The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button is a British folk musical about a man who is born old and grows younger every year. It is loosely based on F. Scott Fitzgerald's 1922 short story, not on the 2008 film, and it moves the tale from 19th-century America to a fishing village in Cornwall in the 20th century. The story is told by a company of 15 actor-musicians who play the whole score on stage.

In London the show won the 2025 Olivier Award for Best New Musical. This is its North American premiere and its first production in the United States, staged by The Public Theater in its Newman Theater. Previews began on October 8, 2026, with a free first performance, and the official opening is set for October 21, 2026. The limited run has been extended twice and is scheduled to end on December 6, 2026.

Under a full moon on December 17, 1918, in a small Cornish fishing village, Benjamin Button is born an old man who can already talk. His mother Mary dies two months later. His father Roger hides him in the attic and keeps his existence a secret from the village.

About ten years on, Benjamin looks younger and finally sneaks out to the local pub, the Pickled Crab. There he falls for the barmaid, Elowen Keene, daughter of the midwife who delivered him. He talks his way onto the Salty Maid, a fishing boat out of Newlyn crewed by the Trenlee family, and finds friendship among the fishermen.

In 1933 Benjamin and Elowen fall in love, but both families oppose the match. A plan to run away together fails, and they go their separate ways. When a German air raid sinks the boat in 1941, Benjamin and his friend Little Jack Trenlee join the Royal Navy. The first act ends in Portsmouth on June 5, 1944, the night before D-Day, with a message in a bottle and an unexpected meeting at a navy ball.

Underneath the fairy-tale premise is a story about outsiders. All Benjamin wants is to live a little life and find a place where he belongs, which is exactly what his condition keeps taking away from him.

Darren Clark composed the score and wrote the lyrics with Jethro Compton. The sound draws on Cornwall's tradition of folk songs and sea shanties and is often described as Celtic folk or folk-rock. Compton chose the setting precisely because music belongs there naturally, which suits a cast that sings and plays at the same time.

Songs include "The Western Wind," "The Kraken's Lullaby," "A Little Life," "The Pickled Crab," "The Moon And The Sea," "Home," "Shippin' Out Tomorrow," "The Tide Is Comin' In," "Rollin' Away" and "A Glass Bottle." The opening number, "Rag Ty Yw Tre," takes its title from Cornish. "The Moon And The Sea" was the first song the two writers created together, on their first writing weekend, and it convinced them to share the lyrics. A cast recording came out in 2025.

Benjamin's reverse aging is shown without makeup. Early on he wears an oversized jacket and leans on a cane, and the change comes through costume, movement and voice. Every company member has a Cornish-style name, such as Reverthi, Sterenow or Gwyns, and most also play several characters, from villagers and sailors to doctors.

As of October 2026, Andrew Durand plays Benjamin. He was nominated for a 2025 Tony Award for Dead Outlaw, and his Broadway credits also include Shucked, Ink, Head Over Heels and War Horse. Kelsee Kimmel, recently Jersey in Hell's Kitchen on Broadway, plays Elowen and is part of the onstage band. The company also includes Britney Coleman, Trevor Lindley Craft, Brandon J. Ellis, Katie Horner, Sachiko Mae, Morgan Morse, Kris Saint-Louis, Claire-Frances Sullivan and Matt Wolpe, with Jo Brook, Casey Martin Klein, Lauren Jeanne Thomas and Spiff Wiegand as swings. Morse won a Drama Desk Award for orchestrating The Porch on Windy Hill.

Compton found Fitzgerald's story after it entered the public domain and merged it with his idea for a musical set in Cornwall, borrowing from the magical realism of Cornish folklore. An early workshop there used a different composer, who dropped out before Clark came on board. The writers say they have reworked the show for every production.

It premiered at Southwark Playhouse in London on May 15, 2019, with James Marlowe as Benjamin. An expanded version returned there in 2023 with a larger cast, led by Jamie Parker, and won the 2024 Off West End Award for Best Musical Production. It moved to the Ambassadors Theatre in the West End on October 10, 2024, and played for about a year, closing on October 11, 2025. A Korean-language production is planned for Seoul in 2027.