The Curious Case of Benjamin Button - Southwark/Ambassadors

As soon as I saw Jethro Compton Productions were behind this, I knew I'd be booking. His company has done some tremendous stuff at the Edinburgh Fringe.

Oooo it's a great film, so I'm certainly intrigued!

It's a very interesting season at Southwark next year

New artwork and casting announcement for the world premiere of this new musical

Cast: Matt Burns, Rosalind Ford, Joey Hickman, Philippa Hogg, James Marlowe

So it's all set in Ireland?

Can't they just fill his head with talc and shake it out as the story progresses?!

Hi, hope it's ok to mention here, I have two tickets to this on Wednesday which I can't use, see noticeboard!

What a 1st night preview, was so wonderful to be there for this.

I have big love for Cornwall & was swept away there tonight (clever small set & stunning lighting design) to well crafted folk musical.

This is an actors musician piece & blends well (I can’t imagine it not being and a band) as being a folk tale it’s cast of five narrate & take in characters throughout.

I don’t want to spoil too much in how they tell it (I wasn’t a fan of the film but this excelled & give it meaning for me) as it was so beautifully crafted & effecting. Yes, for me this produced many tears (I certainly wasn’t alone).

One of those I can see having more life, a cast album hopefully....it’s all just a matter of time!!

Oh and yes big deserving standing ovation, in fact they all looked shocked that the clapping didn’t stop & came back! It’s a great experience in a small space.

Loved it & plan to try get to this again but predict some good reviews at the weekend (press night is Friday!).

I loved this too last night. "Six" crossed with "Once" crossed with F Scott Fitzgerald, makes for a show that is as much a folk rock gig, as a musical, and which hits the same bitter-sweet spots that "Once" does about how precious and how little time we have.

Some spoilers follow. . .

Forget the film. That film was a very free adaptation of the Fitzgerald, integrating original material relating to race, ballet dancing and some very creepy scenes of Cate Blanchett cuddling her former lover who has become a baby.

This adaptation is equally free, sets the story in Cornwall, avoids the creepiness, excises the unpleasantness of the Fitzgerald (Fitzgerald's Benjamin Button was a cad), and focuses squarely on the best thing about the story: that this guy knows when he's going to die and feels life acutely.

By focusing on "time," and it's scarcity, this show squarely hits that "Once" style plaintive-celebration of the preciousness of people, places, and moments: gifting us with piquant folk rock earworms about us having only "A little bit of life," and of life being "A Matter of Time." In particular, the song "Home" feels like peak Glen Hansard.

The actor musicians are so talented that you could easily mistake the first half of this show for one of those early raucous life-affirming Mumford and Sons gigs, where the boys wore flat caps and overalls (they do here too) and danced and sang with Laura Marling. The effect here was the same: audience members unable to resist tapping their toes, and bouncing up and down in their seats. The lack of actual story beats and drama in the first half accentuates the sense of being at a "Six" style gig.

But if the first half lacks actual story, the second half is stuffed with it, as one wonderful dramatic moment follows another. And this is where a musical shift towards "Once" style ballads infuses the folk rock with meaning, resulting in a heady and successful mix of music and story, even if you had to wait too long for the latter.

The actor-musicians are all extremely likeable and direct themselves towards the audience, drawing them in to life's shared celebration, but thankfully there is no audience participation as such. Matthew Burns, Joey Hickman and Phillippa Hogg are effectively joyous, funny and raucous throughout, while Rosalind Ford and, mostly, James Marlowe, carry the dramatic weight wonderfully. Marlowe is the key ingredient, as his openness, honesty, vulnerability and gravitas, as Benjamin Button, preserves the show's seriousness, and innoculates it against becoming twee.

Overall, great fun for "Six" and "Once" fans, of which I am one. 4 stars.

Can anyone give any information on the seating arrangement for this? I've only been in the larger auditorium at Southwark before. Is the smaller one arranged as one block of seats or is it thrust/traverse/in the round? Given the seating is unreserved do I need to arrive really early to get a decent seat or would the view be fairly similar from all the seats?

A poser for me as very different as they are, I loved both Once and Six (the latter is still my stand-out "musical" of a decade), but I absolutely loathed, detested and hated the film, which was so abysmal that even now, simply thinking of it makes me angry. Hence it had never occurred to me to consider seeing this, yet the above comments are causing me to waver - so how on earth do I decide?