OLD CHAP Leonardo DiCaprio as Jay Gatsby in the 2013 film version of “The Great Gatsby.”
‘RICH GIRLS DON’T MARRY POOR BOYS’
“The Great Gatsby” as a Broadway musical? Be still, my heart.
It’s sure to be a thing of beauty – or, as seasoned theatergoers always fear, an unmitigated disaster. Music and lyrics are by Florence Welch (of Florence + The Machine) and Thomas Bartlett. The book is by Martyna Majok.
The plot, based on F. Scott Fitzgerald’s classic 1920s novel and set in Jazz Age Long Island, is about one golden boy’s plan to reconnect with the girl he loved in his youth. It didn’t work out the first time because, as Daisy tearfully tells Jay Gatsby, “Rich girls don’t marry poor boys.”
So, he decides, he’ll just get rich. And buy a house across the bay from hers. And give a lot of parties. And wait. And ignore the fact that she’s married to another man now.
The most recent film versions starred Robert Redford and Mia Farrow (1974) and Leonardo DiCaprio and Carey Mulligan (2013).
We’re seeing AARON TVEIT (in photo) as Gatsby. After “Hairspray!,” “Next to Normal,” “Wicked,” “Catch Me if You Can” and “Moulin Rouge!,” he’s more than ready. And doesn’t that background look like Gatsby’s Long Island Sound “backyard”?
Tveit is 37 (born Oc. 21, 1983) and a small-town New Yorker. In his hometown, Middletown in the Hudson Valley, the tallest skyscraper is a church spire. His character name on “Gossip Girl,” one of his earlier roles, was Trip van der Bilt. His new series, “Schmigadoon” (which has its premiere in July) is about a magical town where everybody seems to believe they’re living in a 1940s musical. Perfect.
And we’d love CAREY MULLIGAN again –as Daisy (but she’s basically stated that she’d rather have a chainsaw pedicure every night at 8 than sing onstage).
Meanwhile, we can watch her again in “Promising Young Woman” and hope that she’ll do a straight play on Broadway soon.
Mulligan was born in London and will turn 36 in late May.
So I’m pulling for CELIA KEENAN-BOLGER (in photo with pre-bobbed, flapper-chic hair), which may seem like casting against type. (I know! Can’t you easily see her as Daisy’s gal-pal Jordan, who cheats at golf?) But any actress who can do Scout in “To Kill a Mockingbird,” Laura in “The Glass Menagerie” and Olive in “The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee” can probably show us something new in Daisy. On so many levels.
Keenan-Bolger, 43, was born in Detroit and studied theater at the University of Michigan. She won a Tony for playing a 6-to-9-year-old Southern girl in “Mockingbird.”
TWO HANDSOME P.O.W.’S AND A OUIJA BOARD
SETTING: A remote Turkish prisoner-of-war camp during World War I.
CASTING: “Find me a young Richard Burton and a young Mel Gibson — no, a young Bryan Brown. Didn’t he play a sheep-station guy in ‘Thorn Birds’?”.
WE DON’T EVEN KNOW whether Broadway has bought “The Confidence Men” (Random House, 2021), Margalit Fox’s newest true-life thriller, about “the most remarkable escape in history.” The book’s official publication date isn’t until June 1.
But there it is: the story of Harry Jones, a refined, educated young Welsh-Scottish lawyer, and Cedric Hill, a rough-edged Australian sheep-station mechanic with ambition, who find themselves fellow prisoners of war..
Onscreen, it could be a buddy film. Onstage and Off Broadway, it could almost be a budget-friendly two-hander. Except you need someone to play the Ottoman official who wants their help in finding treasure buried nearby. And you need a few other prisoners to show that the bored, gullible men really believe secrets can be revealed by a homemade Ouija board
We’re still not sure about the right actor for Cedric. That whole description about the big ears limits things (or calls for prosthetics).
But for Harry, how about LUKE EVANS, a native of Pontypool, Wales, who moved to Cardiff? He became a veteran of the West End stage (“Rent,” “Piaf” and others).
APOLOGIES: An earlier version of this post referred to the character Cedric Hill as Cedric Hall. And there is some debate about how rough-edged he is.
CASTAWAY Jennifer Holliday (seated, center, in pink) played Effie in the 1981 Broadway production of “Dreamgirls.” Jennifer Hudson played the role in the film. Who will follow in their footsteps?
‘WE’RE GONNA MAKE YOU THREE GIRLS BIG STARS — WELL, MAYBE TWO OF YOU’
A REVIVAL OF “DREAMGIRLS” is on the way, and the role that always grabs people’s attention is Effie, played by Jennifer Holliday in the original 1981 Broadway production and by Jennifer Hudson in the 2006 movie.
Henry Krieger and Tom Eyen’s a-pop-star-group-is-born musical is inspired by the Supremes, who made Motown explode with hits like “Stop! In the Name of Love” and “Where Did Our Love Go?” in the 1960s. The eleven o’clock number, even if it’s sung in Act I, has always been Effie’s “And I Am Telling You I’m Not Going,” Her boyfriend has just announced that he’s breaking up with her, and her response is clear: “No, you’re not.”
Because skin color and body type are crucial to plot and theme, Jennifers Aniston, Lopez, Lawrence, Garner and McCarthy will not be auditioning. Variety proposed a solution a year ago: Producers couldn’t go wrong with ALEX NEWELL. Newell _(in photo), 28, is Mo on “Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist,” a former cast member on “Glee,” a native of Massachusetts and, yes, a trans woman. “He goes by all pronouns,” Wikipedia advises us.