Olivier Award-nominee Clare Foster (Travesties, Menier Chocolate Factory/Apollo Theatre, Merrily We Roll Along, Menier Chocolate Factory/Harold Pinter Theatre) will play Elowen Keene opposite the previously announced Olivier Award-winner John Dagleish (Sunny Afternoon, Hampstead Theatre/Harold Pinter Theatre, Sylvia, The Old Vic) as Benjamin Button in the West End production of the award-winning musical The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.
Due to begin performances at the Ambassadors Theatre on 10 October, the production will include a number of ensemble performers from the acclaimed Southwark Playhouse run in 2023 including Matthew Burns (Once The Musical, UK tour, The Wind in the Willows, The New Vic Theatre), Jonathan Charles (The Wicker Husband, Watermill Theatre, The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe, Birmingham Rep), Oonagh Cox (Footloose, UK/international tour, Matilda The Musical, Cambridge Theatre), Anna Fordham (Fantastic Mr Fox, Lyric Hammersmith/UK tour, The Good John Proctor, Jermyn Street), Philippa Hogg (The Enormous Crocodile, Leeds Playhouse, The Jungle Book, Watermill Theatre), Damien James (Fun at The Beach Romp-Bomp-A-Lomp, Southwark Playhouse, Camelot, The Watermill), Ann Marcuson (The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, National Theatre/Gielgud Theatre/tour, The Family Reunion, Donmar Warehouse), Jack Quarton (Amélie, Criterion Theatre, The Wicker Husband, Watermill Theatre) and Benedict Salter (A Little Night Music, The Watermill, The Score, Theatre Royal Bath). They will be joined in the ensemble by Elliot Mackenzie (The Lord of the Rings, The Watermill, Million Dollar Quartet, tour) and Katy Ellis (Ride, Southwark Playhouse, Wuthering Heights, UK and US tour).
Inspired by F Scott Fitzgerald’s haunting story of the man who ages in reverse and a love that defies the odds, the Celtic-flavoured musical features a book by Cornish writer Jethro Compton with lyrics by Compton and composer Darren Clark, and music by Clark.
Compton also directs and designs the stage, with co-music supervision, orchestration and arrangements by Mark Aspinall and Darren Clark, choreography by Chi-San Howard, costumes associate stage design by Anna Kelsey, sound by Luke Swaffield, lighting by Zoe Spurr, musical direction by Mark Aspinall and casting by Ginny Schiller.
Initially due to run until 15 February 2025, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button relocates Fitzgerald’s classic story to a fishing village on the north coast of Cornwall received a limited world premiere run at the Southwark Playhouse in 2019 before returning to the venue last year to play a sold-out run which earned it the Best Musical Theatre Production gong at the 2024 Off West End Awards.
Angela Thomas
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