Student Blog: My Great Gatsby Experience!

As a student at the University of Central Florida who is from New York, getting to go back to Long Island is a treat. I recently went back and took a trip into New York City. I got the pleasure of seeing The Great Gatsby on Broadway. 

I got to see Ryan McCartan as Jay Gatsby, Sarah Hyland as Daisy, and Noah J. Ricketts as Nick Carraway. I was absolutely blown away by not only their performances, but the ensemble and the rest of the cast as well. 

But as amazing as the performance was, there were some technical difficulties that confused me before the show started that I wanted to talk about. I was first confused when the doors opened later than expected. Once we got to our seats, I excitedly flipped through the Playbill. I was thrilled. Once three o'clock rolled around, I was ready for the show to start. But the show didn’t start for another hour. I watched multiple people walk out before the show started, something I have never seen happen. Eventually the show started and it was fantastic. I was completely blown away. My favorite numbers were New Money and La Dee Dah With You. Definitely one of the favorite shows I have seen. The costumes, the music, and choreography were all spectacular, and you truly felt transported into the roaring twenties. I loved it so much. 

Seeing the show go through technical difficulties, but still be absolutely phenomenal reminded me of how much I love live theatre. How unpredictable the process can be is so interesting and incredibly magical to me. When I saw Shucked last year, getting to see the cast members break during one of the scenes reminded me that theatre can be so unpredictable.