By Ruth Ross
Having taught The Great Gatsby for
20 years to high school students—re-reading it each year in preparation—I am
intimately acquainted with the novel, its characters, its themes and its
language. So, it was with a mixture of high hopes and trepidation that I went
to see the current musical iteration produced by the Paper Mill Playhouse.
With its gorgeous scenery evocative of the Jazz Age,
spangly costumes, lush melodies and energetic dancing, this world premiere
production, with book by Kait Kerrigan, music by Jason Howland and lyrics by
Nathan Tysen, follows the plot quite closely. However, the production lacks the
novel’s driving force: a Daisy Fay Buchanan who is the raison d’etre for
Jay Gatsby’s prodigious lengths to win her back five years after he left for
war—even though she is married and has a child. Part of this, I think, has to
do with casting, but the role as written isn’t very inspiring.
The plan works; he and Daisy—whose husband Tom Buchanan
is cheating on her with Myrtle Wilson, the wife of a gas station owner in
Queens’ “Valley of Ashes” industrial zone—embark on a torrid affair, only to have
it blow up in their faces with a hit-and-run accident that kills Myrtle, ends
in Gatsby’s untimely demise (read: murder) and Daisy and Tom’s sudden, middle-of-the-night
flight without a word of farewell. With that, Nick returns to his Minnesota hometown,
seeking peace and quiet after experiencing such scandalous events.
I was pleased that the playwright included so many
phrases and details from the novel, even if they appeared at different points
in the timeline from the book. Yet I wish she had shown us what it was
about Daisy that attracted Gatsby—beyond her looks—and more than a few seemingly
offhand remarks about his real origins, pertinent information to understand his
attraction for and desire to reclaim Daisy.
Evidently, casting involved the choice to make this a
diverse cast, so that the Jewish gangster who is Gatsby’s “mentor,” Meyer
Wolfsheim is played by black actor Stanley M. Mathis, who does a fine job as a
sleazy yet slick influence in Gatsby’s life (“Everybody is a tiny bit shady,”
he intones). Another actor of color, Noah J. Ricketts, portrays Nick (right) as a
wide-eyed Midwesterner whose head is turned by the opulence around him; his singing
and dancing chops are evident in the opening and closing numbers (“Roaring On”)
and in a high-energy visit to the Met!
As emancipated flapper-golfer Jordan Baker, (Samantha Pauly left, with Ricketts) has the appropriate moxie to command the stage whenever she appears and
manages to get Nick to fall in love with her quite precipitously (an affair
that is only hinted at in the novel). She, too, sings and dances superbly,
leading Nick and the ensemble in an anthem to “New Money” and a tender duet
with Nick entitled “Better Hold Tight.” John Zdrojeski's Tom Buchanan is white, wealthy
privilege personified, although the script doesn’t reveal the full extent of
his racial views. As his paramour Myrtle Wilson, Sara Chase is suitably vulgar,
loud, sexy—the antithesis of the more refined Daisy—who bemoans her spouse’s
wearing of a “Secondhand Suit” to their wedding, a faux pas that
lessened him in her eyes and that she uses to justify her infidelity. In
contrast, Paul Whitty’s George Wilson is a clueless dolt, buying Myrtle’s
excuses to visit her sister in NYC and allowing Wolfsheim to use his filling
station to store illegal alcohol. He’s quite a contrast to the more urbane
denizens of tony East Egg, and a heck more sympathetic.
Jeremy Jordan and Eva Noblezada share the spotlight as the
main protagonists of the tale. Jordan is brilliant as Jay Gatsby, veering from
polished, confident, albeit reclusive, host of crowded parties to nervous swain
preparing Nick’s cottage for tea and anxious about meeting Daisy face-to-face
again. The extent of his yearning is obvious in his soulful renditions of “For
Her” and “The Past Is Catching Up with Me,” which reveal his modus operandi
for his actions over the past five years and, especially, the summer of ’22. He
is a joy to watch and personifies the Gatsby in my head as I re-read the novel
each year!
Unfortunately, Noblezada’s portrayal of Daisy falls short
for several reasons. Oh, she can sing (if a bit screechy at times) and dance,
but Director Marc Bruni has failed to coax a riveting performance from her. She
whines about Tom’s infidelities but fails to convey why men, Nick included, are
fascinated by her (they draped Chicago in black when she left, Nick says). Nor
does she look like a flapper; her hair is softly feminine, and her dresses don’t
scream the Twenties. Noblezada is probably a fine actor, but she’s not well
suited to the role.
And, because this is a musical, it’s worth noting that,
while some rhymes are predictable (loyalty-royalty, there-where), the melodies reflect
the Jazz Age sound, and the lyrics convey the inner and outer lives of the
characters involved in this perversion of the American Dream. You may not come
out of the theater humming the tunes, but you’ll tap your toes while watching
and be exhilarated by the musicality. Daniel Edmonds is to be commended for his
fine musical direction; the orchestra never overpowers the actors onstage.
The Paper Mill Playhouse’s production of this musical
version of The Great Gatsby has much to recommend it: gaudiness,
glamour, sex, music, frenetic dance, danger, crime—just the ingredients needed
to portray the post-World War I era when the entire world seemed to go crazy. A
noble effort to bring a complex novel to life, it is worth seeing. Whether it
will transfer to Broadway remains to be seen, but despite some reservations, I give
it a Green Light!
The Great Gatsby will
be performed at the Paper Mill Playhouse, 22 Brookside Drive, Millburn, through
November 12. For information and tickets, call the box office at 973.376.4343
or visit www.papermill.org
online.
