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[0:06] John Schwab: Hi, John Schwab here, and welcome to episode 169 of the Curtain Call Podcast.

[0:12] John Schwab: Curtain Call is the podcast that takes you deep behind the scenes of the theater world, bringing you in-depth conversations with the storymakers that are shaping the future of theater today.

[0:20] John Schwab: We pull back the curtain to reveal the stories behind the stories and give you a glimpse into the backstage world like no other podcast does.

[0:27] John Schwab: There's a new show in town, and I'm gonna apologize in advance for this long intro, but I love this show.

[0:32] John Schwab: Born a few years ago, pretty much like the main character in this astonishing musical.

[0:36] John Schwab: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button is currently playing at the Southwark Playhouse Elephant, not to be confused with Southwark Playhouse Borough.

[0:43] John Schwab: Now, first appearing in London in 2019 at its sister theater, Jethro Compton and Darren Clark's musical is a fresh take on an old tale by F. Scott Fitzgerald.

[0:52] John Schwab: In a nutshell, a child is born at the age of 70, ages backwards until he's a baby at 70 years.

[0:59] John Schwab: Now to be so reductive does not give the weight due to this phenomenal musical.

[1:04] John Schwab: I'm just gonna be hyperbolic here.

[1:06] John Schwab: It's in fact it's not hyperbolic, it's fact.

[1:08] John Schwab: From the get-go, the music and acting, not to mention directing, design, stage management, sound mixing are just off the charts good.

[1:16] John Schwab: It has garnered dozens and dozens of positive reviews, five stars, four stars, and absolutely no negative reviews whatsoever on those crazy review aggregators.

[1:24] John Schwab: And that is something that just doesn't happen very often.

[1:26] John Schwab: It's a hit, a palpable hit.

[1:29] John Schwab: I had the pleasure of watching the second preview of Benjamin Button, and then the first night of the three press nights they had, and the journey of that show just in those two little weeks, it just shows that it's getting better and better.

[1:39] John Schwab: Just like Benjamin Button, it learns as it ages and gets fresher every day.

[1:44] John Schwab: And I cannot wait to go back and see it a few more times.

[1:47] John Schwab: Believe me when I tell you that you will never ever see a better ensemble of actor musicians.

[1:52] John Schwab: You will want to go see it at Southwark and to be among those chosen few who can literally say, I saw it when it started out at the Southwark Playhouse.

[2:00] John Schwab: I mean, that's how passionately I feel about it.

[2:02] John Schwab: I feel privileged to have seen it.

[2:04] John Schwab: Now I had to sit down and chat with the two central characters, and I cannot call them leads, as this is truly an ensemble piece.

[2:11] John Schwab: Jamie Parker and Molly Osborne, who play the titular character and the love of his life, Elowen Keene, are an absolute delight on stage and in person.

[2:19] John Schwab: Jamie seems to excel in stories intermeshed with magic as the last character he created was Harry Potter and the Cursed Child.

[2:24] John Schwab: And I last saw Molly at the Menier Chocolate Factory's gorgeous revival of Fiddler on the Roof, where she was exquisite and heartbreaking as Tzeitel.

[2:34] John Schwab: Tevye's eldest daughter, who in breaking tradition is breaking Tevye's heart.

[2:38] John Schwab: I mean, she was a sensation, and they're both sensational in Benjamin Button.

[2:43] John Schwab: I could go on and on, but enough of how much I love the show.

[2:46] John Schwab: You'll hear that enough in the chat I have with these two stars.

[2:50] John Schwab: Just a quick little warning there is a little swearing in this episode.

[2:53] John Schwab: So if you're listening to this at work, put your earbuds in.

[2:57] John Schwab: Have a listen.

[3:07] Jamie Parker: My name is Jamie Parker, and I'm playing Benjamin Button.

[3:12] Molly Osborne: My name is Molly Osborne. I'm playing Elowen Keene.

[3:21] John Schwab: Awesome. I, um, full disclosure, I came to see this on the second preview, which I absolutely loved.

[3:30] John Schwab: So I know there's an embargo on this, but I like, uh, this will come out. We'll have to wait.

[3:36] John Schwab: But I loved it. Like it could only, for me, I can only like love it more.

[3:40] John Schwab: Um, as we were walking in, Jamie, I just said, I don't think I've ever seen a more ensemble show.

[3:47] Jamie Parker: No.

[3:48] John Schwab: And, um, so I want to take it back to like defining that within the rehearsal space because, I mean, it's hard to describe.

[3:59] Jamie Parker: It is hard to do.

[4:00] Jamie Parker: And how much is done on stage? Everyone is doing everyone.

[4:02] Jamie Parker: Everyone's doing everyone, everyone is missing.

[4:04] Jamie Parker: That's the other part.

[4:09] Jamie Parker: Everyone is doing everything. There are absolutely the idea that there are any solo moments in this show is the most ludicrous thing.

[4:15] Jamie Parker: Yeah.

[4:15] Jamie Parker: You know, it's its own evidence for being the collaborative art form, but if you're holy shit, if it was ever the case for it, then it's this show.

[4:26] Jamie Parker: Um, and I think it was the first thing, the first topic of conversation in the first conversation I had with Jethro and Darren, who are the writers when I first met them, because that, uh, when I sort of I said, is there do you think there are any windows where I might be able to modestly throw my sort of hat into the ring for making some music with everybody else?

[4:50] Jamie Parker: Because it feels a bit.

[4:53] Jamie Parker: No, no, no, no, no. I was gonna say, because it feels off to have anyone in this setup not doing nothing, not making music with everybody else.

[5:04] Jamie Parker: It's like who didn't play anything, it would be really hard to do.

[5:06] Jamie Parker: Yeah, who's this like this asshole playing the lead standard over there, you know, sort of siloed and separating himself over there, not but you know, and when there's no need, and it's, um, it just didn't smell right.

[5:22] Jamie Parker: And it's just, it's such a, um, uh, such a generous essential elemental part of, uh, of the way the story is told.

[5:35] Jamie Parker: It's purely theatrical. There are, there's no production values to speak of, it's just words and music.

[5:41] Jamie Parker: Yeah, um, making stuff happen. Somebody says something and it happens, yeah.

[5:45] Jamie Parker: It comes into being.

[5:46] Molly Osborne: Yeah.

[5:47] Jamie Parker: And, uh, it's odd standing in this, there's whole chunks of this show where I don't really move.

[5:53] Jamie Parker: I'm just standing or sitting on one spot in the middle of the stage.

[5:57] Jamie Parker: I don't really notice it either, like, but you don't, it doesn't feel like everything's happening.

[6:01] Jamie Parker: Everything's happening around.

[6:02] Jamie Parker: Yeah, I think you are orbiting around, uh, JD, you know, in coming in and out while you're sitting growing younger in the pub.

[6:13] Jamie Parker: Wish fulfillment.

[6:14] John Schwab: So it's a wish fulfillment.

[6:16] John Schwab: Um, I think because Molly and Jamie, you both play single characters as well.

[6:22] John Schwab: I think do you, Molly, you double at the beginning or just do you think?

[6:25] Molly Osborne: Oh, you're forgetting the sheep.

[6:26] John Schwab: The sh, oh you can't forget the sheep.

[6:30] Molly Osborne: I'm watching tonight, so I'm gonna die.

[6:32] John Schwab: Are you watching again tonight?

[6:33] Molly Osborne: Oh yeah, yeah, yeah.

[6:34] Molly Osborne: Um, yeah, mostly just, yeah, just storytelling, storytellers, and then but I think that that's a great anchor, don't you think?

[6:41] Jamie Parker: Yeah, with it, but were you jealous at all of some of your cast members getting to play like 28 different people on the show?

[6:48] Molly Osborne: It's so like joyful watching people just pop up even just the two lines as a person.

[6:55] Molly Osborne: And then disappear again.

[6:56] Molly Osborne: And then you never meet that character again, but it just injects laughter into the piece right at the right moments, and it's structured so beautifully in that way, and, uh, getting to see people like, like Damien or you know, like people.

[7:10] Jamie Parker: Well, Johnny's drunk.

[7:11] Molly Osborne: Oh, Johnny's gonna be around.

[7:11] Molly Osborne: Never quite know what's gonna happen when Johnny's drunk.

[7:15] Jamie Parker: Yeah, everybody is, there's always this moment, everybody's playing five different instruments, yeah, and then everybody as one spins right, uh, spins stage right and starts singing about Johnny who's, uh, playing the drum, and you find people strumming or I'm sitting at the piano, and I'm just chuckling away to myself sitting at the piano.

[7:31] Jamie Parker: He would be in different positions every time we did it.

[7:35] Jamie Parker: It was brilliant, yeah.

[7:36] Molly Osborne: And it's, yeah, so it's just, it's playful, and I think that's how the show gets under your skin, isn't it?

[7:40] Molly Osborne: It's very disarming, yeah.

[7:42] Molly Osborne: And, and, um, and very exposed, it's like an open sandwich of storytelling.

[7:50] Jamie Parker: It's just like it, it's for me, ground zero is the chorus in Henry V, who no one's ever said it better when they just say it says work your thoughts, yeah.

[7:59] Jamie Parker: You know, think when we talk of horses that you see them.

[8:02] Jamie Parker: Yeah, that's, that's it, and, and it's that same deal.

[8:06] Jamie Parker: And so you kind of go, oh well, it's just, it's just this.

[8:10] Jamie Parker: And then at somewhere along the line, you realize it's added up some more than that.

[8:15] Molly Osborne: Yeah, uh, and it creeps up on you.

[8:19] Molly Osborne: Yeah, there's a real danger of with so much going on that the story gets lost.

[8:23] Jamie Parker: Yeah, yeah.

[8:24] Jamie Parker: And this is a simple story of a man aging backwards, and, um, and it's, you could with everyone playing so many different instruments as well as characters, lose the story.

[8:36] Molly Osborne: But I think you guys manage to properly nail it down.

[8:40] Jamie Parker: It's, it's that's amazing to hear.

[8:43] Jamie Parker: That's testament to Jethro and Darren's writing, but also the group kind of determination to do that.

[8:50] Jamie Parker: It was a sort of a daily mantra of story, story, story, story, story.

[8:54] Jamie Parker: And it's come with sacrifices, you know, as you know, things, uh, has stuff that isn't staying on that laser line.

[9:02] Jamie Parker: You know, if you can cut it, you should kind of really otherwise it's, it gets the story gets baggy and it's, it's the rehear in rehearsal.

[9:10] John Schwab: Was it quite full? I mean, is as in have there, I mean you s we we've established you've taken about 15-20 minutes off since previews, but even in rehearsals, was it even more full?

[9:22] Jamie Parker: It was mostly about getting up to full speed, wasn't it? Getting through the material to even discover what we needed and what we didn't need so much.

[9:34] Molly Osborne: Yeah, we were trying to really get through everything.

[9:37] Jamie Parker: Yeah, the whole thing doesn't stop.

[9:39] Jamie Parker: Let's just, it doesn't stop, it doesn't.

[9:41] Jamie Parker: It doesn't stop.

[9:41] Jamie Parker: And no one leaves, or if they do, it's only to grab something and come back.

[9:49] Jamie Parker: For me, it was like, oh, that was a quick hour.

[9:50] Jamie Parker: And went, what?

[9:51] Molly Osborne: Yeah, it doesn't feel long.

[9:53] Jamie Parker: No, it doesn't.

[9:53] Jamie Parker: It really doesn't feel long, and it doesn't, and because there's no, there's no room to stop and consider the, there's no boredom space in it.

[10:03] Molly Osborne: Yeah.

[10:03] Jamie Parker: There's always something that you have to do now.

[10:07] Jamie Parker: Yeah, uh, which is which is great, but you know, when you're up against it schedule wise, it's pretty hectic.

[10:14] Jamie Parker: Um, just the this entire thing trades on clarity of thought.

[10:21] Jamie Parker: That's that's it.

[10:23] Jamie Parker: That's that's all we have.

[10:24] Jamie Parker: And I remember years ago talking with some actors who who've been to Greece and they'd stood in the ancient amphitheater.

[10:30] Jamie Parker: Yeah, this X thousand number of people who could stand there, and he said it was absolutely terrifying, and a lot of people really struggled because they were trying to do trying to fill the space.

[10:41] Jamie Parker: Yeah, and then there was one guy who just who just stood there and was crystal clear about what it was that he was saying and who to and why.

[10:50] Jamie Parker: And no one missed a word of what he said.

[10:54] Jamie Parker: And the globe on bank's side has got the same thing as this big unwieldy thing.

[10:59] Jamie Parker: But it can some actors have got the knack of making it feel really small and intimate.

[11:03] Molly Osborne: And it's this kind of material, that's what it's all about.

[11:07] Jamie Parker: It's just so long as everybody knows exactly what they're doing and can do it without having to think about it, then the story lives.

[11:17] Jamie Parker: But it takes a huge amount of complex repetition getting to that very simple place.

[11:28] John Schwab: I think some because some people were here.

[11:30] John Schwab: I mean, we'll get to you, we'll get to music in a minute, but some people, this isn't its first time visiting London.

[11:35] Jamie Parker: Um, yeah, Sunday players 2019.

[11:40] Molly Osborne: Yes, in the old.

[11:43] Jamie Parker: Well, I think it's not the old players. It's still original.

[11:47] Molly Osborne: Yes.

[11:48] Jamie Parker: So, um, and which was a five-person iteration of it.

[11:52] Molly Osborne: Seriously, yeah, it was a different version.

[11:54] Jamie Parker: It's now twelve.

[11:55] Molly Osborne: So then you do this with five people.

[11:57] Jamie Parker: Well, ask Matt Burns on Pippa Hogg, who were so Matt who's on drums and guitar, yeah, basically our MD is.

[12:05] Molly Osborne: Yeah, yeah.

[12:06] Jamie Parker: And Pippa he tried to pivot.

[12:08] Molly Osborne: She is incredible as well.

[12:09] Jamie Parker: I mean, she gorgeous.

[12:11] Molly Osborne: Thank God we have Matt and Pippa.

[12:14] Jamie Parker: Okay, this is where it was anyway.

[12:15] John Schwab: How much, how much like for me as a musician, like I have a, you know, we've got my son's a musician done as we have a recording studio home because that's just an ungodly thing.

[12:24] John Schwab: How much I'm leading the witness here because it's just you guys are smiling.

[12:28] John Schwab: I've never seen so many smiles on stage.

[12:30] John Schwab: How much fun was it to get to learn this music, to get to play them?

[12:33] Jamie Parker: I mean, music is like one of my churches.

[12:35] Jamie Parker: Theater's were church, music's church.

[12:37] Jamie Parker: To go to church every day.

[12:39] Molly Osborne: Yeah, yeah.

[12:39] Jamie Parker: How much fun?

[12:41] Jamie Parker: Or if it was, if you can say that too, that's cool.

[12:43] Jamie Parker: Well, you know what the deal is.

[12:46] Jamie Parker: I think one of the reasons I wanted to do this was because I just wanted to get it was first principle stuff.

[12:53] Jamie Parker: We talked about the fact that it's just storytelling with words and music, just in a space with an audience.

[12:58] Jamie Parker: It's not about production values, but also more than that, it was just about getting in a rehearsal room and wrestling a bit of material over the line.

[13:05] Jamie Parker: Because I really want to do that.

[13:07] Jamie Parker: I like it's been too long.

[13:10] Jamie Parker: The last time I really rehearsed brand new material or new material that's brand new to me, was 2016 on Cursed Child.

[13:20] Jamie Parker: Too long, and I just really wanted to do that, and this felt like a good group to be doing it with.

[13:28] Molly Osborne: But you so you know, you know what that involves though?

[13:31] Jamie Parker: It means enjoying the despair and the frustration and the panic, and the, you know, and the exhaustion and the confusion, and when we take it in terms of prop each other up, you know, these these guys are phenomenal.

[13:48] Jamie Parker: So talented, agile, capacious minds. I just I and and there's something about them as a group that they really have just clicked.

[13:55] Molly Osborne: Yeah, but it's it's not all been tiptoeing through the tulips because it's been really, really hard. It's a lot of material, yeah. It's so much, and everyone's so in a in a good way, which is why everyone's so brilliant that everyone has that perfectionist kind of like, you know, want for it to get it right and get it perfect. And I think we've all learned to really be listening to each other and to forgive yourself for that one tiny bit that that went differently that night, or we've we've we've gannelled really well and are kind of holding each other up now. Like when we need to, and it's it's it's got to that nice thing where we we are each other's structure.

[14:39] Jamie Parker: Yeah. We know we know the story, we know the material well enough now we can we can wear it without having to consciously think about it.

[14:45] Molly Osborne: Yes. And so the chaos can just be allowed to happen inside that and there is chaos and abundance.

[14:55] Jamie Parker: But it's chaos.

[14:57] Molly Osborne: Yeah.

[14:57] Jamie Parker: Yeah. But it's you know, it's scruffy imperfection is part of its charm. I think it's part of the contract of that thing of saying uh you know, just saying again, you know, it it's just us, it's just this and that.

[15:09] Molly Osborne: Yeah.

[15:10] John Schwab: And we're just gonna pause for a little word from our sponsors.

[15:15] John Schwab: And now back to the Curtain Call Podcast with our guests, Jamie Parker and Molly Osborne from The Curious Case of Benjamin Button the Musical.

[15:23] Jamie Parker: I I think it's great, it's a it's a real like blessing and and like privilege to be part of Ensemblcast and being on stage watching your fellow cast members.

[15:33] Molly Osborne: I love it.

[15:36] Jamie Parker: I love it so much. I I feel like uh particularly in um those scenes with you and Jack, I said to Jack the other day, I feel like I'm watching a National Theatre Live Street of something. Like you know, you're right there and you like you can feel like you're like on a close-up of somebody else.

[15:52] Molly Osborne: I'm gonna play that like Helen Earns.

[15:54] Jamie Parker: It's gonna be literally it's gonna be like you know, the the cowboy. Incredible it's a lot of things. You feed energy into or you feel everyone's energy and it it feels like one everyone's doing that scene.

[16:09] Molly Osborne: I never feel everyone's energy more intensely than when I fuck something up.

[16:14] Jamie Parker: I just feel like eleven people go and inhale.

[16:20] Molly Osborne: When we started making cuts.

[16:22] Jamie Parker: Um then you're gonna have to.

[16:24] Molly Osborne: Yes, you have to remember you're cutting in the day, coming and doing the previous video.

[16:27] Jamie Parker: Yeah, and you have to remember not to do stuff that you've already learned, and then we'll put like if you if you put it into a sketch comedy, you would have gone bit on the nose, Jamie, tie it back.

[16:37] Molly Osborne: But there was a classic one where I just I stood up and I was the only one who went, oh yeah.

[16:47] Jamie Parker: Just felt eleven people go, ah you dick it. It was all I was like.

[16:55] Molly Osborne: Genius.

[16:56] Jamie Parker: I went bright red.

[16:57] Molly Osborne: I'm sweating for you right now.

[17:00] Jamie Parker: It took me everything not to like my back was to the audience, so it was bad.

[17:07] Molly Osborne: I I said my own name when addressing you.

[17:12] Jamie Parker: I've never messed up so much in a show. I think maybe this uh this the the I don't know the the space and the piece and the the like you talk that there's a chaos like bubbling away in this in this kind of orbit of the story where it's elastic enough to let some things like that happen.

[17:32] Molly Osborne: Oh yeah, yeah.

[17:33] Jamie Parker: Also enough.

[17:34] Molly Osborne: Um so it's it's press night tonight.

[17:37] Jamie Parker: Um Thursday night.

[17:39] Molly Osborne: Is it Thursday night?

[17:39] Jamie Parker: Well it's sort of it's one of the it's a press week.

[17:41] Molly Osborne: A press week.

[17:42] Jamie Parker: Press week and opening night on Thursday.

[17:44] Molly Osborne: It's a press week to this week.

[17:48] John Schwab: Are you are you excited to finally get this out to I mean who does it for press on?

[17:54] Jamie Parker: You know, I don't think so. I don't think it's possible to design a night less conducive to good theatre than a press night. I loathe their anathema to everything I hold there. I just fucking hate them.

[18:11] Molly Osborne: And I don't think I've ever once in my life enjoyed one.

[18:14] Jamie Parker: Which is why I do like this principle of a press week, actually. And that opening night is just a kind of for us and for nearest and dearest and people support who want to support it.

[18:24] John Schwab: So once you get this one out of the way, once you get your press week out of the way, what would you like? And I I always love to ask this question. Um, what would you like somebody who doesn't know much about, you know, this is I mean, this is one of the this journals, you know, it's Gatsby, obviously, is big one, but um, this is kind of I guess his second his second point.

[18:24] Jamie Parker: What would you like people to kind of both dismiss about the fact that it's based on a classic piece of literature, but also take away um what would you like them to take away from this uh and kind of go out and be able to tell people?

[18:59] Molly Osborne: Do you want to take that one?

[19:01] Jamie Parker: No, it's a very good question.

[19:04] Molly Osborne: Okay, all right.

[19:04] Jamie Parker: No, it's not okay. Hands in the air.

[19:06] Molly Osborne: I don't really know the Fitzgerald book very well.

[19:09] Jamie Parker: I read it, I scanned it. But it's not but the point the point is that it's not really based on the book.

[19:17] Molly Osborne: Yeah.

[19:17] Jamie Parker: It's the the book is now public domain, so people are free to flex their imaginations however they want. That's what David Fincher did with the movie of Brad Pitt and Kate Blanchett, and Jethro and Darren have done the same thing, and they've made Jethro made it very specifically about his home.

[19:29] Molly Osborne: He's relocated it to Cornwall.

[19:31] Jamie Parker: And Aaron's populated it with these ostensibly very simple Celtic folk tunes that involve storytelling and sort of give us license to be actor musicians. Because a lot of the time, sometimes the actor musician thing feels a little bit wrenched into the story.

[19:50] Molly Osborne: So why's everyone playing violin?

[19:52] Jamie Parker: But this one, it feels like you're on a pub crawl and just telling stories, so you have license to do that.

[19:58] Molly Osborne: So what I did see though was the eight-hour unabridged gats performance.

[20:07] Jamie Parker: And it strikes me, not knowing the original book of Benjamin Button very well, that this does have something very much in common with them. Because I remember watching that, and every time Nick, the narrator would say introduce the first character, then the actor would come on and you'd go, Oh, that's going to be Gatsby, or that's going to be Daisy.

[20:24] Molly Osborne: And I remember going, Oh no, no, no, that's not who I know I think I should be seeing as Catsby.

[20:31] Jamie Parker: And I realized as it went on that you have this story which is about projecting what you want to see in somebody onto that person and the illusions that we weave for ourselves.

[20:42] Molly Osborne: And this is exactly the same contract.

[20:44] Jamie Parker: We stand up in front of the audience and we say, I'm telling a story about this man who is this child who was born as an old man and ages backwards. And yes, he's wearing a we've got a suit and everything, but it's just a hat and cane, and that's it.

[20:57] Molly Osborne: But what I'm asking you to do is see it.

[20:59] Jamie Parker: Yeah. And and that's that's the deal. They s they say something and it happens.

[21:04] Molly Osborne: And uh so I think your question was about was a literary one.

[21:09] Jamie Parker: Yeah, and then does that count so that's counter-very, very good.

[21:13] Molly Osborne: But what and and and the I guess the easier part of that question would be you know, what would you really like audiences to take away from from this show, like disregarding anything that's five wet handkerchiefs.

[21:27] Jamie Parker: I'm in competition with Shadowlands on this one in terms of endearment.

[21:32] Molly Osborne: Oh my god.

[21:33] Jamie Parker: Like fuck you, cry.

[21:34] Molly Osborne: Cry!

[21:35] Jamie Parker: Yeah, yeah.

[21:37] Molly Osborne: And love just did like but here's the thing, it's like you're crying and you're laughing at the same fucking time.

[21:42] Jamie Parker: Yeah.

[21:43] Molly Osborne: And that's really difficult.

[21:44] Jamie Parker: Listen, I'm I'm a suck. I like I mean I I've I get invested, I I throw my suspension disbelief comes in absolutely suspended all, like just entertaining. But then I was like, I know I know okay, is it gonna be yeah, it's gonna be said here it cut okay, and then yeah and and he does this all of all of the things, but then I'm giggling again, like and then I'm a little chuckle.

[22:04] Molly Osborne: Yeah, I think it does it makes it turns us into children, I think.

[22:07] Jamie Parker: It's a very childlike I mean in Europe, you literally have everybody in the balm of your hands at that point.

[22:13] Molly Osborne: It does that, doesn't it?

[22:14] Jamie Parker: It's an incredible bit annoying.

[22:16] Molly Osborne: Well it's the such a beautiful song, that's uh time.

[22:22] Jamie Parker: Oh my god.

[22:22] Molly Osborne: And and it's had it's it's been morphing as we've been, you know, going along and it's changed a lot since we first did it, and it's I think now as it is now, it's sort of found its own way.

[22:33] Jamie Parker: Yeah.

[22:35] Molly Osborne: Well it was r I think it was the first one that he wrote out of yeah, and he wrote it out of context of the story, and and the more we got into the the scenario, yeah.

[22:46] Jamie Parker: It blended in with the company so beautifully.

[22:49] Molly Osborne: And it it's it's it's like oh I mean you know what Darren's done with it is is it's classy.

[22:56] Jamie Parker: It's and and he's taken the instruments out, he's like stripped it back, he's put things back in. It's it's very intelligently done.

[23:04] Molly Osborne: Working with Mark as well, Mark Aspinall.

[23:06] Jamie Parker: And Mark's been driving this.

[23:08] Molly Osborne: Who's the yeah, who's the musical supervisor in it and easy just his ability to just sort of re-voice stuff on the fly or just or or rearrange and or just kind of go, oh that's great, let's do that on that and shove it up the octave.

[23:23] Jamie Parker: That'll really really work.

[23:24] Molly Osborne: Yeah, and don't come in until bar 12.

[23:26] Jamie Parker: But there's again kind of go, oh yeah, yeah, yeah.

[23:32] Molly Osborne: It's magic.

[23:33] John Schwab: Last question, because I know you guys don't really.

[23:35] Jamie Parker: Um you just you you brought up uh Shakespeare's Globe.

[23:40] John Schwab: Um, it would be it would be uh a globe production without a G at the end.

[23:46] Jamie Parker: And I was hoping, I swear to God, I wasn't pissed, I was like, please I like read my wife and sit and was like, God, I hope there's a jig.

[23:57] Molly Osborne: And spoiler alerts, like there is jig.

[23:59] Jamie Parker: Was that something that was always a part of it, or was that something that was because you could leave it, and we do have a bit of an uplifting moment, it's very sweet.

[24:07] Molly Osborne: I mean, oh my god, when the father margin walling meets that spell again, that was me. Done, like yes, as me, I had so many issues that there was done.

[24:16] Jamie Parker: That was like, okay, um, somebody's gonna have to wheel me out.

[24:19] Molly Osborne: And um, but how was the jig always there, or was it something that came came in?

[24:23] Jamie Parker: There was always gonna be an encore, wasn't it?

[24:25] Molly Osborne: Yes, that was always always the encore, I think.

[24:27] Jamie Parker: But how we were gonna do it, right?

[24:28] Molly Osborne: Uh as with the rest of it, like how's that gonna happen?

[24:33] Jamie Parker: It's but it's the thing of like it doesn't, it seems what what was slightly bewildering about getting from A to B on it was that it seems perfectly simple.

[24:42] Molly Osborne: It's all there.

[24:43] Jamie Parker: The narrator says it. So by this point we need to hit here and just have this picture on the stage.

[24:48] Molly Osborne: But fucking hell, it's really hard to do.

[24:50] Jamie Parker: And so we knew that we had this cool, we knew we had this encore.

[24:54] Molly Osborne: Yeah.

[24:55] Jamie Parker: Um but I'm was it the last thing we got to.

[25:01] Molly Osborne: Even like once you're in them, maybe just before we're in the theater.

[25:04] Jamie Parker: I don't know.

[25:05] Molly Osborne: Yeah.

[25:05] Jamie Parker: I was playing the wrong chords.

[25:07] Molly Osborne: Until Matt told Matt told me in the dressing room, you went, mate.

[25:11] Jamie Parker: You can make that a lot easier for yourself.

[25:13] Molly Osborne: Like kind of oh, thank you.

[25:14] Jamie Parker: Thank you.

[25:16] Molly Osborne: Yeah, that's the one where I'd feel totally exposed as an interloper.

[25:20] Jamie Parker: Non-musician in the group.

[25:22] Molly Osborne: Non-musician, you're playing guitar, you were literally up and credible.

[25:26] Jamie Parker: Well, it's this is what I've learned about Dadget, is that the chini, which is that if you if you do make life simple for yourself, yeah, it it's quite simple to just jump up and down.

[25:36] Molly Osborne: But I was fucking knows what I was trying to do.

[25:38] Jamie Parker: I was trying to do 19 different gorgeous.

[25:42] Molly Osborne: You know, yeah.

[25:44] Jamie Parker: It's a lot less impressive, but a bit more accurate now.

[25:48] John Schwab: Well, this it was a absolute joy.

[25:50] John Schwab: Um, Jamie Parker, thank you so much for your time.

[25:52] Jamie Parker: Thank you.

[25:56] John Schwab: It is a great I think it's one of my favorite like new musicals.

[26:01] Jamie Parker: You know, it's the newest bit, one of just just for the pure joy of watching.

[26:05] Molly Osborne: It's been a special few weeks.

[26:07] Jamie Parker: Yeah, everybody has.

[26:09] John Schwab: Enjoy your mind.

[26:10] Jamie Parker: Thanks.

[26:10] John Schwab: Thank you.

[26:12] John Schwab: Molly Osborne and Jamie Parker from The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, a new musical.

[26:18] John Schwab: Thank you for listening. But before we go, just a quick reminder to say that if you like this episode, or indeed any of our episodes of the Curtain Call Podcast, please go to whichever streaming platform you use and leave a rating and review.

[26:30] John Schwab: It helps others like you find the podcast. If you want to reach out to us, you can find me on all the socials at John Schwab. That's J O H N S C H W A B.

[26:39] John Schwab: If you have been convinced that you must go see The Curious Case of Benjamin Button musical at the Southwark Playhouse Elephant, just visit southwarkplayhouse.co.uk and I will put that link in the show notes.

[26:50] John Schwab: If you haven't been convinced, well, it must mean you just don't love new musicals. Go get swept away, laugh, cry, enjoy the music, then go and watch it again and see something completely different.

[27:02] John Schwab: Someone else's track. It's so much fun to do that.

[27:05] John Schwab: Thank you for listening. Speak soon and stay safe.

[27:09] John Schwab: Bye.