gatsby the musical....really

When does the carnage end.,..really...great gatsby the musical? No one really likes that book. People pretend to but no one does. I really hope one of the characters is the big bilboard with the orange eyes..

o.O

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1. I know that I don't like it.
2. I actually COULD see it working, however. The characters are so excessive that I think it would make sense for them to sing and dance.
3. Doesn't mean I'd want to see it.

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Someone once told me I couldn't possibly like "Moby Dick" as much as I claimed because no one likes "Moby Dick." And now no one likes "Gatsby"?

I feel the opposite -- people pretend to like WICKED and "Glee" and the "Harry Potter" and Lady Gaga, but no one really does. I mean, how could they? Honestly? It just doesn't seem possible.

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Updated On: 8/9/11 at 07:37 PM

I'm not sure I could explain how any book is magnanimous.

Perhaps this explains a bit about why you didn't care for it.

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I love Gatsby and to be honest, I can definitely see it working as a musical.

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I could imagine it singing, but given that no one's ever even made an adequate non-musical adaptation of it makes me think it may be a trickier proposition in practice than it may seem in theory.

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i am pretty sure I could explain how a bunch of novels are magnanimous. Les miserables, the fountainhead, Lolita, War and Peace, Catcher in the Rye, American Psycho..I can go on if you like..

and the reason why tons of americans read it is because in most high schools its required reading..If it weren;t i would imagine no one would really care. Like the book "a separate peace" no one would pick that book out of a book store to say "sweet God I have to read this". Les Miserables on the other hand...

i find Gatsby one of those novels that pseudo-intellectuals like to pour over at coffee shops in the east village. "the amazing subtextual nature and difference between East Egg and west egg shows the difference in the economic climate of the day, which is also analagous to the nazi's and the brits in the upcoming war" Ugh spare me. Its a trite book in my opinion. Let's leave it at that.

I think a Gatsby musical that is a traditional book musical might not work, but an "expressionistic" musical in the Spring Awakening or Threepenny Opera style, where the songs express mood, tone and idea more than move the action and carry the story, especially with abstracted lyrics and images, might work really well.

I'm picturing a Gatsby interspersed with the music of David Bowie- the sort of bored, decadent excess that the book thrives on.

I am exceedingly ignorant. My apologies. I thought that had already been made clear.

Yes, massofmen, let's leave it at that.

I was considering asking you, also, how exactly "pseudo-intellectuals...pour over" it at coffee shops, as you're clearly into definition bending, but it's probably best we leave it at that.

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"It is on the reading list for our AP English students -- and while I can't speak for all of them, MANY of them DO like it."

I'm an AP English student I love The Great Gatsby. I'm grateful for the AP reading list because it has brought so many books into my life that I would have never thought to read otherwise.

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"I think there's a musical in there. Hell, if they can musicalize CARRIE, why not?"

Excellent point.

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I disliked most of the books I was required to read in high school, but Gatsby was one I really enjoyed and have re-read several times. I would love to see what Adam Guettel (another oft-derided artist that "pseudo-intellectuals" like myself are drawn to) could do with it.