Partying with the Great Gatsby



Jeremy Jordan as Jay Gatsby, Eva Noblezada as Daisy Buchanan, Samantha Pauly as Jordan Baker. Photo © Jeremy Daniel

F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby is considered by many to be the greatest novel ever written by an American (all right, Herman Melville’s Moby Dick a close second). It is the story of an incredibly wealthy World War I war hero who has not seen his girlfriend in five years and tries desperately to get her back. He buys a Rolls Royce car, builds a multi-million-dollar mansion and throws the wildest parties the 1920s had ever seen. The problem is that in those long, long five years she married and had a child. So where does our rich war hero, Jay Gatsby, go?

He has it all. He is gorgeous (hey, Robert Redford played him in one of the films). Fitzgerald gave this character everything – good looks, lots of money, flashy sports car and a magical smile that women adore. How is this All-American guy going to get good old girlfriend Daisy back?

That’s the story of The Great Gatsby. It has been a movie four times, a serious play and now, at long last, orchestra and all, a four-star musical. It opens with a wild party in progress and everybody on their feet dancing the night away.

Noah J. Ricketts as Nick Carraway, Samantha Pauly as Jordan Baker. Photo © Jeremy Daniel

The Great Gatsby, the musical, just opened at the Paper Mill Playhouse, in Millburn, New Jersey.

Where is Gatsby at his own party? Invisible. He does not attend his own parties but, everybody in metro New York was invited. They danced and drank and roared on and off his property on Long Island Sound in expensive cars with wild abandon.

Gatsby befriends the cousin of Daisy and arranges to meet her at a cottage on his property. It will all go well, won’t it?

It does and it doesn’t.

There is a long string of scenes between the two of them, and with Daisy’s tough guy husband. They have fights and they make up. There is another man’s wife added to the tango, too. She becomes a major part of the story.

But does Gatsby get his girl, his dream? Does his relentless chase end well?

Jeremy Jordan as Jay Gatsby and Eva Noblezada as Daisy Buchanan. Photo © Jeremy Daniel

The musical opens with a bang with the sensational party, but then stumbles. If you have read The Great Gatsby, or seen any of the four movies, you will enjoy the musical because you know the tale. There is the fight to get the girl back, her return, fights between them, other people flying in and out of the story and the unexpected end. Ok for you.

If you have not read the book or seen the movies, you will have trouble following the tale of the very rich and very sure of himself Jay Gatsby and the love of his life, Daisy Buchanan, who is Fitzgerald’s hope of all mankind, but in my eyes a real jerk. Gatsby is a jerk, too. You are going to get back a girl who has married someone else and had a child? Come on. That only happens in, well, in plays like this.

There are a lot of good things in The Great Gatsby, which has a solid book by Kait Kerrigan (based on the novel). There is a fine solo song by Gatsby about his Daisy, which is really good. There is a lot of music by Jason Howland and most of it is pretty good. There are two marvelous antique cars that are driven on and off the stage, lots of super choreography by Dominique Kelley. You want a lot of glitzes? There is plenty of it here. Glitz? This is your play.

Noah J. Ricketts as Nick Carraway, Sara Chase as Myrtle Wilson, John Zdrojeski as Tom Buchanan. Photo © Evan Zimmerman for Murphy Made.

There are plenty of weaknesses, though. The musical drags in spots. First, there are a lot of screwy things in the book that are re-played here, badly. The book’s plotline is jarring, the actions of its main characters a bit unbelievable at times and scary at others. The characters are pleasant enough, but not really likable (even Gatsby. Oh, what a jerk.) The relationship between Gatsby and gangsters needs to be fuller and clearer. The ending needs to be more clearly explained.

The actors in the musical, directed by Marc Bruni, do good work, especially Jeremy Jordan as Gatsby. He does a fine job in a very complex role. Also good are John Zdrojeski as Daisy’s husband Tom Buchanan, Stanley Mathis as gangster Meyer Wolfsheim, Noah Ricketts as Nick Carraway. Eva Noblezada is Daisy. They all do fine work but are stuck in a disjointed story. Throughout the play you continually hope that things will work out between Jay Gatsby and his eternal love, Daisy. There’s a wonderful moment when Nick tells Gatsby that you can’t rewrite the past and Gatsby points to all his wealthy possessions and roared at Nick “Of course you can…”

No, you can’t.

Stanley W. Mathis as Meyer Wolfsheim. Photo © Jeremy-Daniel 

The problem with the musical, too, is that is has a lot of unbelievable characters, like golfer Jordan Baker, who in the novel supposedly wins because she cheats. She is really built up in the musical for no good reason (played by Samantha Pauly). Sara Chase is a sturdy Myrtle Wilson, the other girlfriend, who can’t figure out rather simple things. She gets a little lost in the plot.

Collectively, in this twisted storyline, they all get a bit lost, too.

Paper Mill Playhouse presents The Great Gatsby now through November 12, 2023. Paper Mill is located at 22 Brookside Drive in Millburn, New Jersey. For more information or to purchase tickets, click here.

Bruce Chadwick worked for 23 years as an entertainment writer/critic for the New York Daily News. Later, he served as the arts and entertainment critic for the History News Network, a national online weekly magazine. Chadwick holds a Ph. D in History and Cultural Studies from Rutgers University. He has written 31 books on U.S. history and has lectured on history and culture around the world. He is a history professor at New Jersey City University.