Much as Benjamin Button ages backwards from elderly to infant, the new musical “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” also starts off unrecognizably from where it ultimately winds up. From annoying to beautiful.
That stark reversal could be because its style, folksy and verbose Paul Bunyan-ish exposition in overeager group songs, takes some getting used to. But truth be told, that often confusing and self-satisfied aspect never grew on me.
The sweet show from London with a new American cast that opened Wednesday night at the Public Theater with Broadway aspirations improves, and staggeringly so, in the second half when many of the side characters and story-theater shtick get the heave-ho and its rich romantic leads are allowed to live and breathe more freely and honestly.
They’re Benjamin, played from tomb to womb by Andrew Durand, and his life-long love Elowen, earthily portrayed by Kelsee Kimmel.
That pair of actors and their earnest passion, which radiate genuine love for each other rather than the hopped-up theatrical suggestion of it, is “Button”’s greatest asset and enough of a reason to recommend this very sincere show.
But it takes a while for the material and director Jethro Compton’s production to calm down and find that focus.
Most will know F. Scott Fitzgerald’s short story from David Fincher’s 2008 movie starring Brad Pitt. Composer Darren Clark and book writer Compton (both co-wrote the lyrics) have moved the action from Baltimore in the US to coastal Cornwall, England, and changed the commencement point from 1860 to 1918.
That’s smart. For one, during the First World War, millions of British children lost their dads. Kids had to grow up fast — not unlike Benjamin. And then there’s the acoustic, sad-happy, pub music of that time, which makes up this lush, Celtic-adjacent score. But most importantly, what could be more surreal than Britain reeling from one world war that devastated a generation of young men while being just two decades away from getting dragged into another one?
Well, how about a baby born at 70 years old?
He’s Benjamin, who’s already an old man with the ability to speak and read and even arrived complete with a pair of glasses. Thankfully, this is the one plot point the musical does not endeavor to explain.
But it does quickly introduce an undercurrent of darkness. Benjamin’s mother Mary (Sachiko Mae) hates that she gave birth to what she believes to be a freak of nature. Doubling down, she sings an almostly laughably moody song comparing her baby to the Kraken, a giant squid that drags ships to the watery deep. Ouch! Mary makes Joan Crawford look like Maria von Trapp. And his father Roger (Brandon J. Ellis) resents his son for what his wife does to herself.
As the years and wrinkles wash away, Benjamin has to find inspirations to be optimistic, as he spiritedly sings in the musical’s best song, “A Little Life.” The music is always pretty and transportive, if a tad repetitive.
His No. 1 reason for being turns out to be the local barmaid Elowen. He’s 55 (sorta) and she’s 25. Uh oh! Being that this is 2026, she makes a speech about why the mid-50s is the perfect age for a man. The Public’s donors will be delighted.
The two fall in love and they plan to leave town — only parental meddling separates them for years.
The other struggle with Act One, and why there is so much narration, is that a whole lot happens. Benjamin starts at 70 and ends the first half at 44. He goes off to sea for a decade and enlists in the Royal Navy during World War II. Entire shows have been about far less than one of those.
The seafaring voyage and oceanside locale is taken advantage of by Compton’s set (this guy’s a real Jeth of all trades), resembling a sunken fishing boat. Little buoys floating above the stage light up to become celestial bodies at nighttime. Though more than anything it evokes that 2010s trend on Broadway of hip little analog shows that appear to take place in dank old pubs, like “Once” and “Hadestown.”
Similarly, the costumes by Anna Kelsey both nod to the period and make the cast look like they work in an ethical butcher shop in Red Hook.
That cool ensemble of actor-musicians plays the score well and sings splendidly, but I struggled to keep straight the many, many characters they play in the first 90 minutes.
And then the tide of Act Two rolls in, and the show becomes less of a rattled-off series of events and on-the-nose reference to “time” and a more mature musing on loss and how we willingly waste so much of our lives.
Durand and Kimmel are sublimely romantic in the second part, and not in that prescribed musical-theater way. Maybe it’s because these are not your typical romantic leads. What they’re doing is grounded and palpable.
Unlike Durand, who is solely Benjamin all night, Kimmel plays numerous roles, including a sheep (see, this kind of stuff gnaws at me). But I noticed that after some especially emotional numbers, or scenes in which Elowen confronts Benjamin, that she wouldn’t easily snap out of it and fall into line with the rest of the cast. Those feelings would linger.
Her commitment and chemistry with Durand makes the musical. And so does he. The actor’s career has been a fun and weird one to follow. Mostly he’s wound up in out-there comedies, such as “The Robber Bridgeroom,” the Go-Gos show “Head Over Heels” and corny “Shucked.” But during last season’s “Dead Outlaw” — in which he was basically typecast as a corpse — Durand sang a serene song called “Normal” that made me want to see more of his dramatic chops.
Wondrous Durand delivers on that desire. He’s got a fascinating face that here allows him to, well, play a baby and an old man without having to overdo it, which could easily happen with a broad and dorky script like this one. He has an ease, lightness and a casual wisdom that contrasts with the cacophony all around him. And the actor is intensely affecting near the end as Benjamin has his Emily Webb in “Our Town” realization as a 50-year-old in a young man’s body.
“Who knows how much time you have left?,” he tells his son, who is now the same biological age. “Don’t you waste a second of it.”
And then the sad inevitable happens. Ashes to ashes, us to home.

John Anderson, a Country Music Hall of Fame member known for his distinct, idiosyncratic singing style, died Wednesday. He was 71. A rep for Anderson confirmed his death to Rolling Stone. A post on the singer’s social media announcing his death called Anderson a “gifted country music singer whose voice and songs touched countless lives.”
A native of Apopka, Florida, Anderson possessed an unmistakable country warble, one that rivaled that of even Hank Williams. He put it to good use in country Number Ones like “Wild and Blue,” “Black Sheep,” and his signature song, the boisterous “Swingin’.” Each became a cornerstone of Eighties country music, but Anderson didn’t stop there. In the Nineties, he experienced a career revival and helped shape the sound of the era with hits like “Straight Tequila Night,” “Money in the Bank,” and the solo composition “Seminole Wind.” That song, an homage to his home state of Florida, was particularly special to Anderson, and it stands as arguably his greatest recorded vocal.
On the strength of those songs, Anderson was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2024. “One of the main gratifications is I got to live to see it,” he told Rolling Stone. “Several of my friends were inducted posthumously.” On Sunday, just four days before his death, Anderson appeared with his fellow inductees at the Country Music Hall of Fame Medallion Ceremony in Nashville to induct new members Tim McGraw, Paul Overstreet, and the Stanley Brothers.
“I was talking with John Sunday night at the HOF ceremony. He was in such good spirits,” McGraw wrote on social media. “We talked, we laughed, we sang his songs that I loved so much together, just goofing off. I am completely heartbroken by his passing… He was and is one of the defining voices in country music.”
John David Anderson was born Dec. 13, 1954, and grew up in Apopka, Florida, near Orlando. He was drawn to rock & roll first, but after hearing the vocal performances of George Jones and Merle Haggard (the latter would later become a friend), he found himself enamored of country music. He began releasing country singles in the late Seventies and issued his self-titled debut album in 1980. While Anderson wrote some of his songs, he was an undeniable vocal stylist from day one, putting his own spin on songs like “Your Lying Blue Eyes,” “She Just Started Liking Cheatin’ Songs,” and Billy Joe Shaver’s “I’m Just an Old Chunk of Coal (But I’m Gonna Be a Diamond Someday),” which, in 1981, became his first Top Five hit.
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The following year, Anderson released his breakout album Wild & Blue. Produced by Anderson with Frank Jones, the LP included the title song, a cover of the traditional “Long Black Veil,” and the single that would become Anderson’s anthem, “Swingin’,” which was named Single of the Year by the CMA Awards and ranked Number 85 on Rolling Stone‘s list of the 200 Greatest Country Songs of All-Time.
“‘Swingin’’ was truly the big change in my career,” Anderson told Rolling Stone. “We had already laid a real good foundation, with songs like ‘Old Chunk of Coal’ and ‘She Just Started Liking Cheatin’ Songs.’ We were on a pretty good roll at that time, especially for a young person back in in country music. But ‘Swingin’’ pretty much crossed all the bridges. ‘Swingin’’ was a huge record.” (Both LeAnn Rimes and the Mavericks went on to record their own versions.)
Anderson continued to have chart success in the Eighties after “Swingin’,” with songs like “Black Sheep,” “She Sure Got Away With My Heart,” and “Down in Tennessee.” He sputtered a bit at the end of the decade but came roaring back in 1992 with the album Seminole Wind. A bona fide comeback record, the album included radio hits like “Straight Tequila Night,” “When It Comes to You,” and the title track. According to Anderson, his record label at the time had concerns that “Seminole Wind” was too regional. But when Anderson debuted it live onstage in Seattle, nearly as far from Florida in the continental U.S. as one could get, it was met with a standing ovation. Anderson knew he had written a hit.
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A reliable recording artist, Anderson released a few albums throughout the 2000s, but in 2020 he returned reinvigorated, teaming up with producers Dan Auerbach and David Ferguson for the rootsy LP Years. It was a celebration of Anderson’s career, and positioned him as a legacy artist who transcended country. “I always loved his voice so much and he just always seemed to have a lot of songs I loved,” Auerbach told RS. “Some of them seemed old, some of them seemed new, but it was just always that voice, that unmistakable thing.”
A 2022 tribute album to Anderson, Something Borrowed, Something New, assembled artists like Eric Church, Tyler Childers, Sierra Ferrell, and Sturgill Simpson to interpret Anderson’s catalog. Luke Combs handled “Seminole Wind.”
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Two years later, Anderson was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame, alongside Toby Keith and the guitarist James Burton. Anderson was heralded as an interpreter of songs, like his friends and mentors Haggard and Jones.

A day after Netflix co-CEOs Ted Sarandos and Greg Peters faced anxious investors on the company’s Q3 earnings call after reporting mixed financial results, the duo on Wednesday faced anxious staffers at a town hall meeting after laying off 1,000 and shaking up the executive ranks by replacing Chief Content Officer Bela Bajaria with Peter Rice and also ousting head of film Dan Lin.
The one-two punch of the layoffs on Wednesday, followed by the Bajaria exit on Thursday, which Netflix employees found out about from the press before the news could be communicated internally, was reportedly brought up at the town hall meeting, with Peters indicating job cuts were over for the foreseeable future.
Like on the earnings call the day before, Sarandos touted incoming CCO Rice, who we hear was not at today’s town hall as he officially starts next week.
In his absence, Sarandos spoke enthusiastically about Rice’s background, echoing his comments on the earning call.
“He’s one of the really rare people in the industry who’s led TV networks, movie studios, streaming services. His creative instinct and his business acumen are remarkable. He’s really an at-scale quality and volume operator, and he does it across every imaginable form of entertainment, network, prestige cable, streaming, theatrical and TV films and live sports,” Sarandos said Tuesday, making a point to stress twice that Rice’s background extends beyond film and TV — areas he is mostly known for through his stints as President of Fox Searchlight Pictures during the era of Slumdog Millionaire and Little Miss Sunshine, CEO of Fox Networks Group and Chairman of Walt Disney Television.
That general perception led to some comments following Rice’s appointment last week about him coming from traditional media to the largest streamer without streaming experience.
While it is not vast, Rice does have some streaming background. His experience is more extensive than Bajaria’s when she originally joined Netflix, Zack Van Amburg and Jamie Erlicht’s when they took over Apple TV, and Jennifer Salke’s when she took the reins of Amazon MGM Studios.
Rice spent time on the Hulu board. And, for almost three years, from 2019 when his top lieutenant at the time (and eventual successor) Dana Walden took oversight of Hulu Originals until his 2022 ouster, he also signed off on greenlight decisions for a string of buzzy Hulu series such as Only Murders in the Building, Dopesick, The Dropout and The Great. In that role, he also worked with FX topper John Landgraf on transitioning the cable brand to streaming with viral series like The Bear and backed risky big-budget bets that became streaming hits in FX’s Shōgun and Disney+’s Percy Jackson, while also using his Searchlight connections to get the Summer of Soul documentary on Hulu ahead of its awards run, capped by an Oscar win.
Even if Rice didn’t have any streaming experience, his hire has still been cheered by producers and talent reps due to his creative credentials and Hollywood relationships. The latter has become a top talking point for Sarandos when explaining the reason for the executive change.
“Most importantly, Peter Rice understands talent relations,” he said on the earnings call Tuesday and reiterated again at the town hall. Similar to the reaction of those watching the earnings webcast, people attending the town hall perceived the comments as praise for Rice but also a slight to Bajaria and her talent relations, though she was thanked for her 10 years at Netflix both on the call at and the town hall, I hear.
Attendees of the town hall also got the impression that concerns over the prospects of Netflix’s current pipeline producing a massive hit may have contributed to the regime change, with Sarandos suggesting on the call that he expects Rice to put his stamp and “have an impact on those projects that are in the works even in the short term.
“I know that we could do better, especially in the U.S.,” Sarandos said Tuesday.
At both forums, he spoke about Netflix’s “business flywheel” fundamentally working but in need of better execution, including refocusing on making shows that can work globally.
The reset comes amid a major stock slide and flashing red light on Wall Street as engagement growth has slowed amid “really solid doubles and triples” but no home runs this year, as Sarandos acknowledged Tuesday.
And the reset may include going back to basics.
During the town hall, Sarandos reportedly spoke about getting back to prioritizing “member joy,” which had been a key part of Netflix’s corporate philosophy and so important to co-founder Reed Hastings that he listed it as one of his biggest contributions to the company when he left earlier this year.
Echoing that at the town hall, Sarandos stressed the importance of members and their experience as something that should inform everything they do at Netflix, I hear.

John Goodman admitted that “eating alcoholically” led him to weigh nearly 400 pounds when he quit drinking.
The actor told The New Yorker in an interview published Sunday that he began his weight-loss journey before getting sober in 2007 at age 55.
“I’d lose 60 pounds in a summer, gain it all back — 70 pounds, 80 pounds — and that got tiring,” Goodman, now 74, said. “I took steps so I wouldn’t have to do that anymore. I was almost 400 pounds. I was eating alcoholically after I stopped drinking.”
He told the outlet he decided to get sober because he was “really immature” and drinking only “sustained that immaturity,” adding, “I wanted to live in ‘Animal House’ the whole time.”
“I got sick and tired of being sick and tired,” Goodman added. “The thing about instant gratification is you don’t really care [about] what’s going to happen right after it — which always led to bigger hangovers or me getting the shakes, and having to drink to get rid of the shakes, and that vicious cycle.
“I was in a position when I quit where I had to be hospitalized one way or the other. I just was tired of it, and I wanted to stop,” he continued. “I was delaying my maturation by drinking, and I had a lot of catching up to do, just realizing how selfish it made me.”
The “Roseanne” alum said he had been “overlooking real life,” adding that it was “great to see there was a life where [he] didn’t have to use anything to enjoy it.”
Goodman underwent stomach surgery to address his weight gain after giving up alcohol, but the procedure led to other health struggles.
“I also turned anemic and lost a layer of fat under my skin, and I’m cold all the time,” he said.
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The “Big Lebowski” actor has since lost 200 pounds and recently showed off his slimmer figure at the Los Angeles premiere of “Digger.”
He posed solo on the red carpet and alongside his wife, Anna Beth, wearing a black suit, a striped button-down shirt and a gray tie.
Goodman had fans doing a double take in August, with social media users calling him “unrecognizable” in the comments of a selfie shared on Instagram by “Wizards of Waverly Place” star David DeLuise.
In 2025, he turned heads with his dramatic weight loss on the red carpet at the Los Angeles premiere of “Smurfs,” smiling for photographers in a navy blue suit, white collared shirt, patterned black tie and brown loafers.
The “Monsters, Inc.” star previously detailed his weight-loss journey, revealing that he hired a personal trainer, cut sugar from his diet and began exercising six days a week.
“I know it sounds sappy, but it was a waste,” Goodman told People in 2010 of his time as a couch potato. “It takes a lot of creative energy to sit on your ass and figure out what you’re going to eat next … I wanted to live life better.”
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Brad Pitt is getting into some sticky situations in his return as Cliff Booth for Netflix.
The streaming service shared new first-look images for director David Fincher‘s forthcoming feature The Further Mis-Adventures of Cliff Booth. The film gets a two-week Imax run globally starting Nov. 25 before it begins streaming Dec. 23.
Quentin Tarantino penned the script for the new movie that also stars Elizabeth Debicki, Scott Caan, Carla Gugino, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Peter Weller, Matt Groove, JB Tadena, Corey Fogelmanis and Karren Karagulian. Pitt reprises his role as stunt double Booth from Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, the 2019 Sony Pictures hit that Tarantino wrote and directed, with Leonardo DiCaprio co-starring in the initial movie as Western icon Rick Dalton.
Among the scenes teased in the new stills is Pitt donning goggles to maneuver a derby car on a dirt track. Another image shows Pitt and Debicki conversing at a bar, while a different shot features him on a tennis court with Debicki, Caan and Gugino.
The Further Mis-Adventures of Cliff Booth is set in 1977, eight years after the events of the first film, and centers on Booth coming to terms with a very different Hollywood. Pitt and Ceán Chaffin serve as producers for the new movie.
“Let’s just say I know what it’s like to kill someone with a knife,” Pitt says in the trailer that was released online last month.
Once Upon a Time in Hollywood was a major success, collecting $377 million at the worldwide box office and earning two Oscars from 10 nominations, including Pitt’s first-ever acting win. It remains well-regarded and helped fuel the film careers for such supporting players as Mikey Madison, Austin Butler, Sydney Sweeney and Margaret Qualley.
Tarantino has explained that he opted against directing the follow-up film because he did not want his next directorial effort, which he intends to be his last, to be a sequel.