F. Scott Fitzgerald’s ‘Benjamin Button’ Comes of Age on Stage

If you’re only familiar with “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” through David Fincher’s sweeping, melodramatic film, it may come as a surprise that the source material, a short story by F. Scott Fitzgerald — published in 1922, more than 85 years before the movie premiered — is a punchy little satire, in which the author used the tale of a man who ages backwards to send up strict, snooty social mores.The new musical adaptation of “Benjamin Button” that has arrived off-Broadway at the Public Theater, following a West End run that earned three Olivier Awards last year, is listed in the program as based solely on the story. But in its length, two and a half hours (including intermission), and its tone, the show, which features a book by Jethro Compton and music by Darren Clark, with lyrics by both, initially invites more comparisons to the screen version.The new iteration of “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button,” which Mr. Compton has directed as well, is much more compelling, however, and that stems in part from a key difference: It’s a stage musical, meaning that its characters not only appear to us in the flesh but can also break into song and dance whenever emotion requires them to do so. There’s more of an inherent suspension of disbelief, which accommodates the story’s fantastical nature.What makes “Benjamin Button,” in addition, the most moving new musical to arrive in our city for quite some time — at least since 2024’s “Maybe Happy Ending,” which followed an even longer drought — is how gracefully Messrs. Compton and Clark channel their earnestness, in the show’s dialogue and structure and particularly in its tuneful, folk-drenched score, which veers from brightness to melancholy without striking a false note.As Eric Roth and Robin Swicord did in adapting the story for Mr. Fincher’s film, the musical’s creators have put their own spin on Fitzgerald’s yarn. Their Benjamin is born, in the body of a roughly 70-year-old man, in a seaside village in Cornwall. We’re introduced to his mother, who didn’t figure substantially into the short story or the movie; Mary Button’s time on stage is brief but darkly significant, and Sachiko Mae, who sings gorgeously in the role, helps establish a haunted atmosphere.Ms. Mae will play a few characters, as well as various musical instruments; the other performers do the same, with just a couple of exceptions: Brandon J. Ellis juggles cello, bass guitar, and tambourine but is cast primarily as Roger Button, Benjamin’s father, though he also appears as “Tewes,” Cornish for sand. Andrew Durand, who portrays Benjamin, only plays a bit of guitar, but he too does a flash of double duty as “Reverthi,” or the spring tide, which is also assigned lines and lyrics here. Nature and its stubborn indomitability are emphasized throughout “Benjamin Button.” The opening song tells us, “Time an’ tide wait for no man,” a refrain that is repeated continuously. Various ensemble members chart the passing years, days, hours, and minutes as Benjamin grows up in reverse, increasingly aware of the unique challenges and limitations facing him.He meets the only woman he will ever love, Elowen Keene, played by a feisty Kelsee Kimmel, when she’s an ingénue and he’s in his fifties. They liken themselves to the moon and the sea, a comparison that only gains poignance as Benjamin becomes more youthful and vigorous while Elowen does the opposite, chafing at the connections available in more conventional relationships.Mr. Durand, who earned a Tony Award nomination last year for playing the title role in “Dead Outlaw,” a part that required him to pose as a corpse for a lengthy period, manages Benjamin’s unlikely journey with equal dexterity: He’s wry as the world’s oldest infant, wielding a pipe and advising his exhausted mother to try a shot of brandy, then evolves adroitly from an endearing older gentleman to an ardent but conflicted husband and father to, finally, a spry adolescent.While adult actors play young children, adorably, at other points in the production, Benjamin’s regression into infancy is tracked in a different fashion. I won’t spoil the ending with specifics, but if you leave the theater with dry eyes, you’re made of tougher stuff than me. Regardless, “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” is a gem, and it deserves a bigger setting uptown.

F. Scott Fitzgerald’s ‘Benjamin Button’ Comes of Age on Stage

F. Scott Fitzgerald’s ‘Benjamin Button’ Comes of Age on Stage

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