In this musical about a man who is born old and grows younger with each passing year, a company of 15 actor-musicians seemed to be having a stomping good time playing the lively Celtic-flavored folk-rock score and singing the clever lyrics – but in an accent coached to be a challenge for Americans to decipher.
“The Curious Case of Benjamin Button,” opening tonight at the Public Theater, is billed as based on a short story by F. Scott Fitzgerald. But the Jazz Age author wrote in an arch tone about an upper class family in Baltimore, Maryland. The British musical by Jethro Compton and Darren Clark, which had an award-winning run on the West End, has the feel of an epic English folk tale, set in a remote fishing village in rural Cornwall, England. The first of its 29 musical numbers is in Kernowek, an ancient language of Cornwall that’s still in use, and there is Cornish dialect sprinkled throughout, as well as Britishisms, like berk or pillock, both of which mean foolish person.
But if New York theatergoers might not be able to make sense of every line and lyric, it’s easy to get into the spirit of the show.
The fable is told episodically, and communally, each of the performers portraying as many as five characters apiece. It is stuffed with cheeky asides. Before we even meet Benjamin, we see his father Roger Button, making his way through the village, singing in a kind of call and choral response.
Roger: I’m off to meet my son
My boy’s on his way
Strangers; Roger shouted to a sheep
And the sheet replied with
Sheep:Baa
Baa
Strangers: And tried to count itself to sleep.
And then he, and we, finally meet Andrew Durand as a newborn septuagenarian, sitting in a three-piece suit, holding a cane, looking for his bowler hat; his first words: “Yer only as old as ya feel.”
For his first few years, Benjamin is kept hidden in the attic by his embarrassed family. He yearns to see the world, or at least go outdoors.
A Little Life
When he gets a little older, which is to say younger and healthier, he ventures to the local pub, where he meets the bartender Elowe (Kelsee Kimmel), the midwife’s daughter, with whom he falls instantly in love, but is too shy to talk to her, so only asks for a beer – having a drink for the first time at age 57 (or 13, depending on how you count.) They then returns to the pub once a week for years to have Elowe serve him beer, eventually working up the nerve to say please and then thank you. She likes that he’s more mature. But the world is against their union They each packed their bags and go their separate ways.
Over the course of his life, he goes to sea, joins the Navy during World War II, travels the world, comes back home to Elowe. They don’t grow old together, but they stay together.
TThe Curious Case of Benjamin Button
The Public Theater through December 6
Running time: 2 hours and 30 minutes, including an intermission
Tickets: $149
Book, lyrics and direction by Jethro Compton, music and lyrics by Darren Clark
Based on the short story by F. Scott Fitzgerald,
Choreographed by Chi-San Howard, Scenic design by Jethro Compton, costume design by Anna Kelsey, lighting design by Zoe Spurr, sound design by Luke Swaffield for Autograph Sound, voice and text coach Andrew Wade, dialect coach David Jarzen
Cast: Andrew Durand as Reverthi/Benjamin Button, Kelsee Kimmel as Sterenow/Elowen Keenem, Jo Brook (Swing), Britney Coleman (Gwyns), Trevor Lindley Craft (Morlan/Understudy), Brandon J. Ellis (Tewes/Understudy), Katie Horner (Treth/Understudy), Casey Martin Klein (Swing), Sachiko Mae (Avoryow/Understudy), Morgan Morse (Tonnow), Kris Saint-Louis (Lanow), Claire-Frances Sullivan (Ebron/Understudy), Lauren Jeanne Thomas (Swing), Spiff Wiegand (Swing), and Matt Wolpe (Tir).
