Have theaters never considered requiring audience members to disclose their height when purchasing tickets?
Despite the chronic neck pain from bending over to view the show through my limited line of sight to see past the giant’s in front of me, Broadway’s The Great Gatsby was a wonderful show with a multitude of themes shown through fantastic storytelling.
I was given the opportunity to see The Great Gatsby on Broadway through an annual Masterpieces field trip that was opened up to the Shenendehowa High School Musical Company. The Masterpieces teacher and coordinator of this trip, Mr. Kott was able to secure a post-show introduction with the cast for students to be able to ask them questions.
My expectations were set sky high for this production seeing as I was anticipating seeing the roles of Jay Gatsby and Daisy Buchanan played by Ryan McCarten and Sarah Hyland. Even though we all walked around all day referring to McCarten as “Diggy” from Disney’s Liv and Maddie, we were all ecstatic about seeing our childhood Disney crush and Haley Dunphey from Modern Family. However, we all faced complete and utter devastation when we opened our programs to find that McCarten and Hyland were not performing in the day’s show.
Being involved in theater throughout high school, I’ve learned that the understudy show is not something to overlook. That being said, you never know what you’re going to get at an understudy show, especially when you were expecting experienced, well known actors.
In this case, the understudy actors still had show stopping moments in both their singing and acting performances. I did still find myself picturing how perfectly Sarah Hyland and Ryan McCarten would be with each scene, but I wasn’t disappointed with the performance, only disappointed that I wouldn’t also be able to catch the original cast show.
Alex Prakken played a well crafted Jay Gatsby, but something about his performance felt off. Mr. Kott himself said that it just “wasn’t doing it” for him. Yes, Gatsby is meant to be elaborate and mysterious: a man of few words; however I felt he played it in a way that made the character feel creepy.
When I found out he’s built his whole elaborate life on the premise of a woman he’d met 5 years prior and not heard from since, my hopeless romantic heart was happy, but as the show continued I started to see his love for Daisy as more of an odd obsession.
I do, however, give him credit for his creative interpretation of the character, because while I felt like certain aspects felt forced or overdone, I also think that it brought me back to reality. His performance put emphasis on the insanity in building a mansion and throwing frequent multi-day parties for a girl he knew five years ago, who’s since been married with an infant child.
I noticed a similarity between The Great Gatsby and The Notebook, where Noah builds the house Ally wanted in the event that they find each other after the war. Despite being one of my favorite comfort movies, I am left questioning whether these acts are insane or romantic.
Kayla Pecchioni’s performance of Daisy Buchanan was outstanding. In fact, in the post show meet and greet with the cast, she stated that she is able to relate to her character in the sense that they are both silently strong women, and I feel like this reflected well in her performance. I felt like she understood her character, when not even the novel’s author fully understood how to give the character depth.
Her song, Beautiful Little Fool, was absolutely phenomenal. This was her best moment in the whole show. I liked the choice to move this moment to the end of the show, whereas it is the beginning of the book. It brought more depth to Daisy’s character development as a female character and explains her actions in a way that brings a more complete ending to her story.
I commend this production for the further development of its female characters, as the novel gives them a surface level story.
Michael Maliakel, who plays Nick Carraway, stated that Fitzgerald said he regretted not giving more depth to the female characters in the novel, so this adaptation feels true to what F. Scott would have envisioned.
Another significant character I feel is worth mentioning, is Jordan Baker. She is a personal favorite of mine and the writers impeccably adapted her character from a 1920s novel to a modern musical. I loved her character in the novel because of her non-stereotypical role, which was only enhanced in the musical adaptation. I was pleasantly surprised to see a progressive female character in a book written by a man in the 1920s.
There’s a lot to be said about gender roles and sexism in this show. When you analyze the relationships between characters, you start to see the layers of feminism in this story. For example, the dynamic of Jordan and Nick’s relationship is vastly different from the dynamic of Daisy and Tom’s. It is normalized for Tom to have a mistress because it was expected that all married men were guilty of infidelity at the time, whereas Daisy was expected to be faithful to her husband, as we hear her sing in For Better or Worse.
With Nick being about Tom having a “girl in the city” and confused as to why nobody is upset by it and Jordan being cynical about marriage we’re able to draw a comparison between the two couples to recognize the flaws of the societal norms of marriage at the time.
Among themes of wealth and status, feminism, sexism, motherhood, marriage, and gender roles, and many more, one that really stuck out to me was wanting what we can’t have. The story is very intentional in creating all of these situations where nearly every character is living a lie which we see unfold during Made to End with the collective chaotic realization.
Overall, this show was intricate from set design and props like driving a real car on stage to impressive footwork and tap dancing. Any Broadway show is an experience I would recommend, but The Great Gatsby was particularly thought provoking and for being set in the 1920s, this story is ahead of its time.
