| re: Gatsby/ART Cambridge | |
| Posted by: PJ 10:22 pm EDT 06/01/24 | |
| In reply to: Gatsby/ART Cambridge - crewbway 12:57 pm EDT 06/01/24 | |
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| I was also at GATSBY last night. I agree with your plusses, though I found the set less and less effective as the evening went on. By the time they started pushing out furniture to create more naturalistic situations in the second act, I was over it. I don't think Chavkin trusted her gut after the design was approved and fell into some HADESTOWN devices in the rehearsal room. Unfortunately, this environment doesn't function the way the HADESTOWN set did. But yes, the featured women were all standouts. I enjoyed Isaac Cole Powell's performance more than most, and Adam Grupper puts over his one big song and two scenes in spectacular fashion. He is both literally AND metaphorically the adult in the room. Sonya Tayeh's choreography is inspired and the ensemble is executing it quite impressively. I observed a surprising amount of struggling with costume fits amongst them, though. Perhaps Sandy Powell's clothes are true to period, but the 20's drape and volume to some of the costumes meant lots of slipping straps and clumsy, baggy garments on people doing some tricky moves and dangerous lifts. Unfortunately, I found 75% of the score to be disappointing/repetitive and the book (and by extension, the direction) to be an almost complete disaster. There were moments of really interesting and impressive storytelling, but they were few and far between. And the stuff in between them was boring at best and offensive at worst. This would work best as a Florence Welch concept album; a collection of songs inspired by The Great Gatsby. If they want to revise it for a subsequent production (please, not Broadway), they'd be smart to hire an arranger who can really shape Welch's melodies and motifs into something that honors musical theatre conventions before breaking them. I'd love for Justin Levine to come into the mix, or to have Dave Malloy join the team as a collaborator. I don't see the necessary respect for the form and experience on the current creative team outside of Chavkin (who so far hasn't proven herself up to the task). I came away from the evening confused, annoyed, but also impressed and anxious to see changes being made - heck, to try to make them myself. The major theme of this seems to be how capitalism, industrialism, and class stratification (and all of the things done in pursuit of them) are the Great American Crime. Great. Love that thesis. But I don't think what follows creates a compelling argument to support that. At least it didn't do it clearly enough for me. As it is, this thing is perhaps only 10% better than the Broadway GATSBY, though it has managed to feel like a completely different animal. As far as ART productions go, I'd rank this below the mediocre-even-with-Jeremy-Jordan FINDING NEVERLAND and above the truly bananas WILD. FWIW, the audience leapt to its feet at the end. Art, huh? |
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