When was the last time you thought about "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button"? Maybe you saw an old-looking baby, or a particularly youthful 70-year-old; maybe you studied David Fincher's filmography for a movie-themed trivia night; or maybe, like us, you caught wind of the fact that "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button," a musical fresh off the West End, is now showing at the Public's Newman Theater.
Let's get this out of the way: "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" the musical does not have the same plot as Fincher's strange, schmaltzy 2008 Oscar bait. Theatergoers will not be treated to any Taraji P. Henson, Cate Blanchett, or Brad Pitt impressions, and there is absolutely no whiff of Hurricane Katrina. (Yes, all that stuff is in the movie.) The musical also apparently deviates from the F. Scott Fitzgerald story that created Benjamin Button, which is seemingly a good choice based off of the short story's acutely depressing Wikipedia entry.
Instead, "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" follows the backwards-aging, eponymous hero from his home in Cornwall, England, through World War II (we are fucking robbed of seeing BB storm the beach at Normandy, sadly), an international journey of self-discovery, and, of course, through an epic, decade-spanning love story with a woman named Elowen who is, unforch, aging regular style.