Get out the champagne and party with The Great Gatsby
“What kind of person throws large parties that he doesn’t attend?”
Nick
This most anticipated transfer from Broadway of a new musical adaptation of F Scott Fitzgerald’s novel The Great Gatsby is a perfect fit for the London Coliseum. My history with the dramatization of this iconic novel from 1926 is two-fold. Firstly, there was Gatz, the eight (Yes, eight) hour, word for word adaptation and secondly, the immersive party set drama with the audience in costume in 2017. Many of course will remember Baz Luhrmann’s film of 2013 starring Leonardo DiCaprio as Gatsby marred by its booming rap soundtrack.
It makes a lot of sense for this novel to appear as a musical as Gatsby’s parties dominate the social scene, although his mansion is in Long Island’s West Egg, associated with “new money” and less fashionable than “old money” East Egg. “In West Egg there is no Nest Egg!” The 1920s era too is full of jazz music and Charleston dancing and conveys the post war celebrations before the depression of the 1930s and the rise of Fascism.
The show starts with a Flappers’ party in silhouette which switches to full colour. We meet Nick Carraway (Corbin Bleu) the narrator, who has just found a cottage on West Egg at a remarkably reasonable rent. Thinks! would Jeremy be Corbyn Rouge? We suspect later when we realise the proximity of the cottage to Gatsby’s mansion, that this rent was probably a lure to attract Daisy’s cousin to the tenancy and engineer a meeting.
I noticed straight away Paul Tate dePoo III’s impressive sets, real sliding screens and front furniture like lamps and sofas and chairs, enhanced by CGI behind. Too often CGI has cheapened other sets but here it really is well integrated and state of the art. Together with Cory Pattak’s lighting the effects are superb. My only criticism is why the grass has to be dark turquoise/teal green although this colour flooring works well as marble and ocean. The costumes by Linda Cho are very pretty and of the era. I loved too the yellow car which might have been sitting outside the theatre on opening night. These details make The Great Gatsby a treat visually.
I had trouble connecting with Frances Mayli McCann as Daisy Buchanan and indeed believing in her romance with Jay Gatsby (Jamie Muscato), although with Jon Robyns as Tom Buchanan, it is easy to understand the unhappiness caused by his infidelity and violent behaviour. What Frances Mayli McCann does really well is to sing perfectly and strongly. On the other hand, Jamie Muscato meaningfully conveys the nervous behaviour in arranging the tea at Nick’s cottage where he will meet Daisy. He brings in numerous waiting staff and all the tea ingredients and silverware in order to make it perfect. Muscato makes Gatsby unassuming and unusually likeable. He can keep us all transfixed in quiet moments but also really belt out the big numbers powerfully.
The sub plot is set around George Wilson (Joel Montague)’s garage and his wife Myrtle (played by the wonderful Rachel Tucker). Nick goes with Tom Buchanan to Myrtle’s place where there is plenty of hanky panky and sexual partying. When Jay Gatsby conveys to Nick how he went to war for Daisy and loves her, Nick says, “My cousin is a married woman!” Although Nick is embarrassed by Tom’s infidelity, no such reprimand is made to him. A shady business associate of Gatsby’s, Meyer Wolfsheim (John Owen-Jones) has deliveries made to Wilson’s garage. No -one knows where Gatsby’s wealth comes from. Before the First World War, Daisy’s father rejected him as not being wealthy enough to marry his daughter.
The music fits well into the 1920s, the song “Better or Worse” is almost operatic where in the garden set in East Egg, Daisy confides in the woman golfer, Jordan Baker (Amber Davies) about the state of her marriage. I liked the rhythm to many of the songs and the musical style is much more in keeping with the 1920s than Luhrmann’s movie with jazzy riffs and lots of clarinet.
Act Two starts with Wolfsheim and Company singing “Shady”, the cast all dressed in disguising mackintoshes and face obscuring hats, the fabulous lyrics starting, “Careful of the people/ You decide to go deep with/ There are those you get in bed with/ And those that you sleep with”.
The dance is mesmerising, in “La Dee Dah with You” there is fabulous tap choreography which is thrilling. Many of the other dance number concentrate on Charleston type flappers which are a great contrast to the sung ballads like “For Her (Reprise)” from Jay Gatsby about his love for Daisy.
The ending of course is tragic but this musical may not please all those with a literary interest in The Great Gatsby but it is a perfectly decent musical with outstanding singing and visuals and well worth seeing.
Musical Numbers
Act One
Roaring On
Absolute Rose
New Money
For Her
Valley of Ashes
Second-Hand Suit
For Better or Worse
The Met
Only Tea
My Green Light
Act Two
Shady
Better Hold Tight
Past Is Catching Up to Me
La Dee Dah With You
Go
Made to Last
For Better or Worse (Reprise)
One-Way Road
God Sees Everything
For Her (Reprise)
New Money (Reprise)
Beautiful Little Fool
Finale: Roaring On
Production Notes
The Great Gatsby – a new musical
Book by Kait Karrigan
Music by Jason Howland
Lyrics by Nathan Tysen
Choreographed by Dominique Kelley
Directed by Marc Bruni
Cast
Starring:
With:
George Crawford
Jordan Crouch
Kiara Dario
Frances Dee
Aimée Fisher
Tom Andrew Hargreaves
Alyn Hawke
Ediz Mahmut
Jamel Matthias
Nevé McGuinness-Dyce
Rose Ouellette
Sophie Pourret
Will Richardson
Lily Wang
Swing:
Liv Alexander
Taylor Alman
Lauren Hampton
Jared Irving
Samuel John-Humphreys
Millie Mayhew
Creatives
Director: Marc Bruni
Choreographer: Dominique Kelley
Set Designer: Paul Tate dePoo III
Costume Designer: Linda Cho
Musical Supervisor : Jason Howland
Orchestrators: Jason Howland, Kim Scharnberg
Lighting Designer: Cory Pattak
Sound Designer: Brian Ronan
Video and Projection: Paul Tate dePoo III
Musical Director: Chris Ma
Information
Running Time: Two hours 30 minutes including an interval
Booking until 7th September 2025
Theatre:
London Coliseum
St Martin’s Lane
London WC2N 4ES
Website: https://londoncoliseum.org/
Rail/Tube : Charing Cross
Reviewed by Lizzie Loveridge at the
London Coliseum at the performance on
24th April 2025
