Interview with Oonagh Cox and Elliot Mackenzie, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Conducted by Emmie for Theatre and Tonic
One of the most exciting new musicals to arrive on the West End stage in recent months is The Curious Case of Benjamin Button at the Ambassadors Theatre. Following its critically acclaimed run at the Southwark Playhouse, the production has made a highly anticipated transfer. We caught up with ensemble members Elliot Mackenzie and Oonagh Cox to learn more about this remarkable musical.
Oonagh, you were part of the Southwark Playhouse production of this show. What initially attracted you to it? And also what is it like to see it continue to develop the way it is?
Oonagh: I remember when the audition came through for the Southwark Playhouse production. It’s really difficult with new musicals because initially there’s not very much material out there and when an audition comes through the first thing you do is research. What’s the style? What are the songs? What are the characters? So when there’s very little out there you aren’t sure what you are walking into. I discovered a few clips of the musical on YouTube, the music was gorgeous and that’s what got me into gear. But the journey has been amazing. I think new musical theatre is such a special thing, especially when it's British and you never know what’s going to happen with it. You never know what it's going to become, so seeing the journey first hand from Southwark to the West End has been phenomenal.
I think especially from knowing the creative team and what absolute gems of people they are. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button is their baby and being able to share this journey with so many people has been really special. We’re grateful to be a part of it.
Elliot, you joined the production during its West End run. What made you want to become part of this journey?
Elliot: I’ve been very fortunate already to do loads of actor-musician productions already and its an art form and a style that I’m hugely passionate about and interested in. I never actually saw the musical during its Southwark run but I had seen a lot of the promotional material and when I first read the script, I just thought it was a phenomenal piece of writing.
Ensemble storytelling itself is something that I’m always interested in doing. And like what Oonagh said, just to be a part of that journey as creatives, this is kind of the work you want to be. The idea of this production gaining momentum, reaching more people, and being part of that journey knowing I could contribute to it was incredibly exciting. But rehearsals were honestly quite intimidating. Most of the cast had done it before, and there were only four of us newcomers.
I’ll never forget the first read-through. I knew what to expect, but experiencing it firsthand was something else. Normally, on the first day of rehearsals, people stumble through their lines, figuring things out as they go. But this was different. The director called for the read-through, and suddenly, the whole cast launched into perfect five-part harmony. I was just sitting there thinking, "Wait, what? What’s happening?"
Joining at this stage feels incredible, though I can’t help but feel like I’ve cheated a little, like supporting a football team only when they’re winning. But honestly, I’m just so happy to be part of it and to be on the winning team.
This is an actor-musician production, and you’ve both worked on similar shows before. What do you think makes this type of performance so unique and special?
Elliot: I don’t know, it’s really interesting. You often hear people say that actor-musicianship is on the rise, that there’s so much more of it now. But the truth is, actor-musicians have been around for nearly 60 years. It really started in an official sense with companies like Bubble Theatre and figures like Joan Littlewood in the 1960s and 70s.
What I love about this show, and actor-musicianship as a whole, is that it was born out of a need to make theatre more accessible and engaging for people who wouldn’t normally attend. The idea was to create theatre that felt like a pub band performance, replicating the energy of a working men’s club and the natural storytelling that happens in those spaces.
And so to be in a show that has a pub band at its kind of core, a load of people storytelling with instruments is just really lovely and quite accessible.
Oonagh: This might sound really controversial. I think it’s really special but also I think it’s not in the sense that it’s just like any other art form. It’s just a form of storytelling. There are so many different forms of storytelling, like you have people on roller skates and people doing dance shows. This is just how we’re choosing to tell our story, but it's also inherently very special.
Elliot: I often say when people don’t really know what an actor-musician is I use the analogy that dancers are actors who use their bodies to tell stories. We are actors who use instrument and music making to tell stories.
For a production like The Curious Case of Benjamin Button it wouldn’t work in the way it does as an actor-musician musical?
Oonagh: Yeah I guess because I think the core part of the story is the suspension of disbelief. You are walking into the theatre and you’re not actually going to see someone *spoilers” ageing backwards.It’s like someone is talking and they just happen to be playing the piano at the same time. I think that’s why it fits this world so beautifully. It goes hand in hand.
Elliot: I think there’s something about folk music as well. Folk music is an art form born out of storytelling and an oral medium, traditionally it’s not written down. So the only way to pass those stories on is by telling them through your playing. This just feels like a lovely continuation of that tradition which is really lovely.
How do you balance the dual roles of acting and performing as musicians, and what challenges does this present?
Elliot: Yeah? Yes, yes, absolutely. I think the main takeaway is this, all the things you expect to be difficult are difficult. That’s the headline. One of the great things about this art form is that there’s no hidden theatre magic, everything you hear is being played live on stage, and everything you see moving is being moved by someone in real time. Because of that, if even one piece of our 13 or 14-person puzzle is missing, it takes a lot of adjusting to make everything fit.
That said, we’re lucky to have an incredibly talented and generous group of people. While Emmie, Katie, and I take on a lot of the responsibility for covering gaps, every single person makes small adjustments when someone is absent or doing something differently. It might be as minor as changing four bars of music or as major as completely altering a section of the performance.
Oonagh: We have a very skilled resident team who figure out the bits of that jigsaw puzzle.
Elliot: Yeah, absolutely. I’m glad I don’t have to do that!
I think there’s often a misconception that what we do is just acting and playing instruments, as if they’re two separate things. But the kind of storytelling we do in this show is a true blend of both. When we’re playing or moving, we’re not consciously thinking, Now I’m playing or Now I’m moving. Instead, we’re focused on the moment on what we’re expressing.
It’s the same principle as acting in a scene. You’re not thinking, I need to speak and look a certain way. You’re just focused on communicating something to another character, and the way you move and sound naturally follows. In this show, movement, music, and storytelling are all seamlessly connected but that also comes with its own set of challenges.
Many people may know The Curious Case of Benjamin Button from the film. Is this stage version similar, or should audiences expect something entirely different?
Oonagh: There is a massive trend of turning film into theatre and so I think that’s why there is a preconception that if a show shares a name of a film it must be directly taking from it which it is not.
Elliot: It’s not at all, not even vaguely. I think in terms of similarities to the film and the book there are a couple of characters and that he’s aging backwards. That’s essentially it. It is a brand new piece of theatre based on the concept.
Oonagh: I wouldn’t even associate the concept of ageing backwards with the film. I would associate that with more folklore.
Elliot: Or like myth or legend. The bottom line is that people should definitely come to see The Curious Case of Benjamin Button open-minded because it is a new piece of theatre.
The music plays a significant role in this production. Why do you think it’s so important to the flow of the story?
Elliot: Well, I don’t know… I think it all ties back to that tradition of folklore and storytelling. At its core, this story - like many others - feels almost mythic, like a legend. And with myths, some concepts work better when they remain a bit abstract, rather than being overly defined.
In that sense, using sound to evoke different emotions in different people feels like a really fitting way to tell this kind of story. There’s something about that ambiguity—about allowing music and sound to shape meaning in a personal way—that feels very present in this show.
Oonagh: Even though we have talked about how not mystical it is, at the core of it is a very normal story about very normal checkpoints in your life. It’s about family, friends, love and death. I think that the music is all very honest and it’s all very raw. The active musicianship on stage only adds to that.
I think that also helps with the flow of the story of we are actually just going age, aiding backwards aside. We are just going through someone's life. And so I think the music pairs perfectly with that.
This is a deeply emotional show that reflects on life’s complexities. How do you manage those emotional demands alongside your performance schedule?
Elliot: Yes there’s quite an insignificant amount of sobbing that happens on stage in any given performance.
Oonagh: I guess managing it is just I think that I feel like when I tell people to come watch the show, I say, if you want to laugh and then cry and then laugh again, you should come watch the show, yeah? And I think that it just manages to do that beautifully. I think that's how we manage. It's just cathartic.
Elliot: And what I think this show does. Lots of the best pieces of writing mix that tragedy and comedy thing. It’s so human and I think we carry that into the process as well. There’s something so lovely about doing a piece of work that makes you feel and makes you connect with the material you’re portraying. There is something so beautiful about that.
Benjamin Button is becoming a hit with audiences and many are returning to see it again and again. What do you think it is about this show which is resulting in the impact it is having?
Oonagh: I've kind of got two answers. I think it feels really fresh. I think you can maybe compare it to a few shows from the last decade, but I don't think there are any shows like this. I think the freshness is really connected to people. But I also think at the heart of the story, it's just the complexity of being human. And I think everyone can relate to that.
Elliot: I absolutely agree. The amount of people who come up to us at the stage door and go, I've never seen something quite like this. And also I think there's something about actor musicianship, where I think even if you hate the story, even if you can't connect with any characters on stage, like which, by the way, neither of which will happen on some level. You can go, oh, you know, she's playing a whistle and dancing, and that's quite cool. Like, fundamentally, you know. So to have, you know, to have something that you can connect with and think it’s quite impressive..I think it's really cool.
This production touches on time. So if you were both able to go back to a moment in your own lives and do it again, where would you go?
Oonagh: I thought of one but it’s really embarrassing. The kitchen caught on fire once when I was making cinnamon rolls. The baking tray caught on fire and I was running around with this tray alight. I threw it straight into the garden and then nearly set the garden on fire. I’d probably go back and prevent that.
Elliot: I have quite a philosophical answer which is I’m not sure I’d like to go back. The things that I have done and experienced are from the past. But practically - there was something about being a teenager in London during the 2012 Olympics that I remember very vividly.
Catch The Curious Case of Benjamin Button at the Ambassadors Theatre.
