Broadway is partying like it’s the 1920s again with the opening of a flashy new musical adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s classic novel The Great Gatsby. The show, which premiered Thursday night at the Broadway Theatre, aims to bring the glitz, glamour and unbridled excess of the Jazz Age to the stage on a scale not seen since before the COVID-19 pandemic.
Directed by Marc Bruni (Beautiful: The Carole King Musical), the musical features a book by Kait Kerrigan, music and lyrics by Jason Howland and Nathan Tysen, and lavish art deco-inspired sets by Paul Tate dePoo III that evoke the decadence of Gatsby’s legendary parties. “The entire team behind The Great Gatsby is beyond thrilled to present this timeless, glamorous, and resplendent production on Broadway,” lead producer Chunsoo Shin said.
The production, which had a sold-out premiere run last fall at New Jersey’s Paper Mill Playhouse, stars Jeremy Jordan (Newsies) as the enigmatic Jay Gatsby and Eva Noblezada (Hadestown) as his lost love Daisy Buchanan. They are joined by Noah J. Ricketts as narrator Nick Carraway, Samantha Pauly as Jordan Baker, Sara Chase as Myrtle Wilson, John Zdrojeski as Tom Buchanan, Paul Whitty as George Wilson, and Eric Anderson as Meyer Wolfsheim.
While Fitzgerald’s 1925 novel has been adapted many times for stage and screen, including Baz Luhrmann’s stylized 2013 film with Leonardo DiCaprio, this musical aims to dig deeper into the story’s critique of the American Dream and bring more focus to its complex female characters.
“This song-and-dance version, which opened on Thursday night, is a barrage of gaudy clone ballads,” wrote Johnny Oleksinski in a mixed New York Post review. “These tunes, indiscriminately distributed to any character desiring one, blare like a foghorn on the Long Island Sound.
“Still, after years of pandemic austerity, audiences seem eager to lose themselves again in Gatsby’s hedonistic fantasy world where the champagne flows freely and the Charleston never stops. The show’s producers are betting that pent-up demand for escapism and spectacle will draw crowds to this lush, dreamlike evocation of a bygone era.
“In seeking to channel the grandiosity of New York’s roaring 1920s, a musical adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel “The Great Gatsby” has brought the kind of razzle-dazzle opulence back to Broadway that hasn’t been seen since the COVID-19 pandemic shut down theaters in 2020,” wrote Chris Jones in the New York Daily News.
Whether The Great Gatsby will have the legs to transport Broadway back to its pre-pandemic heights remains to be seen. But with its extravagant design, soaring love songs, and timeless tale of romantic obsession, it aims to be the splashiest party invitation of the spring season. “Welcome back to the roaring twenties!” the show’s tagline beckons. “Jay Gatsby invites you to one of his infamous parties. The champagne flows and as the drama unfolds the man himself will be the perfect host. As invites go, this is the hottest ticket in town.
See more : Steelers Shine, Cardinals Confuse on Day 2 of 2024 NFL Draft