The Great Gatsby

Musical (2024)
Music by Jason Howland
Lyrics by Nathan Tysen
Book by Kait Kerrigan
Based on the novel The Great Gatsby (1925) by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Directed by Marc Bruni
Broadway in Boston
Citizens Opera House
Washington Street, Boston
July 7-19, 2026

Scenic and Projection Design: Paul Tate DePoo III, Costume Design: Linda Cho, Lighting Design: Cory Pattak, Sound Design: Brian Ronan, Music Director: Charlie Alterman

With Jake David Smith (Jay Gatsby), Senzel Ahmady (Daisy Buchanan), Joshua Grosso (Nick Carraway), Leanne Robinson (Jordan Baker), Lila Coogan (Myrtle Wilson), Will Branner (Tom Buchanan), Justin Scott Brown (George Wilson), Edward Staudenmayer (Meyer Wolfsheim)

Nick (Joshua Grosso) introduces the scene. He’s the cousin of Daisy (Senzel Ahmady) and staying with Daisy and her husband Tom (Will Branner) on the north shore of Long Island, NY. He encounters Jay Gatsby (Jake David Smith), another very rich guy who lives across the bay, and they become friends. Gatsby confides that he has had a passionate love affair with Daisy before her marriage to Tom and that he’d do anything for her. He asks Nick to arrange a tea date with Daisy so he can see her again. Meanwhile, Tom is off having an affair with Myrtle (Lila Coogan) who is married to George Wilson (Justin Scott Brown), so there’s a lot wrong. Daisy and Jay meet and, before long, love is in the air. Nick and Jordan Baker (Leanne Robinson) have a serous attraction while all of this is going on. Myrtle, it turns out, is pregnant by Tom and flees to tell him. Meanwhile, Tom and Daisy are at a party at Gatsby’s and there’s a move to go to the Plaza Hotel in NY. They drive in two cars and something unexpected occurs. (See spoilers)

This production which originated on Broadway has some wonderful staging effects. The set is fascinatingly put together and there are so many transitions involving various video projections, moving set elements, and trompe l’oeil effects created by pulling set elements backwards that make watching the show a very stimulating experience. The choreography is also distinctive and very good throughout, with inventive and well-executed dance moves, often by the ensemble, that are fun and stimulating as well. Good lighting, with dramatic effect, abounds.

The book of this show has an odd character, going between satirical, tragic, and oddly humorous, with a noticeable inconsistency in tone. The power of Fitzgerald’s novel is its enclosure of deep tragedy within a setting of style and sophistication, making the enclosure of wealth a mere sheen for what is going on inside these characters and relationships. This production does not capture that very well, with oddly placed sentimentalities and poorly situated comedic scenes. Though the power of Daisy’s and Gatsby’s love affair is meant to be the heart and soul of the story, it is not very compelling here. Though Gatsby is meant to be a morally complex character, there is supposed to be a penetrating magnetism to him; that also does not occur here.

The singing here is generally uneven, with some cases of held notes meant to be dramatic and pointed but just seeming like blare. Sometimes there is a degree of lyrical sophistication and sweetness, but not pervasively so. And some of the harmonies seemed not tonally accurate. I have seen the very excellent Joshua Grosso shine vividly in other productions, notably in The Light in the Piazza at the Huntington Theatre last season; unfortunately, this production does not air his talents as vividly.

Overall: some great set and staging elements, with some great choreography, mixed with a book that does not carry forward the tone of the original, and direction which supports the showbiz aspects of the production but not the characterological and dramatic ones.

– BADMan (aka Charles Munitz)