Walking into the theatre, there is the brassy sound of 1920’s music playing. A lady is dressed with a peacock feather headband, a shimmering string dress and fishnets. The men with her wear matching suit jackets and pants covered in a gold star pattern — apparently, she had lost a bet with her in-laws, and had to come in costume to see The Great Gatsby.
The Great Gatsby is a classic and movie; the musical, which has been on Broadway for less than a year, while adding extra layers, also had to make some changes, some of which seemed less necessary than others.
The set itself is extremely impressive. Real life antique cars are even driven around onstage!
The musical starts off with Nick commenting on his father’s advice of “withholding judgment”, the same beginning as the book. However, it’s less of a ponderous attitude, and more of a simple remembering. Overall, Nick is a lot less serious in the musical adaptation. He seems to not be as affected by the events, and almost more involved in the problems himself.
One of the greatest differences between the book and the musical was the focus on Nick and Jordan’s relationship. Jordan doesn’t play hard to get at all. Rather, things move quickly, and she ends up coming along with Daisy to the tea with Gatsby, and as Gatsby shows Daisy around, she and Nick suggestively go back inside the cottage. There’s a lot of focus on their relationship throughout the play, yet the details such as her being “careless” aren’t mentioned. Instead, she proposes to Nick herself, and Nick is equally as carefree.
Daisy is characterized pretty well. Her first song starts off with a mix of short verses and talking, making her seem vapid. She also is smiling for the majority of the time she’s on stage, as if she doesn’t know what else to do with herself, something that the original book couldn’t necessarily display. As the plot progresses, more of her is revealed. She becomes more visibly uncomfortable after reuniting with Gatsby, and seems to smile less, or at least when she does they seem more genuine. She’s also shown as a pretty bad mother, not understanding how to raise her daughter, and instead leaving her in the nurse’s hands. At first it seemed as if the key part about Daisy wishing her daughter would be blind to the pains of life, unlike her, wasn’t going to be included. Instead, the song Beautiful Fool, describing her daughter’s birth, wraps up Daisy’s part in the show when Nick comes to see her moving away after Gatsby’s death. It seems to be used to soften her part of the blame in the deaths of Myrtle and Gatsby as she justifies herself just because of her knowledge about the world, however having knowledge without action is practically pointless.
Gatsby himself is shown longing for Daisy well in the songs For Her and Green Light, however a lot of the rest of his backstory is left out.
The green light is a common theme in the show, starting with it featuring on the stage before the show even begins, and also has its own song sung by Daisy and Gatsby.
Despite the limitations of the stage, Gatsby’s parties, which were a main focus of the show, were certainly able to be over the top. There were pyrotechnic displays, tap dancers, an orchestra, guests with bedazzled costumes and more.
Wolfsheim and Wilson, who have some of the best songs in the show, are both given a much larger focus. In fact, they’re actually working together! Wilson, in order to make some extra money, employs his garage as a holding place for the bootleg alcohol Wolfsheim produces to have it picked up by Gatsby.
Wolfsheim is also friends with Jordan. It’s not shown how they know each other, but at Gatby’s first party they are quite close, and the two discuss whether or not they’ll go to Gatsby’s funeral together, rather than with Nick.
Myrtle’s character is the most true to the original, with one major point — she becomes pregnant from Tom, which she reveals and admits to Wilson just hours before she dies.
The climax of the play is muddied by a few things. In the Plaza Hotel, instead of Nick sullenly realizing that it was his birthday, he seems to freeze up in front of Tom and have nothing else to say except that he and Jordan were engaged. Soon after the crash, Nick leaves Jordan. Wolfsheim and Wildon’s dealings are also brought up again, as Wilson is called down to the police station for questioning, inciting even more hatred towards Gatsby.
Many of the key lines from the book are glazed over and less impactful. For example, the part about repeating the past is yet another time Nick takes things too lightly. However, it is portrayed well though, as Gatsby hosts a party where all the men come in uniform, and the women in 1910’s fashions. It also serves as a clever way for Gatsby to point out how Tom didn’t serve in the war.
The effects that only being in the theatre can provide make the audience feel like they’re truly part of the scene. The songs themselves act as both a glue to connect the ideas and times in the musical, and also to deepen the characters, though typically the more minor ones. While some details had to be changed or left out for simplicity and audience attention, overall, the musical stays true to the main theme of the book, though the intensity and seriousness of it is lost in many scenes.