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?

[chrishuyen]

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

His doubling down on it felt a little cringe to me, and then praising a later audience for not laughing was an eyeroll, but whatever I guess it's his social media.  I do think a lot of elements in this Gatsby (especially Gatsby himself) come off as (unintentionally) campy so I honestly don't blame the audience members for laughing...

[GottaGetAGimmick420]

Posted: 3/3/25 at 11:33am

chrishuyen said: "His doubling down on it felt a little cringe to me, and then praising a later audience for not laughing was an eyeroll, but whatever I guess it's his social media. I do think a lot of elements in this Gatsby (especially Gatsby himself)come off as (unintentionally) campy so I honestly don't blame the audience members for laughing..."

Get ready, he'll only continue doubling down and posting cringe about this situation. It was only a matter of time.

[BorisTomashevsky]

Posted: 3/3/25 at 12:04pm

What is the Gatsby Countdown 33.5 stuff he’s posting? Is he only in there for a limited engagement? Maybe management won’t miss him if he’s a bit… unhinged. 

[GottaGetAGimmick420]

Posted: 3/3/25 at 12:05pm

https://www.reddit.com/r/Broadway/comments/1j2nf5l/ryan_mccartan_on_instagram_following_recent/ Look in the comments... he's STILL going!

[inlovewithjerryherman]

Posted: 3/3/25 at 4:28pm

...I admittedly chortled under my breath when Myrtle got hit by the car

[verywellthensigh]

Posted: 3/4/25 at 5:55pm

Okay, now I'm dying to see how it was staged.  Not enough to buy a ticket to this mess, but still...if someone has a clip,..

[GottaGetAGimmick420]

Posted: 3/4/25 at 6:43pm

verywellthensigh said: "Okay, now I'm dying to see how it was staged. Not enough to buy a ticket to this mess, but still...if someone has a clip,.."

https://www.tiktok.com/@jeremyjordanfan7/video/7294831948990516510 very end of the video

[TheatreMonkey]

Posted: 3/4/25 at 7:34pm

GottaGetAGimmick420 said: "verywellthensigh said: "Okay, now I'm dying to see how it was staged. Not enough to buy a ticket to this mess, but still...if someone has a clip,.."

https://www.tiktok.com/@jeremyjordanfan7/video/7294831948990516510 very end of the video"

Yep. It's as bad as the comments made it sound like. That's...not great staging. I was expecting a bucket of water to be thrown up from the pit when he fell in.

[TheatreFan4]

Posted: 3/4/25 at 7:43pm

GottaGetAGimmick420 said: "verywellthensigh said: "Okay, now I'm dying to see how it was staged. Not enough to buy a ticket to this mess, but still...if someone has a clip,.."

https://www.tiktok.com/@jeremyjordanfan7/video/7294831948990516510 very end of the video"

That was really weird... should there be something dramatic happening and not so matter of fact someone got shot?

[verywellthensigh]

Posted: 3/4/25 at 8:21pm

TheatreMonkey said: "GottaGetAGimmick420 said: "verywellthensigh said: "Okay, now I'm dying to see how it was staged. Not enough to buy a ticket to this mess, but still...if someone has a clip,.."

https://www.tiktok.com/@jeremyjordanfan7/video/7294831948990516510 very end of the video"

Yep. It's as bad as the comments made it sound like. That's...not great staging. I was expecting a bucket of water to be thrown up from the pit when he fell in."

Or a dropped cymbal sound, clattering to completion.  

[rannells_renthead.11]

Posted: 3/6/25 at 1:43pm

Is this bad staging or a bad reaction?"

I think it's sort of a bit of both. I've seen clips of the scene online and I'm going to see him do it in person at the end of this month. This might sound ridiculous but I think it's all to do with his height. Jeremy was much shorter so it was quicker and easier for his entire body to fold over and to fall into the pool, making it look much more natural. Jeremy is 5' 10" ish and Ryan is 6' 1". Ryan has to fold over much more and it ends up looking sort of awkward. This is sort of the show's fault for not restaging it to accommodate the actors but it's really not the end of the world. I also think the whole thing is partially a bit of a dramatic reaction on Ryan's behalf. I get what's he's trying to say about the whole society not caring about violence anymore or something, but to me it seems like he just has a lot of pent-up political frustration right now due to the current political climate, and he's sort of taking that out on the audiences. I bet the people who laughed were probably stupid kids who weren't expecting it and laughing in sort of an ironic shock was their response. So overall, it's a bit of everything but I think the whole thing isn't that big of a deal and will simmer down quickly.