Directed by Marc Bruni Along the width of a 10-lane highway, “The Great Gatsby” is a grand, crowd-pleasing spectacle: Tourists, Jazz Age enthusiasts and fans of its singing-powerful stars Eva Noblezada and Jeremy Jordan already in line. Are. Outside the stage door. And there’s something to be said for a spectacular night out, even if it defies the author’s intended message.
To the possible dismay of your high school English teacher, any critiques of material excess, social inequities, or the American Dream that made the book a staple of the class are stripped away here in deference to an unconscious and ill-fated love story. . This is not a high-society tragedy set against the dawn of modernity, but a rom-com that dives into extreme melodrama.
Midwestern fish-out-of-water Nick Carraway is a clear-eyed audience surrogate: Amidst a gathering of mild caricatures, Noah J. Ricketts gives an admirable and convincing performance. The subjects of his narration, prose mostly lifted from Fitzgerald, are all aware that they are part of a great larger story, even if they seem plucked from a pile of genres.
Her cousin Daisy (Noblezada) is fluttering and giggling, but a little sad when we meet her in a room with windows overlooking Long Island Sound (the elaborate, projection-enhanced Art Deco set is created by Paul Tate DePuy III). Let’s meet in the high drawing room. “Oh my God, I’ve got it made,” sings Daisy, clad in a cropped and diaphanous cotton-candy dress, “I’m so sophisticated.” (The gorgeous costumes are by Linda Cho.) Nathan Tyson’s songs generally reflect backstory and situations, whether they are filled with emotion or not.
Daisy’s husband Tom (John Zdrojewski), her ticket into this wonderful life, is the most altruistically cruel man she knows. But the couple’s durable and fragile bond, forged in the reproduction of old money – so integral to the structure of the narrative – is invisible from the beginning. The audience is obviously asking, “Why is he with it Boy?” as a precursor to, “Now look it Dreamboat!
That would be the debonair Gatsby (Jordan), full of secrets and singing in melancholy high registers about the one who slipped through his fingers but is now within reach. Jason Hovland’s music, serviceable Broadway pop without much distinct flavor (not even jazz, that’s low-hanging fruit), excels in soaring ballads, allowing both Jordan and Noblezada to display considerable vocal gymnastics.
Book author Cait Kerrigan turned the central romance into a reunion of true love torn apart during the war, like something from “The Notebook”. The characters and their motivations are designed with the aim of moralizing infidelity and making their tragic endings feel less random. Gatsby is so angry that he can barely stand straight; Daisy has a song about the longing to remain faithful until she’s pushed to the edge.
Tom’s mistress Myrtle (Sarah Chase) and her tormented husband George (Paul Whitty) are portrayed as cartoonish incarnations of the working class with thick New York accents, whose fates are intertwined with those of the wealthy in both love and money. Is. There’s even a romantic storyline between Nick and the steely Jordan Baker, played by Samantha Polly (like Ricketts, another important presence). The two skeptics, as ambiguously-coded as queer in the novel, also cannot avoid falling in love with each other.
This revisionist attempt to turn “The Great Gatsby” into a clown car of sentimental entanglements skids off the road when disaster strikes. The twists unfold in the second act with the frenzy of Aaron Spelling’s nighttime soap, without any of the campy self-awareness. There is no horrifying account of the follies of hedonism, just a sharp sequence of sudden endings.
Fitzgerald’s charming but sobering cautionary tale has repeatedly emerged on the stage since entering the public domain in 2021: Last year there was an intense presentation at a Manhattan hotel, and a premiere of “Gatsby” with music by Florence Welch. -The Broadway trials had begun. Demonstration in Boston next month. There’s never been a bad time for a writer’s slant on capitalism and the single-minded pursuit of happiness – provided one isn’t already blind to them.
the great Gatsby, running at the Broadway Theatre, New York. 2 hours 30 minutes. broadgatesby.com,
