F Scott Fitzgerald’s classic novella about the dark side of the American Dream has been endlessly adapted for the stage and that’s kicked into overdrive now that the US copyright has expired – there are two big US musical adaptations, with Florence Welch’s Gatsby: An American Myth circling Broadway and Jason Howland, Nathan Tysen and Kait Kerrigan’s The Great Gatsby already there.
And now it’s coming here: barely a year after it opened on the Great White Way, The Great Gatsby will transfer to London, playing the limited summer season at the huge London Coliseum. Both the speed of the transfer and the limited nature of the run are slightly odd for a new Broadway show, and one wonders if it’s somehow trying to queer the pitch for a Gatsby: An American Myth transfer. Whatever the case, if it’s a big enough hit it will inevitably move elsewhere – reviews from Broadway suggest a stylish but not exactly profound take on the classic story that follows narrator Nick Carraway’s entaglement with enigmatic millionaire Jay Gatsby. Marc Bruni directs the transferring production.
