The Great Gatsby at London Coliseum Review
The extravaganza makes its West End premiere on London's biggest theatre stage
‘Where’s the party and can you take me there?’
Penning what would become one of modern American literature’s greatest staples of all time, F. Scott Fitzgerald – who also authored The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, the latest to have inspired an award-winning new British musical – could never have imagined one entire century on, the sheer spectacle his piece would become when Kait Kerrigan’s musical adaptation roars into the West End on the London Coliseum stage. Fitzgerald’s novel, its first-person perspective – told through the eyes of Nick Carraway, a newly acquainted resident of West Egg, New York, whirled into the vibrant social scandal under the guise of wealth through a chance encounter with the story’s titular protagonist Jay Gatsby and his star-crossed fate with lost lover Daisy Buchanan – in itself is a highly translatable concept from page to stage, vivaciously interpreted by director Marc Bruni.
Kerrigan’s book retains the heart of the story with some self-deprecation between characters for good measure, though at times losing Carraway’s outlook and instead lingering on various relationship dynamics, with some hurried attempts at exploring deeper themes in the source material (the Finale reprise features a monologue, referencing the symbolic Green Light but goes by like a flash). The adaptation finds more obvious success with its unforgettable musical material from Jason Howland (Composer, Orchestrator and Arrangements) and lyricist Nathan Tysen, seamlessly blending jazz and pop influences into the theatrical base to curate one bop of a number after another. Each musical number manipulates the focal point to the requirements of each scene, building from intimate solos to a full-blown company chorus at the click of a key change.
The auditory landscape from creative to production makes for a whole celebration on its own; the creative side is fuelled by orchestrator Kim Scharnberg with additional arrangements by Daniel Edmonds, exploiting many a memorable motif – from assigning character motifs and overlapping contrapuntal themes within numbers, reprises and underscores, remaining coherent and pushes the narrative forward; its production counterpart is then beautifully realised nightly by an eighteen-piece orchestra under the baton of Chris Ma, every instrument its own colour courtesy of live mixing from the sound team – Mike Poon, Lucy Taylor and Elliott Roberts.
Vocal excellence in this star-studded company is second to none. Delivering iconic riffs made famous by the Original Cast Recording, recent Olivier Award winner Jamie Muscato is a magnificent Gatsby, belting from the stage beyond the very top of the Coliseum and fully owning the role with arguably two eleven-o-clock numbers in both acts, For Her and Past is Catching Up to Me. Together with the equally charming Frances Mayli McCann, the two opts up vocally multiple times, lighting up the symbolic Green Light with harmonies that encapsulate much of the cast’s vocal prowess.
The duo is joined by Corbin Bleu (what a West End debut!) as Nick Carraway an earnest narrator who forms an endearing pair with Amber Davies’ Jordan Baker (the voice behind one of the show’s many iconic vocal riffs), alongside four West End veterans who require no introduction, each spotlighted with individual numbers throughout – Rachel Tucker (Myrtle Wilson), Joel Montague (George Wilson – enjoyable contrast in voice work from Hamilton’s King George III), John Owen-Jones (Meyer Wolfsheim) and Jon Robyns (Tom Buchanan).
Delivering Dominique Kelley’s exhilarating (and now socially viral) choreography whilst simultaneously managing multi-part harmonies is the backbone that is the ensemble, carrying the show from the first beat to the last – plenty energetic bursts of performances included Aimée Fisher, whose take on songstress Gilda Grey’s scat number (backed by a full ensemble tap routine) remains a vocal highlight.
It would be remiss of one if the visual explosion of colour was neglected to be mentioned; indeed, from lighting to video and every little detail across various elements of production design, the unseen village of work which included Cory Pattak’s attention to architectural detail in lighting, complementing projections by Paul Tate DePoo III and period sparkle aplenty in costume designs from Linda Cho – just to name a few, matching the natural grandeur of the Coliseum in mostly slick scene changes where flats fly into place and vehicles whiz across the stage.
Leaving little to the imagination, the production is everything you would expect from Gatsby’s lavish celebrations, an earworm of a soundtrack at its core which projects characters’ internal voices with realised motifs. There is some dramaturgical trampling on the ‘style over substance’ line in terms of embedding key themes into the material, but if audiences are compelled going in by the calibre of the cast at the top of their game, there won’t be much disappointment by the time the playout sounds – the party’s roaring on, after all.
★ ★ ★ ★ ☆
The Great Gatsby plays at the London Coliseum until 7 September. Book with London Theatre Direct and pay no fees on performances until 29 June, or visit the production website to book direct with the venue.
Tickets and Accessibility
🎟️ Tickets were kindly gifted by the press representatives for the production with expectation of an honest, non-biased review. All opinions remain those of the writer, without any input or approval from the venue or producers. Standard tickets for this production are priced from £20, with £30 Rush tickets released on each performance day at 10am via the TodayTix app.
♾️ The production features one instance of noise-making pyrotechnic use and three loud gunshots, listed on a Sensory Warnings document available on request from the Box Office. Approximate timings are listed as follows (contain spoilers):