Ryan McCartan / Inappropriate Gatsby Laughter

[macbeth]

Posted: 3/2/25 at 9:50am

On his IG stories, https://www.instagram.com/mccarya/ Ryan talks about people laughing when...

 

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Gatsby gets shot...

Is this bad staging or a bad reaction? 

[inception]

Posted: 3/2/25 at 10:48am

When I saw it the reaction from a school group of teenagers wasn't laughter, they were all audibly surprised - I guess they hadn't read the book beforehand.   I remember one kid's really loud "Whoa! What!"

[mshalo18]

Posted: 3/2/25 at 10:51am

macbeth said: "On his IG stories,https://www.instagram.com/mccarya/Ryan talks about people laughing when...

 

Click Here To Toggle Spoiler Content

Gatsby gets shot...

Is this bad staging or a bad reaction?"

The staging is fine- people are fools. He mentioned that it wasn’t nervous laughter, too. And I know I’m old, but it still boggles my mind that people haven’t read the book and are shocked at the ending.

That said, I find his clap backs a bit unnecessary. 

[DressedInYourPajamas]

Posted: 3/2/25 at 11:02am

Why are actors feeling the need to police audience reactions publicly?

[GottaGetAGimmick420]

Posted: 3/2/25 at 11:02am

Honestly, he's making a big deal out of a typical quirk among Broadway audiences. I've been waiting for Ryan to drop his first unpopular take on his socials. 

[BorisTomashevsky]

Posted: 3/2/25 at 11:04am

I don’t know the guy but as soon as he mentioned placing a hex, I had no desire to know anything more. 

[DramaTeach]

Posted: 3/2/25 at 11:18am

Honestly, haven’t seen it with him, but when I saw it with Jordan, my friends are I were all so bored that when he died, we looked at each other and sn*ed. Not terrible staging but a terrible musical which could lead to that reaction.

Updated On: 3/2/25 at 11:18 AM

[Sutton Ross]

Posted: 3/2/25 at 11:23am

Yeah, the three times I've seen it there was always laughter. It was strange but as someone said above, policing audiences publicly is really weird.

 

[veronicamae]

Posted: 3/2/25 at 2:25pm

This is picking up steam on theatre twitter (general disdain).

Suspect even more laughter will be present at future shows...

[dramamama611]

Posted: 3/2/25 at 2:58pm

It's not great staging, but it's been a while since I saw it.

 

But someone needs to calm down.  People react the way people react - they aren't necessarily trying to be rude.

[getatme]

Posted: 3/2/25 at 3:31pm

The show is bad. The staging of the death is goofy.

Shocked it took this long for McCartan's bad attitude to rear its head.

[verywellthensigh]

Posted: 3/2/25 at 6:41pm

Every time I see his name on the board I think it's the video artist Ryan Trecartin. 

[poisonivy2]

Posted: 3/2/25 at 11:54pm

He's acting like SUCH an extra theater kid about this. Relax man.

[CATSNYrevival]

Posted: 3/3/25 at 12:10am

He is an extra theatre kid. What’s so bad about that?