Review Roundup: THE GREAT GATSBY in London's West End

Read reviews for the West End production of The Great Gatsby. The new musical adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald's landmark novel is playing now at the London Coliseum.

Jamie Muscato (Moulin Rouge! The Musical) stars as Jay Gatsby, alongside Frances Mayli McCann as Daisy Buchanan, Corbin Bleu (High School Musical) as Nick Carraway, Amber Davies (Pretty Woman) as Jordan Baker, Joel Montague (Hamilton) as George Wilson, John Owen-Jones (Les Misérables) as Meyer Wolfsheim, Jon Robyns (Phantom of the Opera) as Tom Buchanan and Rachel Tucker (Wicked) as Myrtle Wilson.

Completing the cast are George Crawford (Waitress), Jordan Crouch (Anything Goes), Kiara Dario (Miss Saigon), Frances Dee (Matilda), Aimée Fisher (Waitress), Tom Andrew Hargreaves (Pretty Woman), Alyn Hawke (Come From Away), Ediz Mahmut. (Hadestown), Jamel Matthias (Why Am I So Single?), Nevé McGuiness-Dyce (Starlight Express), Rose Ouellette (The Wizard of Oz), Sophie Pourret (Guys and Dolls), Will Richardson (Les Misérables) and Lily Wang (Burlesque) as ensemble. As well as swings Liv Alexander (Cabaret), Taylor Alman (Greatest Days), Lauren Hampton (Mamma Mia!), Jared Irving (Aladdin), Samuel John-Humphreys (Sister Act) and Millie Mayhew (Wicked).

Meet mysterious millionaire, Jay Gatsby. He entertains the rich and famous with riotous parties at his Long Island mansion yet never joins in. Gatsby longs instead to reunite with his former flame Daisy Buchanan, but Daisy comes from another lifetime, long before the money…

The show features book by Jonathan Larson Grant winner Kait Kerrigan (The Mad Ones), music and lyrics by Tony Award nominees Jason Howland (Beautiful: The Carole King Musical, Little Women) and Nathan Tysen (Paradise Square) and is directed by award-winning Marc Bruni (Beautiful: The Carole King Musical) with choreography by Dominique Kelley (So You Think You Can Dance), Outer Critics Circle Award winning scenic and projection design by Paul Tate dePoo III (Spamalot, Tommy at The Kennedy Center) and Tony Award®-winning costume design by Linda Cho (Anastasia, A Gentleman's Guide...).

Aliya Al-Hassan, BroadwayWorld: The main issue lies with Kait Kerrigan’s book, which often sounds like it was written by ChatGPT. Occasional direct quotes from the book jar Fitzgerald's poetic prose against bland phrasing. Kerrigan focuses more on the love story, rattling off the odd reference to class issues and the American Dream, but never delving deeply enough to engage or scrutinise.

Laurie Yule, The Stage: It probably won’t please literary purists, but it will delight a broad audience, and even those resistant to the unashamedly corny will likely be won over by the breathtaking look and strident performances in this feat of spectacle and seduction.

Arifa Akbar, The Guardian: Fresh from Broadway, this production encapsulates the worst of peacockingly splashy entertainment – the kind whose soul has been suctioned out in the making.

Alun Hood, WhatsOnStage: The Great Gatsby isn’t a great tuner: it’s neither cynical enough to really explore the dark underbelly of the F Scott Fitzgerald story with which it flirts, nor is it distinguished enough to provide the uplift of musical theatre at its best, but it’s the epitome of a slick, escapist West End night out. Shallow, loud and sumptuous.

Clive Barnes, The Times: The talented Rachel Tucker has the thankless task of injecting some nuance into Tom’s blue-collar mistress, Myrtle. As the second act rumbles towards its melancholy conclusion, the songs grow ever more maudlin. By the time the revellers return for a reprise of Roaring On, the champagne has lost its sparkle.

Antonia Georgiou, The Upcoming: With impeccable performances, intricate dance sequences and grand costume design, The Great Gatsby is a must-watch for musical theatre aficionados. And, no doubt, it’s a party Gatsby himself would be proud of.

Ian Bowkett, Musical Theatre Review: Boasting a production design to which every future ‘glamorous’ musical will be compared, a cast of bona fide West End superstars performing at the top of their game, and – crucially – two and half hours with not a hint of boredom… has anybody really been shortchanged?

Theatre & Tonic, Theatre & Tonic: The Great Gatsby Musical at the London Coliseum is a full-throttle feast of spectacle and drama which makes for an enjoyable watch overall.

Claire Alfree, The Telegraph: A more ambitious creative team might have turned The Great Gatsby’s keening lyricism, elusive spirit and sheer tragic beauty to its advantage. Instead, we get a screechy clodhopping musical that amps up the Roaring Twenties clichés at the expense of anything Fitzgerald had to say about class, money and the scissoring chasms between appearances and reality. Book writer Kait Kerrigan foregrounds the romance between Gatsby and Daisy in ways that make their cryptic love affair the routine stuff of a thousand Broadway power ballads – and in case we don’t get the message, a deluxe bed is at one point rolled onto the stage.

Marianka Swain, London Theatre: Kait Kerrigan’s accessible book hurtles through the action, adding brisk explanations for the characters’ various dilemmas. In particular, she beefs up the female voices – an admirable intent, especially when it comes to Daisy, who is often depicted as a shallow socialite and a prize to be fought over. But so passionately underscoring the gendered double standards of marriage in this era (men can cheat publicly; women stand to lose everything, including their children) makes Daisy almost too sympathetic. She loses her moral shading – and these characters aren’t meant to be saintly, romantic victims of circumstance. It causes problems in the murkier second half.

Average Rating: 60.0%