers by the show’s conclusion.
In addition to celebrating different ways to spend your life’s time, there are some emotional lamentations. Beyond Elowen, Benjamin experiences loss and rejection. At the end of the show, parallels are drawn between aging and being an infant— they talk about Benjamin losing his memories, losing his ability to recognize people, and losing his ability to distinguish between dreams and reality. These moments rise in tidal waves of emotion amidst the ebb and flow of portrayals of daily life. More than anything the stylistic use of the ensemble creates community and shows how little moments connect people to one another, and posits how these little moments of connection can add up to big life changes. Another storytelling device that is deeply moving is the use of the ensemble surrounding characters and singing conversations between the characters as the actors portraying the characters move silently. This enables the audience to understand how the characters are feeling in a heightened, amplified way. Jethro Compton’s directorial decisions enhance the production at every step, allowing the audience to feel their way through the performance.
The unsung hero of The Curious Case of Benjamin Button is lighting designer Zoe Spurr. The set (Jethro Compton) transforms many times, and it is Spurr’s insightful gaze that executes these transformations. Sensitively walking the line between boldness and naturalism, Spurr makes the world of the musical enticingly beautiful. Spurr’s work showcases the intensity of the score as well as the subtlety of the characters’ inner workings. Capturing everything from the twinkling of the stars to the crash of the waves, the lighting design truly shines.
The story has some unexplained quirks, but they’re not material enough to prevent enjoyment of the show’s material. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button postulates that we only have one set amount of time on this earth, and encourages us to live it fully. The show is whimsical, uproarious, and, above all, genuinely fun. It’s an experience that moves, delights, and tickles the audience’s fancy.
I attended this performance on a press pass from The Public Theater.
