| re: NYT review of Gatsby | |
| Last Edit: lordofspeech 08:30 pm EDT 04/29/24 | |
| Posted by: lordofspeech 08:26 pm EDT 04/29/24 | |
| In reply to: NYT review of Gatsby - AnObserver 07:49 pm EDT 04/29/24 | |
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| There has not been a lot of talk about Gatsby on this board. It’s not from a brand that Broadway cognoscenti favor. And there are awkwardnesses in it, as have been stated: the use of deco decor as a stand-in for the ‘20’s, the alteration in the Wilson’s storyline, the switch from day to night for the visit to the Plaza, and the radical elevation of Wolfsheim from shadow-presence to iconic gangster status. But, indeed, you’re right. The long scene and song between Daisy and Jordan in which the traumas of adultery and the downside of marriage spells out something that was not spelled out in the novel. I was so taken with Samantha Pauly who played Jordan that all the additional material to support Jordan’s point of view felt good to me. But it is more moralistic anti-marriage than the novel is. I think that if you love the novel, it’s really fun to see this big grand show and then go back to the novel and see where the changes were. And you’ll hear some beautiful singing from the principals. I also think it’s hard to take a really big work of fiction and flip it into the musical theatre format without losing the delicacy which reading naturally affords. What big works have succeeded in the transition? Shogun? Woman in White? Gone with the Wind? Lolita? Breakfast at Tiffany’s? Jane Eyre? Tale of Two Cities? The only really big winner was the marvelous Oliver. |
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