The first North American national tour of The Great Gatsby: A New Musical brings powerhouse Broadway veterans and rising stars to the Providence Performing Arts Center (PPAC). The cast offers vocal power with the deep emotional range required to capture the fractured glamor of the Jazz Age. There are few literary parties more famous than Jay Gatsby’s, and fewer more ill-fated. Author F. Scott Fitzgerald’s glittering portrait of Roaring Twenties excess has been adapted for film, television, and stage, yet turning its rueful reflection and pensive yearning into a full-scale Broadway musical is another matter. With The Great Gatsby, the challenge is ever present to make a spectacle out of a story whose greatest tragedy is that the spectacle doesn’t quite deliver what’s promised.
A quote attributed to The Estate of F. Scott Fitzgerald tells us, “This production is a big, bold, Broadway version of The Great Gatsby. It’s thrilling to see these indelible characters and iconic moments from the novel come to life on stage. This stage production, which honors the novel and its history while also speaking clearly to today’s audiences, is a terrific new iteration of this classic work.”
Director Marc Bruni brings Fitzgerald’s privileged world of champagne, romantic obsession and self-deception into this production. The musical, featuring a book by Kait Kerrigan and original score by Jason Howland and Nathan Tysen, blends jazz and contemporary pop influences, lending a modern rhythm to the era.
Austin Colby portrays Jay Gatsby, a mysterious millionaire whose exorbitant parties are known to conceal his obsession over Daisy Buchanan. Senzel Ahmady wows as Daisy, the elusive object of Gatsby’s monomania. Joshua Grosso plays Nick Carraway, the observant outsider through whose eyes this glitzy world gradually reveals its dark corners.
The story is populated by people who either have money, want money, or discover money can’t buy what they truly need. Lila Coogan as Myrtle Wilson is a standout in this arena. The beginning of Act I lags a bit, until Coogan takes the stage belting out her character’s signature number, “New Money,” shifting effortlessly from gritty and bluesy to soaring highs. In this way, she infuses Myrtle with a heartbreakingly fierce hunger for something better. You sense the chaotic friction between Myrtle’s mundane life in the Valley of Ashes and her intoxicating obsession with Buchanan’s world.
Choreographer Dominique Kelley deconstructs the physical vocabulary of the Jazz Age into a contemporary musical-theater experience. The combination of period inspiration and modern movements gives the production the life it needs to avoid becoming statues in sequins. Pair that with the stunningly beautiful costumes by Linda Cho, whose work has earned her a Tony Award, and you get an opulently bejeweled theatrical display worth beholding. Set and projection designer Paul Tate dePoo III, lighting designer Cory Pattak, and sound designer Brian Ronan are the creative team teleporting audiences into Gatsby’s gorgeously extravagant world, complete with fireworks, rain and all that glitters. In this realm, the feel of seduction via wealth and fashion is evident.
Fitzgerald’s story is about far more than beautiful clothes and impressive parties. Its power sizzles in the discomfort between appearances and reality. Gatsby constructs an elaborate fantasy, hoping enough money, music, and magnificence will somehow rewrite his past — and maybe salvage his future — while leaving room for grand displays, romance, and reflection.
Whether this musical captures Fitzgerald’s hauntingly emotional complexity as successfully as it celebrates his lasvish setting is something you can decide for yourself. Revisit this American classic through a theatrical lens, because in Gatsby’s world the champagne may sparkle, but the American Dream can come with a hefty bill. That’s the semi-sweet contradiction at the heart of this musical. Come for the glamor, yet consider its cost.
PPAC presents The Great Gatsby through November 8. For more information, visit ppacri.org