The Great Gatsby at The Coliseum
5th June 2025
57 Members of the theatre group made it to The Coliseum for the summer musical.
The grandeur and opulence of The Coliseum provides an appropriate setting for this musical interpretation of F Scott Fitzgerald’s novel set in the Jazz Age in the USA. The performers and production team tackle the challenge of turning the story into a piece of musical theatre lasting a couple of hours with tremendous gusto and talent.
The fabulous sets and costumes transport us into the world of the privileged lifestyle and extravagant parties of the main protagonists. The stage design ensures fast and smooth transitions between scenes, and the singing by all the principals is wonderful, with perhaps a special mention for Jamie Muscato as Jay (the Great) Gatsby and a storming opening to Act 2 provided by John Owen-Jones as Meyer Wolfsheim, Gatsby's "fixer". Standout performances are also given by Frances Mayli McCann as Daisy Buchanan, the chief female character, Corbin Bleu as Nick Carraway, who narrates the tale, and Amber Davies as Nick's love interest, Jordan Baker.
The chorus is excellent, providing fun, lovely flapper-style costumes and help with set changes, with great singing and dancing, and stylised choreography reflecting the post-WW1 era of prohibition and decadence – including an impressive tap dance routine!
The story is set in the early 1920s, on Long Island, New York, and the production opens with Jay Gatsby gazing out across the bay towards a green light shining. We learn that Gatsby is an extremely rich but lonely man, and is obsessed with a lost love, Daisy, who lives on the opposite shore, where the green light shows. Daisy and Gatsby had lost touch and not seen each other for five years, during which time she has married Tom Buchanan. Gatsby, however, constantly tries to re-create the past and revive their relationship. The story is told by Nick Carraway, a rather naïve young man recently arrived in New York who becomes Gatsby's tenant. When he learns that Nick and Daisy are cousins, Gatsby convinces a reluctant Nick to provide an opportunity for him to meet up again with Daisy. Overwhelmed by Gatsby’s wealth, lifestyle and grand mansion, Daisy starts an affair with him.
As the plot unfolds, it becomes clear that Gatsby’s wealth is recently acquired, a result of his illegal business selling bootleg alcohol, stored for him by local garage owner George Wilson, whose wife Myrtle is engaged in an affair with Tom Buchanan.
Things come to a head with all the main characters after Gatsby throws a particularly decadent party. He tries but fails to convince Daisy to leave her husband and marry him instead. He lets Daisy drive his distinctive yellow Rolls-Royce – we see the car actually drive across the stage! – and she accidentally knocks down and kills Myrtle Wilson. Daisy chooses not to stop and Gatsby determines to take the blame for the death. Mr Wilson shoots Gatsby in revenge for his wife’s death, then takes his own life.
Nick finally sees the shallowness of the social set he has got to know through Gatsby and Daisy when not one of them attends Gatsby’s funeral. He determines to turn his back on them and their debased values. The show ends as it began, with a figure standing gazing wistfully across the bay towards the green light which represents Daisy, the past, and all that has been lost.
Contributed by Elizabeth Adcock
