For some reason, I either couldn't find (or open) our previous thread on this production — maybe it was deleted by the mods? — so creating this one now. Anyway, rehearsals begin on Tuesday for Jason Howland and Nathan Tysen's The Great Gatsby, directed by Marc Bruni; it will run from October 12 — November 12 at Paper Mill Playhouse in Millburn, NJ.
With that, the full company should be announced in a press release real soon — I hear that Samantha Pauly is involved in this project. I have no clue who else is going to be in it, but if we know anything about Howland, it's that he loves recruiting several cast members from his previous projects for whatever he's working on at the moment. I'd expect a sizable amount of Beautiful, Paradise Square, and Shucked alums joining Jordan, Noblezada, and Pauly in this cast.
Unless this bombs like Hercules, this is a planned Broadway transfer.
A Chorus Line revival played its final Broadway performance on August 17, 2008. The tour played its final performance on August 21, 2011. A new non-equity tour started in October 2012 played its final performance on March 23, 2013. Another non-equity tour launched on January 20, 2018. The tour ended its US run in Kansas City and then toured throughout Japan August & September 2018.
Holy mother of God! I am in tears just from watching that clip! I cannot imagine what this will sound like with a full orchestra! My excitement for this just shot up!
The idea is to work and to experiment. Some things will be creatively successful, some things will succeed at the box office, and some things will only - which is the biggest only - teach you things that see the future. And they're probably as valuable as any of your successes. -Harold Prince
Obviously, we haven’t heard Welch’s music from the A.R.T. Gatsby yet, but this is already giving me Lippa’s Wild Party. Whether that’s a good or bad thing, time will tell. That said, I’m firmly in the LaChiusa camp on that versus battle, and these clips are doing absolutely zero for me.
If we're already getting two Gatsbys, can we get three? I want one written and VERY liberally adapted by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa, dragging Cole Sprouse into the cast as Nick Carraway to hate-monologue his way through the narration and make every possible excuse not to sing or dance.
Three isn't enough, let's do four. What does the Lin-Manuel Miranda Gatsby look like? Someone sit him down and don't give him any Schmackery's until he writes it.
Ahh let's go for five. Where's the Ivo Van Hove Gatsby, performed in a vintage bathhouse being actively demolished around the cast as they perform? Featuring video of Christopher Walken in a filmed cameo as Meyer Wolfsheim and TJ Eckleberg, visually glowering down at the cast through the entire performance from a 360 looping video screen.
I liked the choreo in the opening number...but did make me think of Fosse/Pippin (which isn't a bad thing)
But the music itself? Sounded so generic....what a time to live in the time period that (seemingly) has been missed.
Still looking forward to seeing this, but hoping the ART version finds its time period better.
If we're not having fun, then why are we doing it?
These are DISCUSSION boards, not mutual admiration boards. Discussion only occurs when we are willing to hear what others are thinking, regardless of whether it is alignment to our own thoughts.
Mixed feelings based on these clips. On the one hand, these clips, admittedly not much to go on, don't seem to evoke the tone of the original novel. (I was half-expecting Nick to walk on as a Che-like narrator and say "That's how she tells this story to herself, but..." On the other hand, I never really liked the original novel or understood what was so incredible about it, so maybe an adaptation that goes in another direction isn't such a bad idea. If that direction actually turns out to be interesting.
I'm kind of getting a bad feeling that the songs might have the same amount of depth as the music in Paradise Square and also be a waste of its super talented cast if you pay any attention to the lyrics.
Also, I WISH this was Lippa's Wild Party. That would be more fun. That mask thing was not cute to me so it ruined the one upbeat number they've shown off.