The Great Gatsby has to be one of the most polarising shows out at the moment – from 1 star through to 5 star reviews so I couldn’t help myself but to see what I would make of it and where I would land.

For those of you (like me) who haven’t read the book or even seen the film, the show is set in the roaring 20’s just after the end of the war. The show, narrated by Nick Carraway, is a love story about Jay Gatsby, a self made man who throws lavish parties at his huge mansion and Daisy Buchanan his sweetheart from before the war. Time has however moved on and Daisy is now married but unperturbed Gatsby continues his relentless pursuit of her ending in tragedy for all.

The book by F. Scott Fitzgerald is adapted for the stage by Kait Kerrigan. The story of love and obsession is delivered at a wonderful pace and this remains at the focus of the piece although as a result we sweep over other intriguing points such as Gatsby’s means of income and the social structure in play throughout the show. As a result we get a perfectly enjoyable book but one without much depth and as a result despite tragic consequences the audience are left a little cold. The other niggle with the book is that there are a lot of characters and relationships at play and instead of getting to know one or two of them beneath surface level they are all given the same two dimensional treatment due to volume of relationships to focus on.

The casting in the show reads like a who’s who of musical theatre and couldn’t be more star studded if they tried. Playing Jay Gatsby is Jamie Muscato and this production is yet another example of the huge amount of talent this man has. He oozes charisma as Gatsby and his number ‘For Her’ is showstopper vocally. Opposite him is Frances Mayli McCann as Daisy who has a wonderful balance of giddy love alongside the pull of society and security. I could easily run out of superlatives when describing their voices together.

Corbin Bleu is our narrator of the piece, Nick and he has a wonderful affability about him although he sits slightly outside of the main action due to his social class, maybe not quite enough to really provide too much of an independent observer but this is the fault of the writing not of Corbin Bleu. Amber Davies plays Jordan Baker, an independent woman ahead of her time with her views of marriage. She leads the huge dance number ‘New Money’ with breath-taking energy and her character doesn’t relent with that energy throughout the show.

Whilst the cast is packed of musical theatre icons it does mean that some of the performers aren’t given as much stage time as would have liked, the likes of John Owen Jones are woefully underused and his character of Meyer Wolfsheim fails to come across as shady as may have been needed, once again down to the book.

The music by Jason Howland and lyrics by Nathan Tysen is enjoyable. There are some wonderful musical theatre ballads as well as the show stealing New Money although at time some numbers do merge into the other in terms of style and purpose but when the umbers work in this show, boy do they work!

Some shows can look lost of the stage of the Coliseum but not this one! The show itself seems to spend as much money as Gatsby does on his parties and the set by Paul Tate DePoo III, costumes by Linda Cho and lighting by Cory Pattak are all big draws for this show. The set is made up of a mixture of video projection and actual set pieces although sometimes DePoo’s projection is so realistic it is hard to tell what is projection and what is tangible.

If you get a chance to get onto Gatsby’s party list I really would recommend that you check out one of the most lavish parties of the season currently ongoing at the London Coliseum, especially as the party attendees on stage glitter even more brightly that the show design.

The Great Gatsby is on until the 7th September. You can find out more and book tickets here.

If you like this review you might also like my review of The Mad Ones, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and Moulin Rouge.