Welcome to the Jazz Age! The new musical adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby opens on Broadway tonight, starring Jeremy Jordan and Eva Noblezada! Read the reviews!
The new musical features music and lyrics by Tony Award nominees Jason Howland and Nathan Tysen. The Broadway musical features a book by Jonathan Larson Grant winner Kait Kerrigan (The Mad Ones) and is staged by award-winning director Marc Bruni (Beautiful: The Carole King Musical) and choreographer Dominique Kelley (“Mariah’s Magical Christmas Special”, “Dancing with the Stars”).
F. Scott Fitzgerald’s timeless, seminal novel comes to the Broadway musical stage for the first time ever, The Great Gatsby. Transporting audiences to the lavish Roaring Twenties, the story follows eccentric and mysterious millionaire Jay Gatsby, who will stop at nothing in the pursuit of the lost love of his youth, Daisy Buchanan. Through its fascinatingly nuanced characters – driven by complex inner lives, erupting with extravagance and longing – this epic tale has always been destined to sing. Now, it finally comes to life on the greatest American stage, through an electrifying jazz and pop-infused score, and a grand production befitting the 21st century.
Laura Collins-Hughes, The New York Times: The darker elements of “The Great Gatsby” prove more elusive, which blunts the impact overall. So does the show’s anodyne Broadway sound, which is poppy and pleasant without being memorable. It summons neither the Jazz Age, like the soundtrack to Jack Clayton’s 1974 movie adaptation did, nor a spirit of wild abandon, like the soundtrack to Baz Luhrmann’s 2013 take. The score to this “Great Gatsby” is missing a vital urgency.
David Finkle, New York Stage Review: This musical take on The Great Gatsby presents Jay Gatsby and Daisy Fay Buchanan as a sympathetic couple caught in unfortunate Jazz Age circumstances. In other words, the transfiguration of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby is, sorry to report, a travesty.
Sandy MacDonald, New York Stage Review: That message comes through clearly here, despite the production team’s penchant for bells and whistles. If all you’re seeking is a spectacle, you will get one. For some real resonance and depth, though, you may just have to wait a while—or reread the book.
Dan Rubins, Slant Magazine: And while any adaptation of The Great Gatsby has to thread the needle between wowing audiences with opulence and inviting critique of the ostentatious hollow center (those pyrotechnics are surely ironic, right?), the show’s final images seem to find that balance successfully. “I don’t want to live here, but I never want to leave,” the bombastically independent Jordan Baker (Samantha Pauly) sings as she enters one of Gatsby’s extravagant parties. That’s about right: If The Great Gatsby doesn’t have the makings of a long-term Broadway resident, it’s become, in its newly minted tension and decadence, a welcome visitor.
Christian Lewis, Variety: For any fan of “The Great Gatsby,” though, it’s likely you’ll have moments of wanting more, of missing out on all the subtext, grit, and suffering beneath the sequins. Right as you have that pang, you’ll probably get distracted by another sweeping set change or production number, and as the opening and closing song playfully depict, the party will just keep rolling on and on and on, so you might as well join in and enjoy the ride.
Kobi Kassal, Theatrely: Marc Bruni directs this entertaining, if uneven at parts, production with ease and style reminiscent of his stunning work on Beautiful: The Carole King Musical. With fierce, high octane choreography by Dominique Kelley on top of Paul Tate DePoo III’s stunning scenic and projection design (ay my performance the back LED wall did fade to black quite a few times accidentally), pleasant costume design by Linda Cho, and on the money lighting design by Cory Pattak, the world of Gatsby comes alive.
Average Rating:
51.7%
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