THE GREAT GATSBY Opening Night Critics’ Reviews — Page 4

Honestly the best way to enjoy the show is just to forget everything you know about Gatsby and just imagine you're going into a campy melodrama with 1920s escapism.

They did a nice job on GMA. It was much better than what Water for elephants and heart of rock and roll did.

that GMA performance wasnt half bad (though sounds like Jordan struggled with that note at the end).

It wasn’t Jordan who struggled with that last note.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Broadway/comments/1clqqml/gatsby_on_gma/

Saw this Saturday evening and found the whole thing pretty abysmal.

Gone is any mystery behind Gatsby because every single character tells you exactly what their motivations are, how they're feeling, and what they're going to do the first second they come onstage. Gatsby's first song explaining that he created his image for Daisy strips the entire evening of any sense of mystery, and sets the tone for the rest of the show.

The music isn't tuneless at all, but it lacks any and all character. It's just modern musical theatre pop music with overly obvious and repetitive lyrics. The book has the same shape as the novel, sure, but again, lacks any and all nuance. So much of the book is what is not said, what's happening in the background. The musical brings everything to the light so there's never a chance to wonder where things are going to go. With Gatsby/Daisy's affair being played out right in front of the audience (and half the characters onstage), it takes away any amount of tension in the hotel confrontation.

Vocally? Sure, everyone is impressive, but not one person up on that stage is performing in the same show. They seem like a group of people who received their scripts at home and then showed up onstage at the same time.

Jeremy's mid-atlantic accent is--beside anachronistic--just one in a laundry list of baffling character choices. Gatsby being played as a bumbling, anxious idiot doesn't mesh at all with the way the man is described by the other characters. Eva Noblezada seems completely checked out already. Samantha Pauly delivers every line with the exact same dry intonation and never deviates. Noah Ricketts is trying, but this Nick Carraway has been so stripped of anything that might make him interesting (why, oh why, is the "relationship" between Jordan/Nick being treated as a genuine love story?) that he's facing an uphill battle. Sara Chase is largely fine, though she and Paul Whitty are saddled with the most insane Long Island accents I've ever heard. John Zdrojeski is the only one seemingly playing the role from the novel, but the writers so clearly hate Tom that they have removed him from any scenes that don't have anything to do with Gatsby/Daisy so we're left with a man who is just kind of...angry and onstage.

The set is large and flashy and mostly fine, if excessive. The costumes oscillate between lovely and incredibly gaudy and tacky.

The direction is poor. The choreography is good but so incredibly modern with no attempt to place it in the appropriate era.

As long as Rachel Chavkin/Florence Welch/Martyna Majok's Gatsby is even remotely palatable, it can't be worse than this dreck.

Updated On: 5/10/24 at 05:59 PM

Another stunning performance. Their marketing has been masterful

Owen22 said: "Broadway Flash said: "They did a nice job on GMA. It was much better than what Water for elephants and heart of rock and roll did."

Because, simply, The Great Gatsby has consistently better songs than any other of the big spring shows. You can argue about the adaptation, but this musical has a way better ratio of catchy uptunes and gorgeous ballads. The opening number has already taken over Tik Tok and the idea that Gatsby's score wasn't even nominated for a Tony is ludicrous."

Sadly; it’s not a very high bar. I left this show not remembering one song . And Tik Tok is not the measure of anything. Tony nominating committee got it right.

Why is everybody in this show doing a scream fest? Stand Center stage and scream your song into the void.


One of the more annoying shows of the season



Not an ounce of subtlety - and any relationship to the original material is purely coincidental

ok yall, i am shocked by how much i liked this. its v flawed and ultimately maddening, but in terms of did-you-enjoy-your-2.5hours.... i did.

in fact, this reminded me alot of Lempicka-- a, because everyone i usually agree with hated it, and i didnt, but b, because the performances and the over the top flashiness and song/dance worked even though c, the writers have alot of nerve butchering a story so gallingly.

Like Lempicka, someone made a decision to warp the story to fit a preconceived notion of what the story should be--here perverting a classic piece of literature, which is just as grave a sin, to me, as rewriting history to turn nazi collaborators into lesbian activist heroes. That was a crime, but i still enjoyed the messy flawed result.

Here, too: The WHOLE POINT of Gatsby, and indeed the tragedy, is that Gatsby reinvents himself to become A Rich Guy only to learn that Class carries the day, and more tragically, that his love chooses Class and Status over him. Its an indictment of a segment of society that remains searing today.

But here, they cant let Daisy be emblematic of that ugliness. They must redeem her--and the song she sings at the end is lovely and makes the point well, but this rips the very point of the story out from under the show, AND leaves Daisy a complete shell of a character that never quite comes together. Eva sounds incredible, start to finish, and is perfect on stage. None of this is meant as criticism of her at all.

These changes were meant to Make The Show Acceptable To Modern Audiences but they reek of desperation and fail. With Lempicka I suspect a deluded writer/director got lost in their passion for the project; with Gatbsy I suspect a more calculated business decision was made. Either way, for shame. Daisy is tough, and its hard to convey her mysteriousness/conflict but thats what song is for! Give her some moments to reflect on that choice, or preview her struggle for us! We get none of that.

And that also makes Gatbsy seem unhinged and almost childish in his silly optimism. To be fair, i saw Jeff Kready in the role, and while he looks and sounds the part perfectly, there is a charm/ease that was missing there, and I do not doubt that Jeremy Jordan would have built the character better. But the story ultimately makes little sense as they constructed it, no matter who is playing the role.

And what kills me is that in the areas where i think they CAN/SHOULD play around with the text, they don't. Myrtle, not Daisy, is a nice vehicle to explore the absence of choices for women back then. But they pass that up. (Sara Chase is great). Noah Ricketts wowed me in terms of singing/acting/charm, but I was sure they were making Nick at least sexually fluid until they abruptly had him fall for.... the butch golfer? Yes, Sam Pauly was incredible, and deserves as many roles as we can find for her, truly a natural in every way. And she nails this character--aloof, uninterested in men, critical of the world around her... but then, BAM, thats out the window and we get another insanity: forcing these two into a romantic relationship. Neither Ricketts nor Pauly are served well by this silly romance, which detracts from everything else it seemed they were successfully trying to do.

And after that entire rant, Im still surprised at the lukewarm reception. I thought the sets were big and flashy in all the right ways, I loved the projections, the cars were more than just set pieces and were used well given the plot (another Lempicka comparison!), and while the score wasnt nearly as good/unique as Lempicka's, I certainly enjoyed it a hella lot more than many other more lauded shows this year.

we sat extreme left orchestra, full house (unlike Lempicka, this shows making millions a week, and the audience was beyond enthusiastic start to finish, lots of old ladies from Long Island and groups of high school kids, enthralled). Didnt miss much but obviously the show is best seen from farther back then our Row F. Did not appreciate two ushers siting and whispering throughout act 2- get it together.

Sara Chase announced that she will be on medical leave to focus on her chemo thru the end of August-strong woman. Hoping she makes a full recovery and is able to return.