If you want to attract an audience – you can do that with just one word. Gatsby. Immediately you see visions of jazz age glamour. In fact, any show with Gatsby in the title is bound to attract attention.
Like GATSBY at The Green Light, one of the key shows at this year’s Brisbane Festival.
While some festival shows are fleeting, this one runs from September 2 to 28 at Twelfth Night Theatre in Bowen Hills, so it continues for the duration of the festival.
Is it a gratuitous grab, cashing in on the cachet that goes with the name Gatsby, evoking all the pizazz of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s classic novel, The Great Gatsby?
On the one hand, yes. On the other hand, no.
In fact, it makes perfect sense to have a show inspired by the novel playing at this year’s Brisbane Festival because it’s 100 years since The Great Gatsby was published, which is a surprising revelation in itself. Look it up and you will see we are right. One hundred years! Wow.
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The show’s co-creators and producers, Craig Ilott and Stuart Couzens of Caper & Crow, the company behind the show, are chuffed to be bringing it to Brisbane to celebrate the novel’s 100th anniversary and to continue the life of a show that debuted at Sydney Opera House in 2023.
it’s a musical and visual journey into that world in a contemporary club setting where the parties of the 1920s meet with the 2020s
“It was commissioned by Ebony Bott, who has been announced as the next artistic director of Brisbane Festival – and that’s a lovely link,” Ilott says. “We had done a bit of work with Ebony and then she approached us with the idea of using the cabaret form to create a show around the Gatsby theme.
“We had to go away and have a deep dive and work out how to approach it. How could we treat The Great Gatsby in this way? So, we took the love story and the essence of Fitzgerald’s world.”
The romance between Jay Gatsby and Daisy is the core of the story. But this show isn’t the book on stage. Instead, it’s a musical and visual journey into that world in a contemporary club setting where the parties of the 1920s meet with the 2020s.
“Get ready to be outrageously entertained through the prism of cabaret, variety and contemporary music,” promises the festival blurb.
“Take your seat at The Green Light, the hottest club in town — owned by none other than the great Gatsby himself. It’s an electrifying establishment radiating extravagance, vitality and abandon, built in the pursuit of love.
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“Sip on a delightfully infused gin martini as you find yourself captivated by extraordinary aerial displays, an electric soundtrack, awe-inspiring vocals, mesmerising choreography and resplendent costumes. These ageless vaudeville acts have been reimagined to cast a spell over the ultimate summer soirée.”
The show celebrates the 100th anniversary of The Great Gatsby as the curtain rises on a new age of old-world splendour. Twelfth Night Theatre will be transformed into The Green Light – reimagined and reinvigorated as a jazz age club fit for Fitzgerald and Gatsby alike.
In The Great Gatsby, “the green light” symbolises Gatsby’s hopes and dreams, particularly his yearning for the past and his desire to reunite with Daisy. Green is, of course, the colour of money and broadly symbolises the American dream, suggesting the allure and elusive nature of achieving one’s desires.
‘We wanted to do a contemporary take on the Jazz Age to create a place people will want to go to and escape’
Ilott says the world of Gatsby still resonates today. His co-creator, Stuart Couzens, was tasked with visually creating this Gatsby world, which will include cabaret-style tables in what is essentially “Gatsby’s speakeasy bar”.
“We wanted to do a contemporary take on the Jazz Age to create a place people will want to go to and escape, a place where they can forget about the outside world.”
Ilott and Couzens have gathered artists from around the world, including Australia’s own sultry burlesque star Bettie Bombshell, Belgian juggler Florian Vandemeulebroucke and Colombian circus star Daniela Del Mar.
Musical director is ARIA Award-winner Kim Moyes, best known for his work as one half of Australian electronic duo The Presets. He brings his electronic music skills to the proceedings with bold remixes and a curated soundtrack that sets the vibe and the energy.
Live vocals are supplied by Sydney-sider Odette, who collaborated with Moyes to create a stunning original song for the show. It reimagines The Great Gatsby and Jay Gatsby’s endless pursuit of his Daisy.
Ilott points out that it is “saucy and sexy”, which won’t hurt. So get ready to party like it’s 1925.
GATSBY at The Green Light, Twelfth Night Theatre, Bowen Hills, September 2-28.