the great gatsby

Just over a month ago, The New York Times critic, Laura Collins-Hughes, published a review of the new Great Gatsby musical, starring Jeremy Jordan and Eva Noblezada. The review was less than positive and made several comments that were contradictory to both my own experience from seeing the show and the message of the original source material, the novel by F. Scott Fitzgerald.

The Great Gatsby is narrated by Nick Carraway, a man who recently moved to West Egg, Long Island as the mysterious Gatsby’s tenant. The tragedy follows Gatsby as he attempts to woo the love of his life, Daisy, whom he met during his days in the army and who is now married to the extremely wealthy Tom Buchanan. Meanwhile, Tom and Daisy’s marriage is less than perfect as Tom routinely cheats on Daisy with a woman of the working class, Myrtle Wilson.

To start with Collins-Hughes’ quandaries regarding the music, she mainly pointed out that the music was not reminiscent of the soundtracks of either of the two movie adaptations that came prior to the stage show, implying that those particular styles were the most fit for the story. However, given that this is a new adaptation of The Great Gatsby, it is more than within the creative license of the creative team to use a different musical genre to tell the story. Moreover, The Great Gatsby musical is hardly the first show to use a style of music for the score that is different to the style of music of when the story is set. For example, Hamilton is set during the late 1700s and into the early 1800s yet tells the story of Alexander Hamilton and the birth of the United States through rap. Les Miserables is set in France just before the Revolution but tells the story not only in English but in a style of music not at all similar to the music of the time. And while Collins-Hughes claimed the Great Gatsby’s score was missing a “vital urgency” and was “poppy and pleasant without being memorable,” I again disagree. The score has plenty of “urgency,” from the fast-paced speak-like nature of Jay Gatsby’s “Only Tea,” as he panics over the impending arrival of his former lover, Daisy, to the dark and mysterious “Shady” at the opening of Act Two, detailing all of the less than honest happenings surrounding the central characters. Moreover, the score is filled with soaring duets, rich, juicy harmonies, and heartbreaking ballads that audiences have stuck in their heads for days after.

Additionally, Collins-Hughes criticized the production’s projections, citing that even when they were working perfectly, they had a vividness that was too “videogame-like.” To address the “videogame-like” quality, I myself saw the show just a few weeks before, and I honestly saw nothing distracting with the vividness of the colors of projections. If anything, it contributed to the aesthetic of the generally bright and sparkling show. Furthermore, we must remember that the colors of a set or backdrop are intentionally in a larger-than-life style precisely because it is a stage show. The aesthetic, color, and image of the backdrop needs to be easily visible to the audience member in the back row of the furthest corner of the very top section of the theater, and because of this, yes. The backdrop may seem a little vivid for the taste of an audience member in the middle of the significantly closer Orchestra (ground) section.

And finally, in her review, Collins-Hughes seemed extremely troubled by the musical’s portrayal of Myrtle Wilson, with whom Daisy’s husband, Tom, is cheating on Daisy with. Myrtle Wilson is a woman of the lower class, married to a mechanic, from whom Tom gets gas for his car from. Meanwhile, Tom is in the highest echelons of society, from one of the wealthiest families, living in the “old money” region of East Egg. Myrtle, in both the novel and the stage show, is meant to represent the lower classes, whom the wealthy take advantage of and exploit, not caring in the least about their well-being or emotions. The critic’s particular complaint was that Myrtle Wilson was so “one-note” that it made no sense as to why Tom would possibly consider cheating on his wife with her. However, this is exactly the message of the story, which is widely considered to be a critique of the upper classes. Myrtle Wilson is not meant to be a fully fleshed-out character because no one in the upper classes (i.e. the characters the story is following) would care about who she is. And the fact that Tom obviously would never permanently leave his wife for Myrtle actually makes sense thematically. Tom is just with Myrtle because she will give him a good time, not because he actually loves her. Again, her sole purpose is to represent the exploited lower classes that the upper classes take advantage of without a second thought. So of course when tragedy befalls her, almost none of the central characters, who are all wealthy, seem to care. To them, Myrtle is just a working class, low-income nothing. In fact, the only one who visibly cares about any of what has happened is Nick Carraway, the only person in our central bunch who is struggling financially.

This same theme holds true for the finale of the show, which the critic also seemed to take issue with. As the story ends in tragedy, the ensemble upstages Nick, dancing to the opening number, “Roaring On.” However, while the ensemble does give the audience one last chance to party as the critic argued, their finale also holds a much darker meaning. Despite the various tragedies that take place over the course of the show, none of these wealthy, upper classes seem to care. Again we see that Nick is the only one that seems to have any sense of the tragedy that has befallen them. But he is in the minority. He doesn’t have “new money” and certainly doesn’t have old money. Especially compared to the society he immerses himself in, he is poor through and through, meaning that to the wealthy people he associates with, his voice doesn’t matter. His words don’t matter. His final line at the end of the show doesn’t matter. All that matters is that for the wealthy, the party never ends, regardless of who gets hurt along the way.