The Great Gatsby Comes to Cadillac Palace April 21-May 3

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The Great Gatsby:A gorgeous to look at and emotionally charged musical full of glamour and intrigue, playing thru May 3rd at Cadillac Palace Theatre - Review By: Paul Lisnek

*** ½ / 4

The Great Gatsby delivers a gorgeous to look at and emotionally charged musical full of glamour and intrigue propelled by one very powerful score! 

The action set against an amazing set design plays to perfectly controlled performances; the production strikes a compelling balance between spectacle and intimacy. It’s no wonder this story has resonated for over 100 years providing eternal themes of loyalty, greed, and want. 

At the center, Jake David Smith brings a charismatic presence to Jay Gatsby, showing both his insecure human side but one that balances his obsession with the love of his life, Daisy Buchanan. His performance exudes charm with a strong sense of longing, making Gatsby’s pursuit of his past feel less like fantasy and more like a present sense yearning. Smith lets silence do as much work as dialogue, which makes his emotional turns land with real weight. It doesn’t hurt that he’s easy on the eyes and his voice and vocal range is astounding.

Senzel Ahmady portrays Daisy with a nuanced but strikingly strong interpretation so effective that one finds it difficult to judge her negatively which her conduct would warrant us to do. Rather than seeming selfish, she shows Daisy to be trapped between the requirements of women of her day (the 1920s) and her desire to break away and seek her own happiness. She is both enchanting and elusive—powered by an incredibly strong voice…she presents the exact contradiction the role demands of an actor.

Nick Carraway is endearingly played by Joshua Grosso. The character is often the anchor for the audience (as F. Scott Fitzgerald saw it anyway) and here, Grosso plays him with a sense of restraint and an undercurrent of explosiveness. The performance and this script/book fo the musical avoids over-narration which lets the music have its way in the story. Here, Carraway is more a thoughtful observer who gets pulled into the moral chaos that surrounds him. 

Also serving as an anchor to the tension of the story is Leanne Robinson (a true gift “on loan” from Britain where she is well known in the West End.  She plays Jordan Baker and makes this role her own. She clearly has more than a supporting presence. She plays Jordan with strength, and wit and a strong independence, even if she is guarded beneath the surface. She is a great and important counterpoint to Daisy—less romantic, more pragmatic— but with a welcome edge that adds weight in the production’s required sense of opulence.

The chemistry between the central quartet feels authentic; their interactions provide emotion and depth against the backdrop of magnificent stunning visuals. 

This national tour of The Great Gatsby does more than dazzle—it stays with you as you leave the theater with a sort of unsettling sense that its characters were always chasing something that was always going to be just out of their reach.

This is an experience you don’t want to miss! It runs at the Cadillac Palace Theatre thru May 3rd. Tickets can be purchased at: www.BroadwayinChicago.com