Gatsby: An American Myth is a brilliant literary adaptation. it asks: if we bring to the forefront many of the parts that are implied or hinted at in the text, how does that change how we view it?
if Nick and Jordan are undeniably queer, if Gatsby is actually white-passing and not white, if Myrtle and George’s briefly-possibly-alluded-to lost child is actually talked about, how much sharper does the book’s critique of the “lost” American dream get?
this musical refuses to let you ignore the nuances of these characters that were (more or less) *already present* in the book.
Daisy is absolutely a victim, but she is *also* a wealthy white woman who is willing to (literally) throw a working class woman under the bus (car) for her own safety, and who is willing to let a man of color face the consequences of her actions. Tom tricking George isn’t exclusively about getting rid of Gatsby, but also about a wealthy white man setting two marginalized characters against each other so that he doesn’t have to deal with them.
when we get to the end, when we meet Gatsby’s dad and learn that he’s Indigenous, when we contend with how disproportionately the violence impacts marginalized people, the conclusion is no longer that the American dream is lost or broken, but that it was a stolen thing to begin with.
I am sure there are political critiques I (or others) could / will make, but on first impression, I am blown away by how far it went with displaying the horror of the American machine.
