After Nearly 10 Years, 'Benjamin Button' Musical Reaches U.S. Stage

By Elena Vasquez

Nearly 10 years in the making, the musical "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" makes its U.S. debut at the Public Theater in New York, with performances scheduled to run through December 20. The Olivier Award-winning show adapts F. Scott Fitzgerald's 1922 short story about a man who ages in reverse.

Jethro Compton was not yet 30 when he first read Fitzgerald's story. He plucked it from a list of works in the public domain, partly because he recognized the title from David Fincher's 2008 film adaptation. He thought the tale might make a good play.

"It was larger than life, and there was an impossibility to it and something inherently theatrical in that," Compton said. He is a playwright, director and producer, and he created the musical with Darren Clark.

Why did the show take a decade to arrive?

Compton, now 38, offered a direct answer. "We want to get the show right before we send it out around the world," he said in September, speaking at the Public Theater before rushing off to rehearsal, where he was still refining the script.

A near-decade development span is long for any stage adaptation. It means the show spent roughly the same amount of time in development as Fincher's film spent in Hollywood pre-production limbo — a comparison that underscores how thoroughly the creators reworked their material before an American run.

Asked about a Broadway transfer, Compton was open-ended. "There have been conversations about every possible thing," he said.

How did a Cornish fishing village merge with Baltimore?

The show's origin explains its unusual shape. Back in 2017, Compton was tinkering with two separate projects: the "Benjamin Button" adaptation and a folk musical set in a Cornish fishing village.

He eventually realized the two could become one show. Fitzgerald's story begins in Baltimore, but Compton concluded the setting was not fixed.

"I don't think the themes of the short story are American themes," he said. "It deals with a universal idea that can work in any setting."

That decision produced a British-inflected musical from a distinctly American source text. The Fitzgerald estate's 1922 publication placed the story in the public domain, which allowed Compton to adapt it freely.

What happens next?

The Public Theater run closes December 20. Compton's comment that conversations have covered "every possible thing" leaves the door open to Broadway, a West End return and international productions. For now, the show's American life begins downtown.