Lavish musical lacks respect for Fitzgerald's classic elegy

Jamie Muscato brings a jarring goofiness to the most elusive of literary creations in 'The Great Gatsby', says Alice Saville

- Alice Saville

Anyone who's ever dressed up in a sequinned headband or felt fedora will recognise the 1920s trappings of this flashy Broadway musical version of The Great Gatsby. There's jaunty dancing in gold-fringed dresses, bootleg booze-related skulduggery, and even a recreation of that bit in the Baz Luhrmann film where the titular man of mystery hurls his immaculately pressed, snowy white linen shirts into the air (clearly, he’s never had to iron one). But what Kait Kerrigan’s weirdly larky book and Marc Bruni’s ludicrously lavish production lack is a basic level of respect for F Scott Fitzgerald’s elegy for the Roaring Twenties, or an understanding of what makes it more than an excellent theme for a hen do.