Reviews

From Page to Stage: The Great Gatsby on Broadway Review

Written by Megan Ritchie

The famous American novel The Great Gatsby was made into a musical by Kait Kerrigan, Jason Howland, and Nathan Tysen. The show first opened at Papermill Playhouse in New Jersey on October 22, 2023. It starred Jeremy Jordan as Jay Gatsby and Eva Noblezada as Daisy Buchanan, two seasoned Broadway performers. After a four-week run at Papermill, it was announced that The Great Gatsby would open on Broadway on April 25, 2024.

The story of The Great Gatsby follows Nick Carraway (Noah J. Ricketts), a newcomer to Long Island. Nick lives on West Egg, a place where people with new money live. He has a very elusive neighbor who throws parties every week, Jay Gatsby (Jeremy Jordan). Living on East Egg are Nick’s cousin Daisy (Eva Noblezada) and her husband Tom Buchanan (John Zdrojeski), who are both old money. Nick meets Daisy’s friend, Jordan (Samantha Pauly), and learns of the Buchanans’ unhappy marriage. Eventually, Nick meets Gatsby, and Gatsby tells him that he throws his giant parties in hope that Daisy will come to one. He knew Daisy before he was deployed during World War I and before she was married to Tom. Gatsby wants Nick to introduce him to her so that they can reconnect. The story is a tale of the American dream, love, and loss.

I saw The Great Gatsby on Broadway on December 26, and got to see both Jeremy Jordan and Eva Noblezada. They were extraordinary in their roles and their vocals were astounding. I saw the understudies for Nick and Jordan, Alex Prakken and Dariana Mullen. Despite being understudies, they were both amazingly talented and I loved the new perspectives that they brought to their characters. John Zdrojeski as Tom Buchanan was also exceptionally good. I really believed in the evilness of his character. Besides the performances, one of my favorite parts of the show was the costumes, designed by Linda Cho. Even though not all of them were time period accurate, they looked absolutely stunning onstage.

One of the things that I disliked about the show was that it was not very book accurate. While I did like some of the artistic changes the writers made, I felt that they did not give enough context for some of the things happening. I was very thankful that I had read the book and was familiar with it before seeing the show. I also felt like the story focused too much on Gatsby and Daisy’s love story rather than Nick’s life and his perspective. However, I still greatly enjoyed the show and thought that it was spectacular. 

While Jeremy Jordan and Eva Noblezada are leaving The Great Gatsby on January 19 and January 30 respectively, the talented actors Ryan McCartan and Sarah Hyland will be taking on their roles. I would recommend The Great Gatsby on Broadway to fans of the original novel and anyone interested in watching an astounding performance.