Gatsby - Union Theatre

This is not the production Wilton's Music Hall put on a couple of years ago?

Ew Lordy, I sat through "Beautiful and Damned" because a friend was in it. What a stinker.

I especially loved the scene where they both sat on a swing, singing a terribly dulll song... faced away from the audience. We didn't see their faces at all.

There was also a wonderful moment where someone dropped a tray of drinks, and everyone had to mop up the mess whilst carrying on a tap number.

Craig Revel Horwood directing and choreographing.... says it all!

Michael Praed? 

He he was quite good in Dirty Rotten Scoundrels.  

Wondering if anyone has seen this yet or do I need to wait to see the press reviews from tonight to make my mind up whether to book. Ferns McCann has several hundred thousand Twitter followers but doesn't look like many are theatre goers as still quite a lot of tickets left.

I'm beginning to wonder if any of the press bothered going? There don't seem to be any reviews online yet. Maybe they all went to the Jersey Boys' gala?

West End Frame was there, according to Twitter. So hopefully a reliable review will be forthcoming...

Another 1* from West End Frame: www.westendframe.com/2016/04/review-gatsby-at-union-theatre.html

So that's 5* in total, right?

Well, who said that the stars on the posters must all be from one reviewer?

Saw this tonight. Beautiful score, perverse musical.

If the general rule is that songs spring from feelings, and heighten emotions, nobody told Joe Evans. He's a terrific composer. I could listen to this breezy delightful score of his every day for a week. But when real emotions flare up, the music stops. At the very climax of the story, it's all words, no songs.

Evans is not helped by Linnie Reedman's book, to be fair. The book is far too faithful to the novel. The novel details the lives of cold people, who don't much care about anything or anyone, except Gatsby, who has nurtured a love so passionate and so long, he thinks of nothing else, and Nick Carraway, who cares about Gatsby, and Tom Buchanan, who very much cares about himself, and is prone to rage and manipulation.

Perversely, Tom Buchanan, pivotal to the plot, one of the principal villains, who is perfectly and brilliantly played by Zed Josef in this production, who is so smooth and dastardly he drips with privileged venom, gets ZERO songs.

Gatsby, the source of all the romance and love, all the hope, all the dreams, doesn't show up for an hour, and when he does, he gets one and a half songs. They are good songs, but that's not enough.

Nick Carraway has his famous narration stolen from him, which the book awards to Wolfshiem instead. And Carraway is awarded one and a half songs. His solo song, "Your World," which is excellent, he also gets to join in on a reprise.

This means that 16 songs are sung by characters that don't really matter. Well, Daisy Buchanan matters of course, despite her cold empty heart, but all she gets are one and a third songs anyway.

Because all the songs are beautiful, and well written, this means that most of the music is the equivalent of "easy listening," pleasant to hear, but unattached to deep emotions.

This musical has a gorgeous score, and some terrific acting by the aforementioned Zed Josef as Tom Buchanan, by Blair Robertson as a note perfect urbane, gentlemanly and caring Nick Carraway, by Kate Marlais as a knowing Jordan Baker, and by Joanna Brown as a flighty Daisy Buchanan.

As Tom Buchanan's mistress, Myrtle, Ferne is a perfectly passable actress, with a distinctive husky voice, and while she can't hit all the notes, she never strains for one, just skipping over it, so you never live in fear that you will be struck by a jarring rasp. This means that it is never uncomfortable to listen to her, and her warm tone is very pleasurable to listen to.

If I could rewrite the book, I'd follow Gatsby's love from it's inception, rather than have him show up half way through. And I'd have Evans write music for emotions, rather than to pass the time between emotions.

That said, there is one sublime moment where he really tugs the heartstrings. In act two, Daisy and Myrtle sing a song called "Leave the Dance," which is reminiscent of the sad folk of Leonard Cohen, after which, to much the same tune, Gatsby sings of his love climbing a "Ladder to the Stars," his one big number. That's how it's done, I thought. If only there was more of that!

3 stars