It was *Great…but was it *good?
An artist who has never been on Broadway’s critique on (rant about) a Broadway show
Alt title: The Great Gatsby? More like A Great Disappointment!!
Alright, everyone. We all know my purpose here. I’m the “New York” girl, I’m the “theatre girl” blah blah blah. We know what I am bringing to the table. As the filler of this niche within the VTY girls, it is incumbent upon me to bring you news of Broadway and my opinions on it when I decide to shell out way too much money to see a show.
Sadly my friends, my first review will not be a positive one. With that disclaimer in mind, let’s get into my take on “The Great Gatsby” on Broadway.
Let me start off by saying if I ever see any of the creative team behind the book, music, and lyrics it's on sight!! Don't talk to me! Don't come by my house!!!
Just kidding; not that serious. BUT I find it a very reductive disservice to take a nuanced critique of the illusion of the American dream, class wealth disparity, and the fine line between love and obsession and turn it into an a poorly-defined love story. Let the record show that I’m not openly accusing the lyric and book writers of using AI to pen what I deem to be the most shallow, one-note lines and lyrics I have heard in a long time…….but 🫣. The glitz and glam of the show was certainly stunning, but present that without its counterpart in a substantive way and you are reinforcing the very society that Fitzgerald was trying to speak against. Maybe they meant it as ironic commentary?
All in all, the content of the show felt hollow, like they just plucked some lines from the text about Daisy and Gatsby's love affair and went “How do we say the same basic thing over and over again so our audience realllyyyy picks up on the fact that Gatsby did this all for Daisy.” Newsflash people, WE GOT IT THE FIRST TIME HE SANG ABOUT IT!!!!
That brings me to my second point, which is essentially that they don’t interrogate Gatsby or his motives. In the novel, Nick is much more critical of Gatsby and his web of lies and calls him out on his BS. In this musical?? NOPE! We don't even get to see him start to put together that Gatsby is a poser and has built up this identity to overcompensate for his class insecurity. All we get is that Gatsby is a bootlegger…. And??? Lame behavior on their part.
Daisy is also depicted as less of the pipe dream/symbol of status for Gatsby in the musical and is just the girl he loved when he was poor who he is still obsessed with. But in the musical, it reads more like he is obsessed with her for her and not for what having her means for his ego if that makes sense. This, stripped away from her, ends up making her character arc fall flat which I found sort of surprising because you would think it would give her more agency. It's sad since there is so much depth to her character and what she and Gatsby actually symbolize to each other that just got washed out.
ALSO they managed to make Jeremy Jordan not cute! Taking a cutie Broadway hunk and giving him a gel-slicked combover?? Criminal act. Come ON people it just didn't work!! We’re gonna take liberties with everything else but the combover is the hill we had to die on?? Also, he was the only one doing a transatlantic accent. Everyone else sounded like they had seen an iPhone and it really took me out of it. Just let the man be sexy and sing Broadway Here I Come from Smash (IYKYK).
This is also not slander to Jeremy Jordan and Eva Noblezada or any of the performers. Their chemistry was great, their voices were pitch-perfect with an incredible blend, and the choreography was very impressive. The chorergrapher did a great job of pulling from traditional 20’s dances and updating them in compelling and dynamic ways. I also thought the scenic design, lighting, and costumes were stunning!! Literally I had no issues with it form a production value standpoint, I only want to have words with the people who greenlit the material. It felt like its such a boiled-down, sanitized version of what I wanted it to be. No wonder media literacy is being obliterated.
It was a spectacle, but was it… spectacular? My vote is no. However, Florence and The Machine is also doing a Gatsby musical directed by Anais Mitchell of Hadestown fame, so that should prove much more promising. And I was very excited to see Jeremy Jordan for the first time live.
Anyway, thanks for reading Old Sport! And please do write us and tell us what piece of media you are hating on this week.
VTY, Avery
Once again tho Jeremy’s Jordan they could never make me hate you I love you <3 Eva love u too girl <3
Dear Avery,
I get it. A lot of media today is not good, and for some reason, many stories are references to other stories written 100 years ago. We are now remaking the remakes. And I don’t understand why we remake everything significantly when the remakes don’t actually improve upon the story, music, set design, costume, etc. Like the little mermaid live-action remake from last year, we had the opportunity to create an exciting piece of media, but instead, it just fell a little flat to me. And that’s what I don’t get! Why will we stir up this much controversy, promote these movie remakes, and not make it the absolute most fantastic improvement from the original?
It seems we have become more complex with media through AI and green screens, but it’s like design where sometimes the most simple, handmade design looks the best. Now, media is so complex it is hard to connect to. I also think it’s flopping because we’re always trying to do too much. We joke a lot in the art that for a project to be really good, it has to have two of three things: take a long time, be very thoughtful, or be expensive. It seems that Hollywood is refusing this idea.
A piece of media I hate that haunts me in my peripheral vision is Glass Onion. I made my family watch it last Christmas and begged them to because the people on the internet said it was great. It was not great and was actually horrible. Truly scarring. My family then resisted listening to my media suggestions, and now they think I am dumb. Sigh.
So, even though this media-watching event happened a year and a half ago, it still haunts me.
I also try not to judge things too harshly, as I know I have a habit of being quite intense when things don’t need to be that intense! I only put my critique hat on when I’ve heard that a movie discusses specific relevant social topics or is actually trying to be a good movie. Otherwise, I assume the show, movie, etc., are meant to fill space.
Anyway, I wouldn’t take anything too seriously until Hollywood brings me into the writing room. I could really help make things interesting again and add some movie magic back into whatever they are doing now.
Very truly yours always,
Grace McCraw
Hi Girls,
I fear I am easily entertained. I loved Anyone But You, I binge read all the ACOTAR books, and I’m currently obsessed with Sabrina Carpenter.
I was truly YEARS deep in The Wikipedia List of All Movies article earlier today trying to determine the last piece of media I truly hated. I think it was Cats. Or maybe Dr Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.
Truth be told, I know I have strong opinions about the media I consume, I just truly can’t think of any at the mo’. I’ve pivoted to a time where I just want to be dazzled. I don’t want to think too much. I actually think most people are thinking too much.
Maybe it’s easier for me to list the more general types of media I don’t like?
Horror movies, especially about the supernatural
Colleen Hoover books
Sitcoms where they take too long to figure out the characters (looking at you seasons 1 & 2 of parks and rec!)
Musicals/Dance recitals where no one is wearing sparkly costumes (what the hell are we doing here?)
Those 8 page tik tok poems
Anything with unattractive people (see: last week's letter)
Stadium country music
What about media we used to love but are now adults and hate? I just watched Divergent last night (I don’t know, I saw Theo James on screen and something came over me), and that is an atrocious excuse for a dystopian movie and novel. It’s so shallow! “We divide you based on 5 personality traits: smart, honest, nice, lame, and obviously, the cool ones.”
I could barely get through it.
Avery, I similarly have high hopes for this Florence/Anais production. If there’s two women I trust most in this world to get all the nuance you discussed and write something haunting – it’s them.
Hope that 2024 produces more content that excites us all!
Very truly yours,
Julianne
P.s. I watched Insurgent last night. Terrible! I can’t stop!
Hello,
Feeling fomo rn because I can’t remember the last piece of media I hated. I think I’ve enjoyed everything I’ve seen this year so perhaps I’m too easy to please. However, last October I streamed the first few episodes of Lessons in Chemistry on apple TV. Acting? Passable. Scriptwriting? Mailed in. Chemistry references? Cheesy and overdone. But the talking dog who narrates an episode with an opening soliloquy on how he wishes he never ran away from the police academy and feels tremendous guilt for leading his owner into the street to be hit by a bus? Inexcusable. Maybe so egregious it’s camp? Who knows! Overall still an enjoyable experience because who doesn’t love a nice hatewatch with friends?? (shout out Shannon and Julie if you’re reading this). If anyone loved Lessons in Chemistry and wants to make a defense my inbox is open: sydney@verytrulyyours.net. BTW you can email any of the girls or send Grace your anonymous gossip to gossip@verytrulyyours.net. We’d also love to see your recent media flops in the comments.
Very truly yours,
Sydney
Dear Everyone,
I’ve been struggling a lot lately with how to express my critical thoughts. Irony dominates our humor and I dislike how devoted we are to tearing down–viciously, elatedly and grinning. I don’t want to make anybody feel like there is something wrong with them for liking something that is bad, and I don’t want to sound mean-spirited in my negative reviews of media, but it’s difficult not to lean into the ‘smart,’ biting remarks that wink sardonically at my peers so that we can ridicule together. When I write them, I know that they will be the morsels of my words that people savor most, but I also know that that is a derivative* voice, not my own. It disappoints me when I contribute to the tearing. *(Note: I get stuck on certain words and “derivative” is one I have been using frequently. I feel that it is often relevant in discussions about art.)
I recently wrote a short paragraph about my dislike for Hit Man, the new Netflix film written by Richard Linklater and Glen Powell, on Letterboxd. It’s an example of something I feel is biting and full of scorn. The image it gives me of myself is one that is grinning widely with sharp, sharp, scary teeth, like a frenzied sprite. I am keeping it up to keep myself accountable, as I wish to rewrite it soon.
As a film and television major with an emphasis on criticism and screenwriting, I do truly love criticism. I have a Medium page solely dedicated to critiques I write of movies and television shows I have watched (https://medium.com/@mackenzeam) and I think it can be done without the tearing, and can serve to emphasize how a film does what it does—poorly or not, with great clarity and sentiment. I am still working on this, though.
Still, people don’t like to hear that something they enjoyed watching is bad and regularly view any criticism against something they like as mean spirited, pretentious or abusive. This looks like low self esteem to me and it can’t be helped by tiptoeing around people’s sensitivities. Oftentimes I find that great art is quite unpleasant to engage with, and the subjectivity argument that leads people to say that something might be good to them but bad to someone else is misguided. People conflate liking and disliking with good and bad, but they are not synonymous. Someone can argue that your favorite is bad and be correct. It’s okay to like bad things. I like a lot of bad things…how naughty!
Very truly yours,
Mackenzie
