With a last-minute plan to save the building turned aside, it appears that the venerable original Guthrie Theater will be torn down this fall. And, while the theater lives on in a new $125-million facility in downtown Minneapolis, an important piece of American theater history will fall victim to the wrecking ball.

That history is brought to colorful life in The Guthrie Theater: Images, History, and Inside Stories, a new coffee-table book by longtime staffer Peg Guilfoyle. The book traces the history of the theater from the early days, when Sir Tyrone Guthrie and his partners searched America for a home for their regional theater, all the way up to this spring, when Hamlet became the final show to be presented at the theater.

Along the way, Guilfoyle introduces us to the men and women who made the Guthrie tick through the decades —not just the artistic directors who guided the theater through each phase of its history, but the multitude of actors, crew members and staff who made the facility tick.

Much of the book is told through the remembrances of these people, and that is where it truly shines. It can be Nathaniel Fuller detailing how he finally made it from audition to stage at the theater (he prepared over-the-top readings of a dozen Shakespearean messengers); or a disastrous matinee of Arsenic and Old Lace in 1975 that featured not just a pair of patrons lost in the aisles but a wardrobe malfunction where a watch chain ended up connected to an actor's earring, causing her head to jerk every time she looked at her watch.

There are also hundreds of illustrations drawn from the theater's history, many including the unsung heroes of the Guthrie: the design, prop, costume and other backstage crews that have made the theater tick for decades.

The book does gloss over some of the troubled times for the theater, with the narration at times suddenly revealing that there is financial trouble, or that an artistic director had resigned after a single year, with little clue as to what may have been going on behind the scenes. I'm not interested that much in gossip, but it would help to flesh out the story of the theater to know the details of the downs as well as the ups.

Still, longtime patrons will get to take a trip down memory lane, while newcomers will get a taste of what the fuss has been about for the past 40-plus years. Everyone should come away with insights into the how the theater has worked since day one, and the special connection made among everyone involved, on stage, backstage and in the audience, with that signature thrust stage.

The Great Gatsby

Heidi Armbruster, Lorenzo Pisoni and Matthew Amendt

It's a reverential production —perhaps too reverential. While gorgeous to look at and featuring some solid performances in key roles (and one puzzling choice that hinders the proceedings), this Great Gatsby never leaves the pages to become theater.

Simon Levy's adaptation hews close to the original book, opening and closing with Nick Carraway's narration directly from the text. Along the way, much of the dialogue and the scenes are also drawn closely from Fitzgerald's novel. While good in a basic sense —The Great Gatsby is an American classic for a reason —it also ties the production too much to an alien form, and director David Esbjornson rarely takes advantage of what the stage could offer the show. There are moments —a veritable rain of fancy shirts at the end of act one, and the visual intersection of the upper and lower class worlds at the end of the play —but they are quite rare.

The acting is generally solid, led by excellent performances by Matthew Amendt as Nick and Heidi Armbruster as Daisy. Lorenzo Pisoni makes some puzzling choices as Gatsby, with a flat delivery that strips the character of any charm, and creating no chemistry with Daisy, which is really the linchpin of the show.

The Great Gatsby certainly looks good —the costumes have the sharp feel of the 1920s, while the detailed set pieces (including Gatsby's famous car) are spectacular. All of this doesn't alleviate the occasional boredom of the text-bound production, or the sense that this was a grant opportunity somehow wasted.

The Great Gatsby runs through September 10 at the Wurtele Thrust Stage at the Guthrie Theater, 818 2nd Street S., downtown Minneapolis. For tickets or more information, call 612-377-2224 or visit www.guthrietheater.org.

Photo: Michal Daniel

- Ed Huyck