REVIEW: The Great Gatsby (National Theatre)

The very second that F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby hit the public domain, two musical projects were announced. Inside the now-copyrightless book, there were two wolves: one that loves the flapper aesthetic a la Baz Luhrmann’s 2013 film, and another that embraces the dark, pessimistic commentary Fitz’ probably intended. And for a second, it even seemed like we were going to get a Wild Party situation in which two musicals about the same thing by different creators would duel it out on the Great White Way. It’s too bad the musical economic situation up in New York is too fraught to risk such competition, because the one that didn’t make it was the latter: a brooding production with Florence Welch at the piano played Boston’s ART for a second but hasn’t moved anywhere since. The one that opened first was a shiny megamusical adapted by Kait Kerrigan with Broadway stars (Jeremy Jordan and Eva Noblezada) at the center, and a score by Jason Howland and Nathan Tysen. That production has some money-making legs, and it’s taken them on tour, stopping here in DC this month.

Book / Music

The TikTokification of the American musical will be its downfall. This is represented no better than here in Gatsby. The musical generally follows the book on a surface level: Nick Carraway moves to New York from Minnesota after the Great War, becomes neighbors with the enigmatic Gatsby, and through his cousin Daisy gets involved with the elite of Long Island during the peak Roaring 20’s. And you shouldn’t have a hard time perceiving that: it often spells it out for you in plain words, leaving no chance for nuance or piecing it together on your own. It’s as if the production expects the viewer to be on their phone the entire time, which was maddening, given such high potential for new takes on how the story can be expressed. The thing about Gatsby is that it’s a tragic book, one that was one of the most prescient critiques of the capitalism of its time. The emptiness of its characters practically foreshadow the depression of the next decade. Its translation to the stage in this production ignores basically all of this in favor of glitz and glam. Characters are flattened beyond recognition — poor Jordan! — and even the title character himself is somehow left as enigmatic by the end as he is in the beginning, when the revelations of his past are the fulcrum of the original text. But the book here does have a fair bit of humor, as misplaced as it is. Madcap blocking and certain songs (“The Met” comes to mind) give the show some electricity even if the remainder of it is the mummified cadaver of the Roaring 20’s. 1/10

Acting

The performances for this tour did not strike me as particularly impressive for such famously rich characters in the American canon, but Joshua Grosso’s (Nick) wormy acting and Jake David Smith’s (Gatsby) gilded singing had their moments of quality in certain scenes. 3/10

Production

This production goes over the top, even by era-appropriate standards. But given the paper-thin book, it really needs it. Sparklers and dramatic lighting from Cory Pattak make plenty of appearances, and the choreography is pseudo-Fosse jazzlike if not awkwardly staged around Paul Tate dePoo III’s aggressively geometric set.The costumes and general decorum are all a pleasure; there’s even several (!) functional cars that are driven around the stage, and the projections by dePoo were impressive (and not AI from what I could see, as I have seen too much these days). Such visuals nearly made me forget that this superficiality is getting in the way of a more informative textual experience. 7/10

Viz

You can’t blame the Gatsby people for not marketing the damn thing, that’s for sure. Gold and emerald motifs dominate the merch booth and key art, all using some appropriate, if not generic, Art Deco-inspired typeface. The pre-show has some wrought iron framing that curves the corners, and displays a wistful projection of the green light across the bay, one of the text’s most discussed motifs. If judging a book by its cover is your main prerogative, you’re in good hands. 8/10

Verdict

The Great Gatsby is undeniably visually spectacular, but at what cost: the sacrifice of a seminal piece of American commentary at a time where it would be more relevant than ever. 19/40