How it’s New York: THE GREAT GATSBY takes place in West Egg, which is Long Island
How it’s Irish: Bookwriter Kate Kerrigan is Irish descent. F. Scott Fitzgerald was Irish descent, and the gorgeous, yearning language has an Irish quality to it.
Rethink wearing mascara to THE GREAT GATSBY.
It ran down my face as I wept during Act One.
On the other hand, once you reapply it at intermission, you’re safe. Act Two lacks the emotional punch the book delivers.
THE GREAT GATSBY, F. Scott Fitzgerald’s haunting novel about a young man who reinvents himself using shady means all to somehow recapture the love of his heart, Daisy Buchanan, has been called the Great American Novel: it shows the downside of capitalism, the yearning for inclusion, social mobility that is not what it seems…
It is one of my favorite stories.
Because of that I’m very tough on adaptations: none of the movies work for me– they all lack the beautiful language that makes the book, which is narrated by Nick, an observer who sees through Gatsby but sees his worth anyway.
Gatsby, for all that he’s a phone, in league with gangsters, is pure of heart, has a love for Daisy like that of Don Quixote for Dulcinea. He’s kind and in his own way noble. He built his mansion on West Egg just to be opposite Daisy and her husband Tom’s place, and the green light from her dock is like the star the Magi followed. He lives in hope that one day she’ll wander in to a party.
The best production I’ve ever seen is GATZ by Elevator Repair Service, in which the entire book si read alous by workers in an office who begin to assume the roles. It’s hard to describe; you just have to see it (it takes about eight hours).
The new musical of THE GREAT GATSBY very nearly works.
It’s beautiful to look at, thanks to scene and projection design by Paul Tate DePoo III.
The 1920s costumes by Linda Cho are gorgeous. Songs and lyrics are forgettable but sweet; music by Jason Howland and lyrics by Nathan Tysen. When Jay arranges lunch at Nick’s place (Nick is pl;ayed by a serviceable Noah J. Ricketts; his Nick seems to have little personality) to meet Daisy, his nervousness is funny and sad.
Jeremy Jordan’s Jay Gatsby with his “old sports” has a touching quality (though a little effeminate, though that may be a choice as the character is not natural with these affectations); Eva Noblezada’s Daisy Buchanan has just the right mixture of delicacy, refinement and selfishness.
The line that got me is not a quote from the novel but it perfectly captures it: “That’s why I bought this place…I never wavered.”
I cried.
But somehow the air goes out of it in Act Two. Jordan Baker (Samantha Pauly), who is described in the book as someone who may have learned to walk on chilly golf courses, is a wise-cracking New Yorker.
Tom (John Zdrojeski) is a thug, but his wealthy charm is entirely missing. In the book it’s clear Daisy loved him once. Here it is not.
Jay’s father, Henry Gatz, never comes for his funeral from Minnesota: to my mind a crucial moment in the whole story.
So ultimately, despite some lovely spectacle, good dancing (a tap scene is invented for a party at Gatsby’s, which makes so much sense; choreography by Dominique Kelley; the musical is uneven. Kate Kerrigan’s book, as noted, sometimes lands a punch, but is inconsistent. Marc Bruni’s direction feels nicely invisible.
You could do worse for a day out; you’ll see your money onstage. But it is not the Great American Adaptation of the story.
THE GREAT GATSBY began at the Paper Mill Playhouse, and runs at the Broadway Theatre.
