{"id":304841,"date":"2026-07-24T15:54:30","date_gmt":"2026-07-24T15:54:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/304841\/"},"modified":"2026-07-24T15:54:30","modified_gmt":"2026-07-24T15:54:30","slug":"benjamin-button-musical-finds-its-new-york-cast","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/304841\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Benjamin Button’ Musical Finds Its New York Cast"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tThe stage musical adaptation of The Curious Case of Benjamin Button<\/a> will make its North American premiere Off Broadway<\/a> at the Public Theater<\/a> this fall, with Dead Outlaw Tony nominee Andrew Durand<\/a> taking the title role.<\/p>\n

\n\tFull casting of the production, which begins previews October 8, opens October 21 and runs through November 15, has been announced by the Public. <\/p>\n

\n\tIn addition to Durand, currently starring in Broadway\u2019s The Rocky Horror Show, the Button cast of actor-musicians will include Kelsee Kimmel as Elowen Keene, Britney Coleman, Trevor Lindley Craft, Brandon J. Ellis, Katie Horner, Sachiko Mae, Morgan Morse, Kris Saint-Louis, Claire-Frances Sullivan and Matt Wolpe.<\/p>\n

\n\tBased on the F. Scott Fitzgerald short story, the musical reimagines the tale in which a man is born elderly and ages in reverse, re-setting the location to a Cornish fishing village on the coast of Great Britain and giving characters Cornish names. Button is presented with an onstage company of 15 actor-musicians as it traces the main character\u2019s life from World War I through the 20th Century. <\/p>\n

\n\tThe musical, which won the Olivier Award for Best New Musical in 2025, features a book by Jethro Compton, music by Darren Clark, and lyrics by Clark and Compton. As with the West End production, Compton will again direct and provide scenic design.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe staging at the Public\u2019s Newman Theater will re-assemble the original London creative team including choreographer Chi-San Howard, music director Mark Aspinall, costume designer Anna Kelsey, lighting designer Zoe Spurr, and sound designer Luke Swaffield for Autograph Sound. Orchestrations are by Aspinall and Clark.<\/p>\n

\n\tDurand, in addition to Dead Outlaw and The Rocky Horror Show, has appeared on Broadway in Shucked, Spring Awakening, War Horse, Head Over Heels and Ink, as well as numerous Off Broadway productions.<\/p>\n

\n\tKelsee Kimmel (who plays Button\u2019s wife Elowen, the musical\u2019s version of the film\u2019s Daisy and short story\u2019s Hildegarde) has appeared on Broadway in Hell\u2019s Kitchen and Six.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn the film, Brad Pitt played Benjamin and Daisy was played by Cate Blanchett. <\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tAndrew Durand, seated, in \u2018The Rocky Horror Show\u2019 <\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tJoan Marcus<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The stage musical adaptation of The Curious Case of Benjamin Button will make its North American premiere Off…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":304842,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[115502,9,11,10,34384,115503,84350],"class_list":["post-304841","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-andrew-durand","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-news","tag-off-broadway","tag-the-curious-case-of-benjamin-button","tag-the-public-theater"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/304841","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=304841"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/304841\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/304842"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=304841"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=304841"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=304841"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}