The Curious Case of Benjamin Button at the Ambassadors Theatre – review round-up

The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button – a moving musical

Book writer Jethro Compton transports Benjamin Button across the Atlantic to Cornwall and shifts the story forward several decades. According to the critics, it is an inspired decision that results in an extraordinary show.

“Compton seizes on the uncanny, folklorish nature of the story and transposes events to a Cornish fishing village in the 20th century,” explains Sarah Hemming (Financial Times, ★★★★). The result is “a wildly improbable yet thoroughly enchanting musical”.

Benjamin Button is “a soaring folk opera that overwhelms you with a cascade of song and feeling” according to Andrzej Lukowski (TimeOut, ★★★★) and “a sweet love story that carries a powerful, almost mystical musing on the nature of existence” according to Nick Curtis (Evening Standard, ★★★★). For Marianka Swain (LondonTheatre, ★★★★), meanwhile, the show is “a beguiling new entry to the West End” and for Alun Hood (WhatsOnStage, ★★★★★) it is “one of the best British musicals in decades”.

David Fincher’s 2008 adaptation starring Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett was a “cold white elephant of a film” contends Tim Robey (Telegraph, ★★★★★). This adaptation, on the other hand, has an “open-hearted lyricism” that “achieves a truly warming glow, the likes of which we may not have seen since the Tony-winning Once, more than a decade ago”.

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The Curious Case of Benjamin Button – a Cornish ceilidh

Jethro Compton and Darren Clark’s show has expanded since it was first seen at Southwark Playhouse in 2019, first to fill Southwark Playhouse Elephant, and now to fill the Ambassadors. The critics are particularly captivated by its staging and its score.

“The atmosphere is like a ceilidh – or the West Country equivalent – during a pub lock-in,” describes Curtis. “On a set of ropes and timbers, a 13-strong cast of joyfully versatile actor-musicians give vent to moving, witty songs that swell like the ocean. Feet are stamped and tubs are enthusiastically thumped.” It is “stirring” and “charming”.

“The Cornish setting has inspired Clark to produce a shimmering, soaring score, Celtic-flavoured with a pop sensibility, that shifts from delicate to thunderous as it encompasses folk ballads of aching longing, fishermen’s shanties, rollicking drinking songs, and rousing chorales that thrill the blood,” contributes Hood. “There’s even an anthem sung in Kernewek, the ancient Cornish language.”

The set, designed by Anna Kelsey, is “a seafaring delight, with wooden crates, planks and ropes used to create everything from barstools to a boat, and, overhead, fairy lights twinkling among the fishing nets to suggest stars”, adds Swain. “Luke Swaffield’s evocative soundscape features lapping waves and a whistling wind. There’s a sense of the vast eternity of nature, in sharp contrast to the brief span of a human life.”

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The Curious Case of Benjamin Button – perfect performances

In last year’s staging of Benjamin Button at Southwark Playhouse Elephant, Harry Potter and The History Boys star Jamie Parker played the lead. Here, it is taken on by John Dagleish, who originated the role of Ray Davies in the musical Sunny Afternoon.

“Dagleish doesn’t resort to extravagant make-up as he journeys from old man to teenager,” writes Clive Davis (Times, ★★★★). “The narrative holds us through the power of words and gestures. Benjamin is a painfully inarticulate figure who drifts through the world like an unassuming, 20th-century version of Frankenstein’s monster.”

Dagleish “unforgettably combines astonishing vulnerability with imposing physicality” according to Hood, while Holly O’Mahony (The Stage, ★★★★) calls him “bashful and charming” and Emma Johns (Guardian, ★★★★) admires “a moving performance” that combines “the physicality of an old man with the expressions of an abandoned child”.

There is plenty of praise, too, for Clare Foster, who plays love interest Elowen. She is “superbly affecting” for Davis, “heartbreakingly good” for Hood, “astonishingly radiant” for Robey, and “sassy, self-assured and stunningly voiced” according to Johns.

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button – the verdict

Jethro Compton and Darren Clark’s musical impressed at Southwark Playhouse in 2019. It impressed at Southwark Playhouse Elephant last year. And it impresses again in the West End. The critics are full of admiration for the story, the score, the staging, the set and the lead performances from John Dagleish and Clare Foster.

Most critics award four stars, but WhatsOnStage’s Alun Hood and the Telegraph’s Tim Robey give the show the full five. Operation Mincemeat journeyed from a fringe theatre to the West End, and is now Broadway-bound. Perhaps Benjamin Button will follow it.