'Great Gatsby' adaptation brings pre-COVID scale to Broadway

But in seeking to channel the glitz, glamor and grandeur of 1920s New York's Roaring Twenties, a musical adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald's novel “The Great Gatsby” bucks the recent trend.

This “Gatsby,” driven by old-fashioned ballads and backed by a producer who said he doesn't mind losing money on Broadway shows, is full of bells and whistles.

Like Jay Gatsby wooing his former lover, Daisy, the production team behind “Gatsby” clearly spared no expense to deliver 150 minutes of dazzle to viewers.

“When people think of ‘The Great Gatsby,’ they think of opulence, excess, exaggeration and glamor for days,” said Cory Pattak, the planner of the show's complex lighting. “We really wanted to achieve this.”

The goal, he added, was to create a show that felt “larger than life.”

Among the musical's 42 scenes are trips to Gatsby's golden, labyrinthine mansion on Long Island, a downtrodden and industrial Valley of Ashes in eastern Queens, and an ornate house that serves as the setting for Gatsby and Daisy's reunion .

“Each of them is particularly opulent” Marc Bruni, the director of the series, said about the sets, before specifying, “and not opulent when necessary”, as in the rusty Valley of Ashes.

There are 26 actors, a 19-piece orchestra, two large retro automobiles and two types of fireworks that crackle above the dancers' heads. A visually striking 1,644 square foot LED video screen ties together the succession of intricate sets that traverse the stage.

Supporting the muscular musical, which opened Thursday at the Cavernous Broadway Theater, requires a “superhero team of stage managers, deckhands, electricians and props people,” said Paul Tate dePoo III, the scenographer of the show.

“It’s kind of a marvel,” said Jeremy Jordanwho plays Gatsby and described the production as the biggest he has done “by far”.

Behind it all: a single pulsing tungsten bulb, encased in green gel. It is the green light on Daisy's dock that Gatsby gazes longingly across the Long Island Sound and that, for decades of readers, has represented the elusive American dream.

The story centers on Gatsby's efforts to eclipse class differences in his romantic pursuit of old money Daisy, who loved him when she was younger but married while he was away during the First War worldwide.

“Gatsby is a man with a big dream,” Bruni said. “And so that’s something that lends itself a lot to music.”

His production may not be the only or most successful musical interpretation of Fitzgerald's work intended for Broadway. A second show, titled simply “Gatsby” and directed by Tony winner Rachel Chavkin, is expected at the American Repertory Theater in Cambridge, Massachusetts, next month, with Broadway considered its likely next stop.

There was a mad rush to bring “Gatsby” to the stage after the novel's copyright protection expired and the book entered the public domain in 2021, giving producers the green light to make it A musical.

A South Korean producer, Chunsoo Shinimmediately saw an opportunity in the material and recruited a team to take it to Broadway. Tibia enjoyed success as a producer in his home country. He's had a tougher time in the US, persevering through a series of failures, including this Britney Spears-inspired season. “It was once again.”

But where “Once Upon a One More Time” recycled well-known songs, “Gatsby” has its own original score from Jason Howlandwho was behind the music of “Little woman” And “Paradise Square.”

Most Broadway shows don't turn a profit. And Shin said he was less concerned with making money rather than helping to elevate the Asian theater market on the world stage, in part by being a player in her own right on Broadway.

It's unclear whether Shin's “Gatsby” will last long enough to cover its expenses. Critics have proposed mixed evaluations. Chris Jones of the Daily News called its scale “massive” and its score “lush”, but its storytelling was ultimately cold.

Even if “Gatsby” quickly exits the stage, it will have succeeded in reviving a certain ambition that can sometimes seem relegated to Broadway's flourishing past.

In this way, he may have something in common with his main character, who offers a defiant response when another character, Nick, tells him that you “can't repeat the past.”

“Well, of course you can,” Gatsby said.