'Benjamin Button' Review: The West End's Newest Musical Hits Home Deeply But Doesn't Travel Far

★★★ | The first thing to know: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button is journeying into exceptional territory. At a time when blockbuster-movie adaptations a la The Devil Wears Prada and Mean Girls proliferate the West End, Benjamin Button eschews staging a musical version of the multi-Oscar-winning film starring Brad Pitt. Instead, writer-director Jethro Compton transposes the original 1922 story – about the tales and travels of a man who ages backward (i.e. born an elderly growing into a young man) – onto his native Cornwall. It is a welcome choice indeed.

There is much to enjoy about this folk-infused, upbeat musical, now in the West End following its original run at the Southwark Playhouse. Visually, the production is a feast. Zoe Spurr’s lighting design is playful, shifting from a warm, bustling pub to the cold, unfeeling depths of the Atlantic Ocean. Jethro Compton (also the show’s set designer) creates a jungle-gym of a set, reminiscent of fantasy-adventure shows like Peter and the Starcatchers or Tuck Everlasting. Built from driftwood and reminiscent of a dockside, the set adds much-needed depth to the small Ambassadors Theatre stage, full of nooks and crannies from which the ensemble observes and comments upon the unfolding story.

The company of The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. Photo Credit: Marc Brenner

Likewise, commendations must be made to the incredibly talented actor-musicians bringing Compton’s passion project to life. The cast members are both performer and band, many bouncing between multiple instruments (I spotted one of them play at least three). They are onstage for practically the entire show – which, in a show as ceaselessly energetic as this one, is a marathon feat.

As Benjamin Button, John Dagleish perfectly embodies the fairytale whimsy that his character, and the story, necessitates. Playing the newborn Button – who, in reverse ageing is born as an old man – Dagleish generates many of the show’s laughs; his warbling voice, ambling demeanour, and penchant for a good drink recall the grandpas and geezers many of us have met throughout our lives. 

However, these positive elements are at odds with the flatness of the musical itself. As mentioned, Jethro Compton has reimagined Benjamin Button in the context of his native Cornwall, with the set recalling the dock of a fishing town. The music itself, then, calls to mind the high-energy tunes of pubs and music halls, filled with repetition and refrain. Such explosive songs are great for an opening number or climax, but when every single song is in this style, it gets old (and boring) fast. Composer Darren Clark shares that he wanted "the music and lyric of this story [...] ebb and flow" like the ocean tide, but what we hear instead is a constant whirlpool of folk twee. 

The ensemble cast of actor-musicians in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. Photo Credit: Marc Brenner

This ‘twee’-ness is to the detriment of the story. The refrain is ‘show, don’t tell’ for good reason, and yet Benjamin Button is entirely dominated by ‘showing’. Every single song in this musical features the entire company; there are no extended solos, no moments of intimacy shared between just the audience and a single character. Instead, we witness a musical that treats Benjamin’s life like a picturesque fairytale, whizzing through events as he leaves his small Cornish town to wander the world. 

These episodes span from the personal – such as Button’s romance with the witty barmaid Elowen (Clare Foster) – to the global, including references to World War II and the first Moon landing. In the process, he meets all sorts of quirky characters and experiences/endures both wondrous and terrible things.

Yet despite his adventures, Button is ultimately always on his own, a man out of step with the world, society, and indeed time itself – it is to the show’s detriment, then, that we get frustratingly little insight into Button’s perspective on his predicament. Rather, the ensemble tells us what he is doing, and where he is going, but never why. Similar treatment is given to supporting characters like Button’s wife Elowen, reducing them all to stock figures rather than complex individuals worthy of a full-length musical. The result is a production where it feels like the actors succeed in spite of the music and writing, not because of it.

Clare Foster as Elowen (Benjamin Button's wife). Photo Credit: Marc Brenner

Nevertheless, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button must be recognised for doing something many West End shows no longer do: trying something new. Transporting an odd, fantastical short story to his native Cornwall, Jethro Compton has made a unique and clearly personal production, one that is held aloft by a strong cast and imaginative creative team. Given such passion and daring behind its concept, it is all the great shame, then, that when approaching the writing and music, Clark and Compton chose to stay safe, rejecting musical and narrative complexity in favour of one-note, cloying whimsy.

★★★

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button is open at the Ambassadors Theatre.