Has anyone seen Gatz?

[adamgreer]

Posted: 10/6/10 at 12:26am

The Great Gatsby is my all-time favorite novel, so this production really interests me. Has anyone seen it and have any thoughts?

Anyone know of any ticket discounts? I didn't see anything on broadwaybox...

[dramamama611]

Posted: 10/6/10 at 4:30am

I really wanted to, but my schedule didn't allow for it.

The original run sold out pretty quickly, so there was no need for discounts. I haven't heard about the extention.

[luvtheEmcee]

Posted: 10/6/10 at 4:37am

It's my favorite book, too. Can't wait to see this. It's selling very well. You should keep an eye on The Public's Twitter page, though, they often post information about good ways to snag tickets.

Updated On: 10/6/10 at 04:37 AM

[adamgreer]

Posted: 10/6/10 at 6:03am

I'm shocked it is selling so well! Who'd have thought a 6.5 hour dramatic reading of the novel would be so popular?!

[Yankeefan007]

Posted: 10/6/10 at 9:46am

Unfortunately, it's become something of an "event."

[hotjohn]

Posted: 10/6/10 at 2:25pm

It sounds a bit like the old Andy Kaufman stunt to me.

[luvtheEmcee]

Posted: 10/6/10 at 4:12pm

I'm shocked it is selling so well! Who'd have thought a 6.5 hour dramatic reading of the novel would be so popular?!

It's a pretty widely and well-loved book that I think has always really lent itself to theatricality, and the production has been buzzed about for a while. I'm not all that surprised.

[TheatreFan4]

Posted: 10/6/10 at 4:19pm

Really? This book made me want chew on tin foil it was so boring.

[thenewmoon]

Posted: 10/6/10 at 4:21pm

I have! TGG is my all-time favorite book too. (The movies, not so much).
I'd known about ERS's version since its first premiere, so knowing it was prohibited from ever being performed in NYC (well, until now, obviously), I promised myself whenever it was next done in the US, I'd go. And I did. In November 2008, I made my first trip to Chicago (I live in Los Angeles) just to see it, performed in the auditorium of the modern art museum. I believe the ticket was $35 and I was in the first row center ('cause I bought my ticket the second they went on sale!) It started at 2 PM and ended around 10:45 PM.

Because I LOVE being read to, and because I LOVE the book, I absolutely LOVED "Gatz." As described, it is NOT a play. It's a dramatic reading. It's very funny, but I think that if you are not a HUGE fan of the book, or at least familiar with it, you might find it (extremely) tedious. I brought along a copy of the book itself so I could follow along, which I definitely recommend (so you're not sitting there in the 5th hour wondering what % of the text they're through!)

Tagentially, I loved Chicago, the city. While there, unplanned, I went to see "Million $ Quartet" in its original digs, which I liked well enough. Thrilled, yet somewhat surprised, that both of these shows made it to NY.

[matty159]

Posted: 10/6/10 at 5:31pm

Thanks for your thoughts, thenewmoon :)

While I am not a fan of American Lit in general (I am a Brit Lit kind of fellow), TGG is my favorite Am Lit classic and one I always enjoy teaching. A friend of mine saw this in Boston and was blown away. I am hoping to catch it, but it is an investment of not just time, but money (those tix are a little expensive for my budget).

[RippedMan]

Posted: 10/6/10 at 5:49pm

I love this book, but def. can't afford a full price ticket, oh well.

[emg_sound]

Posted: 10/6/10 at 6:00pm

I haven't seen Gatz, but I have seen two other recent Elevator Repair Service pieces where they would read a novel on stage, The Sun Also Rises and The Sound and the Fury. Lugubrious pacing aside, I found both pieces fascinating! Personally, I felt that Sound and the Fury was probably their best theatrical adaptation by far, due to the hyper kinetic quality of how they treated the text and the concept of character (All of the characters were played by no less than two different actors, who were constantly shifting who they were). The Sun Also Rises had a rather long build up, but once they got to a point of exploding the theatricality of the space, it became completely mesmerizing.

[Roscoe]

Posted: 10/10/10 at 4:59pm

Full disclosure: I am not a fan of Fitzgerald's novel. At least part of the reason for seeing this production was to see if I would finally get an idea of why people find this trite Jazz Age tale of brutality and stupidity among the Terribly Rich to be so fascinating and so meaningful.

The production, by setting it in what has to be the most dreary office space imaginable, does everything possible to strip the novel of all glamour, the very glamour and costume drama stuff that can make other adaptations of the novel so problematic. All those pretty buildings, costumes and big big parties can become an end in themselves, as they certainly do in the unfortunate 1974 film with Redford and Farrow. Instead, we get one guy reading the text while apparently waiting for his computer to start working, and as time passes (or doesn't, the clock on his desk stays resolutely at 9:35), he begins to populate the story with the people around him, and with their assistance the entire novel, all 170-odd pages, is brought to life.

Scott Shepherd's performance as Nick, or more properly, Man In Office is arresting, as he gradually becomes enmeshed in the book. For me the real triumph is the performance of the actor playing Gatsby, whose name I just can't remember, who rises above all of the pitfalls of playing a legendary figure by simply playing the man as written, something that I'm not sure would be possible in any other dramatized version of this story. The problem performances come, I'm afraid, from the all-too obviously non-professional actor playing Gatsby's father and the actor playing Henry Wilson.

I can't say that the production did much to change my feelings about the novel. For all the deglamming going on, the novel's romantic blatherings are presented with full solemnity, as GREAT TRUTHS being presented to you the Lucky Audience, and I'm sorry, I just don't buy it. I've always felt that Mr. Fitzgerald, through his mouthpiece Nick Carraway, expects me to be taking away some Grand Statement about the American Dream from this slender little story about utter assholishness of the Rich, and it has always escaped me. The romantic blatherings about green lights on docks and boats being borne ceaselessly into the past always come off to me like too-sugary frosting on a particularly bitter cake.

I'm sure I'm even more in the minority on this one than usual.

[hubee]

Posted: 10/31/10 at 2:35pm

Does anybody know if anybody has been getting into Gatz via the Rush or cancellation line?

[Roscoe]

Posted: 11/3/10 at 10:08am

It has finally occurred to me what GATZ reminds me of.

GATZ is an extremely highbrow version of THE DROWSY CHAPERONE, with Man In Chair replaced with Man In Office, and Fitzgerald's novel standing in for the forgotten musical comedy.

[Broadway Doctor]

Posted: 11/4/10 at 10:31am

The Doc does a marathon of Gatz! Climbing Mount Everest? or All White Painting?
Gatz! Value versus Worth