THE GREAT GATSBY Opening Night Critics’ Reviews- Page 2

[EDSOSLO858]

Posted: 4/25/24 at 11:07pm

DTLI Consensus: The penultimate musical entry of the 2023-24 Broadway season is all style, little substance. 

5 mixed (including the NYT), 3 negative, 1 positive.

https://didtheylikeit.com/shows/the-great-gatsby/

[dramamama611]

Posted: 4/25/24 at 11:14pm

Ouch. (not undeservedly)

I convert DTLI rankings into numerical values - this put Gatsby tied (with Lempicka & BTTF) as the worst reviewed new musical of the season.   I feel bad for BTTF, and I didn't even like it.

[Bill Snibson]

Posted: 4/25/24 at 11:18pm

One thing you sure don't want when the Times is there are tech glitches ...Eeek. Not surprised by these critiques but ouch. What a weird season for new musicals.

[HenryTDobson]

Posted: 4/25/24 at 11:32pm

These reviews are actually not as terrible as I was expecting. So yay for low expectations? 

[perfectliar]

Posted: 4/26/24 at 12:05am

HenryTDobson said: "These reviews are actually not as terrible as I was expecting. So yay for low expectations?"

Yeah, they got some fine pull quotes that will look great blown up on billboards and on the side of the theatre.

Hell, they could probably sell more than a few seats just with the Washington Post quote that "your English teacher would hate this."

[MadsonMelo]

Posted: 4/26/24 at 1:32am

dramamama611 said: "Ouch. (not undeservedly)

I convert DTLI rankings into numerical values - this put Gatsby tied (with Lempicka & BTTF) as the worst reviewed new musical of the season. I feel bad for BTTF, and I didn't even like it."

I also try to do a ranking, I think it come out like this:

1. Days of Wine and Roses
2. Hell's Kitchen
3. Suffs
4. Here Lies Love
5. Water for Elephants
6. How to Dance in Ohio
7. The Outsiders
8. The Heart of Rock and Roll
9. Harmony
10. The Notebook
11. Once Upon a One More Time
12. The Great Gatsby
13. Lempicka
14. Back to the Future

How's yours?

Also, I would say starting from Harmony/The Notebook, the mixed reception leaned more over negative.

[dramamama611]

Posted: 4/26/24 at 3:17am

This is out of 5:

Days of Wine & Roses 4.6
Hell’s Kitchen 4.5
Here Lies Love 4.3
Water for Elephants 4.1
Suffs 4.1
How to Dance in Ohio 4
Heart of Rock & Roll 3.9
The Outsiders 3.4
The Notebook 3.2
Harmony 3.2
Once Upon a One More Time 3
Back to the Future 2.6
Lempicka 2.6
The Great Gatsby 2.6

My numbers could be off. Most of the time I didn't round up the decimals, but a few times I did. I didn't feel like going back and redoing. (Technically, for example, Gatsby was at 2.68... so could be listed as 2.7 - but don't know if Lempicka or BTTF should be. So

Updated On: 4/26/24 at 03:17 AM

[BWNUT]

Posted: 4/26/24 at 5:00am

Most of these critics agree this show is glitzy and FUN. Sometimes Glitz and Fun is all you want and need for an enjoyable night at the theater. I’m buying a ticket.

[Impeach2017]

Posted: 4/26/24 at 5:20am

Great American literature channeled for dummies - it just might work!

[MrsSallyAdams]

Posted: 4/26/24 at 7:15am

" Nick and Jordan are now explicitly heterosexual, have sex, and get engaged." ~ Variety
'The Great Gatsby' Review: Broadway Musical Has Glamour, No Grit (variety.com)

 

Well so much for 99 years of queer theory. Sounds like I'm not part of their target audience.

[TimeToDither]

Posted: 4/26/24 at 7:18am

MrsSallyAdams said: ""Nick and Jordan are now explicitly heterosexual, have sex, and get engaged." ~ Variety
'The Great Gatsby' Review: Broadway Musical Has Glamour, No Grit (variety.com)



Well so much for 99 years of queer theory. Sounds like I'm not part of their target audience."

This.

This whole take on Gatsby completely misses the things that have the greatest theatrical potential, in my opinion.

[Owen22]

Posted: 4/26/24 at 7:47am

I don't know how feel now. Weirdly, a lot of these reviews are actually good. What they don't like is that it did not play fealty to its source material.  Which I fully acknowledge but enjoyed the musical anyway. But, the complaint is, change some plot points, change some characterizations, but if you are basing a show on a great American novel, do not change the original author's INTENT. I love the novel and its ever-timely themes. So should I be upset? Wicked changes LOTS from the novel, but their messages are the same. I'm going to have to think about this...

Updated On: 4/26/24 at 07:47 AM

[ErmengardeStopSniveling]

Posted: 4/26/24 at 7:52am

TimeToDither said: "This whole take on Gatsby completely misses the things that have the greatest theatrical potential, in my opinion."

Based on the rumblings out of Cambridge, it sounds like Chavkin's Gatsby leans more heavily into Nick's queerness, gives Myrtle a real arc, AND there's no credited Projection Designer. Which may address certain complaints about the Bruni Gatsby :)

[QueenAlice]

Posted: 4/26/24 at 9:17am

dramamama611 said: "This is out of 5:

Days of Wine & Roses 4.6
Hell’s Kitchen 4.5
Here Lies Love 4.3
Water for Elephants 4.1
Suffs 4.1
How to Dance in Ohio 4
Heart of Rock & Roll 3.9
The Outsiders 3.4
The Notebook 3.2
Harmony 3.2
Once Upon a One More Time 3
Back to the Future 2.6
Lempicka 2.6
The Great Gatsby 2.6

My numbers could be off. Most of the time I didn't round up the decimals, but a few times I did. I didn't feel like going back and redoing. (Technically, for example, Gatsby was at 2.68... so could be listed as 2.7 - but don't know if Lempicka or BTTF should be. So"

And of course - this season has revealed that critics mean less and less when it comes to box office grosses.  If anything some audiences will take the reviews as "proof "that 'liberal New York press' are 'out of touch' with what 'mainstream audience' want to see. 

[dramamama611]

Posted: 4/26/24 at 10:17am

Oh, sure. I just did this for my own clarity, of sorts.  I'm always curious about what the critics say, but I don't let them replace my own opinion.

Reviews aren't supposed to worry about what the masses might like, are they?  

[kidmanboy]

Posted: 4/26/24 at 10:33am

BWNUT said: "Most of thesecritics agree this show is glitzy and FUN. SometimesGlitz and Fun is all you want and need for an enjoyable night at the theater.I’m buying a ticket."

I didn't find it fun.  The changes to the plot and intent of the novel made the story a bit meaningless and most of the songs didn't really drive any action as much as repeat a sentiment for 4 minutes.  Fireworks (literally) and sequins weren't enough to keep me entertained.

[QueenAlice]

Posted: 4/26/24 at 10:34am

I'm less and less clear what reviews serve except as a sort of insight in the psyche of the reviewer.  I think the reviews in many instances this season have been kind - overly kind - which does seem to consider a sort of concern about potential public optics. 

[Scarywarhol]

Posted: 4/26/24 at 10:53am

These are incredibly kind. One of the most indefensible shows of my lifetime. Well, the defense seems to be "Removing everything deeply relevant to the world and time we are living in, everything meaningful or creatively exciting from one of the greatest and most widely-read American novels ever and treating the audience like absolute idiots, is just supposed to be FUN. Why can't something just be FUN?" Because terrible, cynically assembled musicals aren't fun. 

[QueenAlice]

Posted: 4/26/24 at 10:54am

And a reminder that this is also largely how the French feel about the musical adaptation of Les Miserables. 

[Leaf Coneybear]

Posted: 4/26/24 at 11:06am

Scarywarhol said: "These are incredibly kind. One of the most indefensible shows of my lifetime. Well, the defense seems to be "Removing everything deeply relevant to the world and time we are living in, everything meaningful or creatively exciting from one of the greatest and most widely-read American novels ever and treating the audience like absolute idiots, is just supposed to be FUN. Why can't something just be FUN?" Because terrible, cynically assembled musicals aren't fun."

I don't mind terrible, stupid musicals. Lots of my favorite musicals are "stupid." But taking something that is not meant to be stupid fun and making it that is just.. weird, and disrespectful to the original intent. I get they wanted to bank off of the name, but it seems like they should have just done a big blowout 20's musical with an entirely seperate plot. 

[hearthemsing22]

Posted: 4/26/24 at 11:21am

At the risk of sounding insensitive- and yes, I am well aware that you did not say this- not every single show has to somehow tie into the times we are living in. Just my two cents. You can see a show that does consider those factors, and others can see ones that do not. Every single show doesn't have to somehow touch on todays society 

[QueenAlice]

Posted: 4/26/24 at 11:25am

I appreciate that so many here are speaking from the heart of artists and academics, but truly - credit must be given where credit is due -- an if you think like a producer, you can see the greatness about what they have done here. The people behind this show have taken a public domain novel everyone reads (but most don't really remember) and have fixated on the two things the story conjures in most people's minds: the time period and the opulence. They have leaned into that, played up most people's desires for musicals to be romances, given it a simple but very catchy score, cast two incredibly popular young leads, and gone balls to the walls as commercial entertainment.  As I've said elsewhere, if you look at musicals adapted from source material going all the way back to OKLAHOMA and CAROUSEL they are tonally completely different from their original stories.  This adaptation of GATSBY, I predict, will have long life after its Broadway run - schools and colleges will certainly perform it regularly. And I think the cast recording will also prove very popular, especially among the WICKED crowd.

[kidmanboy]

Posted: 4/26/24 at 11:36am

QueenAlice said: "I appreciate that so many here are speaking from the heart of artists and academics, but truly - credit must be given where credit is due-- an if you think like a producer, you can see the greatness about what they have done here. The people behind this show have taken a public domain novel everyone reads (but most don't really remember) and have fixated on the two things the story conjures in most people's minds: the time period and the opulence. They have leaned into that, played up most people's desires for musicals to be romances, given it a simple but very catchy score, cast two incredibly popular young leads, and gone balls to the walls as commercial entertainment. As I've said elsewhere, if you look at musicals adapted from source material going all the way back to OKLAHOMA and CAROUSEL they are tonally completely different from their original stories. This adaptation of GATSBY, I predict, will have long life after its Broadway run - schools and colleges will certainly perform it regularly. And I think the cast recording will also prove very popular, especially among the WICKED crowd."

I don't think the criticism of the show should be boiled down to solely dismissing it's goals.  To me, it did not deliver an entertaining show or a particularly catchy score.  Perhaps one could've achieved what you described, but the story as told was not particularly compelling (even more a result of the broad direction which put the characters in complete different stories than the writing itself), and the songs, while not atonal, did not really stick in my ear and often had some downright cringeworthy lyrics.

[OhHiii]

Posted: 4/26/24 at 11:36am

This show isn’t selling well enough in previews for the size of what it is for these reviews to move the needle in a meaningful way. There will only be one Gatsby on Broadway in 2025.

[DrMonicaDeMoneco]

Posted: 4/26/24 at 12:20pm

QueenAlice said: "I appreciate that so many here are speaking from the heart of artists and academics, but truly - credit must be given where credit is due-- an if you think like a producer, you can see the greatness about what they have done here. The people behind this show have taken a public domain novel everyone reads (but most don't really remember) and have fixated on the two things the story conjures in most people's minds: the time period and the opulence. They have leaned into that, played up most people's desires for musicals to be romances, given it a simple but very catchy score, cast two incredibly popular young leads, and gone balls to the walls as commercial entertainment. As I've said elsewhere, if you look at musicals adapted from source material going all the way back to OKLAHOMA and CAROUSEL they are tonally completely different from their original stories. This adaptation of GATSBY, I predict, will have long life after its Broadway run - schools and colleges will certainly perform it regularly. And I think the cast recording will also prove very popular, especially among the WICKED crowd."

Guuuuuurl… you sure u saw the same show as everyone else??