CAMBRIDGE — An aura of foreboding looms over the set of “Gatsby,” the new musical adaptation of the F. Scott Fitzgerald novel now having its world premiere at the American Repertory Theater’s Loeb Drama Center. A hulking black sculpture of twisted steel — a nod to the “valley of ashes” just outside a wealthy town — climbs up and around the playing area, accented by curtains of gracefully flowing silver streamers. The gap between the haves and the have-nots could not be clearer.
But Mimi Lien’s set is only the first layer of this haunting production, which finds a perfect match in the soaring, soulful music of Florence Welch (of Florence + the Machine) and Thomas Bartlett, a book by Martyna Majok (“The Cost of Living”), and choreography by Sonya Tayeh (“Moulin Rouge”). Under the seamless direction of Rachel Chavkin (“Hadestown”), this story moves with the unrelenting rhythms of the ocean currents that so fascinate Nick Carraway, the story’s narrator.
In fact, everything about this production is about that flow. Even as we move from a formal dining room to a Manhattan bar, from a squalid shack to dance parties, Chavkin and Tayeh structure every movement, so that every moment reveals another thematic detail. At one point, the dance floor literally shakes, reflecting the fragile impermanence of the dancers’ efforts to rid themselves of sadness and disappointment. In another scene, on the stairs of the Gatsby mansion, we meet the staff that has to prep and clean up these lavish parties, and then, with hardly a pause, the ensemble sheds their uniforms and the staircase becomes a dance space, with partygoers slithering in, around, and under each other as they take advantage of Gatsby’s largesse.
Even Sandy Powell’s sleek costumes add to the story with their contrasting black and white (note the stains at the bottom of the principals’ garments), while the 13-piece orchestra, led by Wiley DeWeese, conjures up the frenzied rhythms of the evening.
Full disclosure: “The Great Gatsby” was not my favorite Fitzgerald novel. Nick’s narration always kept me at arm’s length from what seemed to me shallow, grasping characters. But Majok, who writes so eloquently of striving and struggle when the odds are stacked against you, finds the complex center of these individuals, digging into the desires that drive them. And Welch and Bartlett tap into Welch’s uncanny ability to tell stories in songs that build to sweeping vocal crescendos while imbuing lyrics with tender emotion. The songs amplify Majok’s storytelling, which plays fast, but not too loose, with Fitzgerald’s text, following through on suggestions of Nick’s homosexuality, making the golfer Jordan more interesting, with her fluid sexuality, and heightening the tension between Tom and Daisy and the raw, physical desire between both Tom and Myrtle and Daisy and Gatsby.
Nick is still the damaged outsider, getting swept up, but never quite into the chaos around him. Watch him move in and out of the fevered production numbers “Shakin Off the Dust” and “Just a Little Party”: His longing is built into his dance moves. Ben Levi Ross’ self-deprecating Nick offers some witty banter and humor that lighten the atmosphere at critical moments, while always hinting at how close he is to crumbling, but his powerful singing voice mines the earnest longing to find something to make him feel alive again.
The people who first attract and then repel Nick include his brittle cousin Daisy (Charlotte MacInnes) and her boorish husband, Tom (Corey Jeacoma); the mysterious and seductive Jay Gatsby (Isaac Powell); and Myrtle (Solea Pfeiffer), who is desperate for release from her grief (little bit of poetic license with the plot here) and a marriage at an end. Each of these performers combines glorious voices with impeccable dance skills and detailed characterizations. But the real gift of this creative team is their ability to bring together a stunningly talented ensemble to breathe life, and even some unexpected insights, into these characters.
MacInnes, especially, is outstanding, delivering a Daisy who acknowledges her passive role as “Golden Girl” before asserting herself in “The Dream Fought On.” Her love story with Gatsby, retold in “Month of Love,” and tentative reunion over tea, “Pouring Down,” culminates in a seductive number staged again on those stairs, choreographed with some breathtaking “trust falls.” She and Powell have terrific chemistry, with Powell finding Gatsby’s bravado and his boyish longing. But when Daisy and husband Tom come together for “The Damage That You Do,” a soaring duet in which they recognize each other for who they really are, we understand why their fates are sealed.
Pfeiffer, as Myrtle, is also much more nuanced, not to mention her astonishing vocal power. As she goes from throwing off inhibitions in the first act to finally escaping her marriage in the second, she confronts her husband with the wrenching ballad “What of Love, What of God.”
While these couples revolve around Nick, two other characters get breakout moments. As Meyer Wolfsheim, Gatsby’s patron and underworld boss, Adam Grupper is a revelation. His boozy friendliness with Nick only hints at his ruthlessness. His solo, “Feels Like Hell,” clearly defines the elusive chase for the American Dream — “So make it look like heaven, but it feels like hell” — and then it opens up into a show-stopping production number with a soft-shoe routine, no less, with Grupper scat-singing at the song’s end (note to sound mixer: Do not let the orchestra drown out this gasp-inducing moment). The other breakout moment comes from Matthew Amira, as Myrtle’s cuckolded husband, Wilson, who crushes any last spark of hope of redemption for these characters with “America, She Breaks.”
Welch’s ability to elegantly work some quotes from the book into her song lyrics, balanced by Majok’s clear-eyed view of the hurdles involved in chasing “success,” driven by Chavkin’s imaginative direction and Tayeh’s endlessly flowing choreography, expose the heart and fragility of this moment in time, providing a cautionary tale about “reaching for the light, always wanting more.”
GATSBY
Music by Florence Welch and Thomas Bartlett, lyrics by Florence Welch. Book by Martyna Majok, based on the novel “The Great Gatsby” by F. Scott Fitzgerald. Directed by Rachel Chavkin. Choreography by Sonya Tayeh. At American Repertory Theater at the Loeb Drama Center. Through Aug. 3. $85-$275. 617-547-8300, americanrepertorytheater.org/shows-events/gatsby/