Theater Review: 'The Great Gatsby' At Bay Street

Somewhere after the first half hour of “The Great Gatsby” it occurred to me that the story really can’t be turned into a theatrical production, whether on stage or in film.

The is the third time I’d seen someone transform the story of the insouciant excesses of the morally adrift uber wealthy and the wreckage (as well as a body) they leave behind, and unhappily none of them have succeeded. That was unfortunately the case with the current production in the Literature Live! series at Bay Street Theater in Sag Harbor with a worthy try written by celebrated theatrical director and playwright Simon Levy.

The other two times I’d seen it turned into drama were the big-budget productions of the movies, with the lavish Jazz Age parties of the mysterious Gatsby done with over-the-top dissipation that were wondrous to watch. But even Robert Redford in 1974 and Leonardo DiCaprio in 2013—though both are charmingly wonderful as the self-made millionaire Gatsby—could not fully carry the story from the page to the screen and make you want to stand up and shout.

Alas, the same was true with Charlie Westfal, who ran away with every scene he was in as Mercutio during a recent production of “Romeo and Juliet” at Guild Hall. Here he’s rather stiff in the lead role, as if he himself doesn’t quite believe any red-blooded war hero—now fabulously wealthy to boot—would be so besotted by the flighty, careless but beautiful trophy mate Daisy Buchanan. Sara Carolynn Kennedy nimbly fills the role with the wide-eyed emptiness it calls for, a bell-of-the-ball Daisy with a heart as hard as a diamond.

By the time we meet the pair of star-crossed lovers, she’s married to a vulgar thug (Tom Buchanan) with riches all his own—which is how he stole the body and soul of the flibbertigibbet Daisy. He roped her in with a fabulous string of pearls, long enough, and expensive enough, to make her forget all about that dashing lieutenant who stole her heart before he went off to the war. Now it’s five years later, she and Tom are married and already have a child about whom Daisy appears to care little.

Overall the acting is of the same rather swell quality we’ve come to expect of the Literature Live! annual production for middle and high school students: John Kroft is Nick Carraway, the story’s narrator and moral center, a Midwestern Greek chorus in tweeds; Dan Fenaughty is Tom Buchanan; Amanda Kristin Nichols is Tom’s trashy, sassy back-street lover, Myrtle Wilson; Scott T. Hinson in the dual roles of the sort of men rich folk hang with; Stephanie Turci, also filling two roles, one a casual flapper with a penchant for photographs, and a neighbor who sees the car crash that takes the life of poor Myrtle.

Two deserve to be singled out. Alexandra Kopko as Jordan Baker, a golfer and Daisy’s somewhat morally adrift friend, brings the production fully alive when she’s on stage. Chauncy Thomas as George Wilson, Myrtle’s husband and a gas station owner, has the kind of agility and grace to whom your eyes wander when there’s a stage full of dancers. Mr. Thomas also gave a noteworthy performance in a Literature Live! production a few years back in “To Kill a Mockingbird.”

Many lines in this “Gatsby” are taken directly from the novel, particularly those of Nick Carraway. The same cannot be true of the scenes in which Gatsby and Daisy address one another, as they almost never speak to one another in the book. “Gatsby” was inspired by the parties and excesses Fitzgerald witnessed in the 1920s on Long Island’s so-called Gold Coast—as well as presumably some of the vacuous types the Midwestern Fitzgerald encountered at Princeton, which he attended. At that time, Princeton still retained the flavor of an elite school for upper-class Southern gentlemen. Here the school becomes Yale. Nick Carraway reflects Fitzgerald’s own outsider vibe, as both are from St. Paul.

The production qualities of this particular adaption of Fitzgerald’s best-known novel are superb, from the projections on the back stage to the creamy costuming of the Roaring Twenties. Credit goes to Mike Billings (scenic and lighting design) and Brian C. Staton (projection design); Melanie Clifton-Harvey (costumes); and Stephanie Vertichio (choreography). This staging involves numerous set changes with furniture that is rolled off and on with aplomb by the cast themselves, and happen so quickly the speedy production loses none of its verve.

Yes, as directed by Joe Minutillo—who has directed several of the Literature Live shows—this “Gatsby” has a certain vitality that will especially please the teenage audience for whom these productions are designed. “Gatsby” is the 10th production in as many years and some 3,600 students from Long Island will be bussed in to see it.

Like the original novel, “Gatsby” has infidelity, the flouting of prohibitions when the sale of alcohol was illegal, the casual and cruel treatment of the less fortunate by the filthy rich, and an overt reference to the “Nordic” (aka white) superiority that is reminiscent of the not-so-hidden racism that has once again openly emerged in our culture. “The Great Gatsby” was an excellent choice for these times, and the kids will love it for both the energy on stage and the darkness of the story.

As did the opening night audience who gave it a standing ovation.

Yet despite their enthusiasm for this production, there is some magic lacking on the stage that comes to life—and believability—on the written page. Perhaps it is the overall poetry in the writing that doesn’t quite translate to drama with performers. When Daisy goes gaga over the voluminous and colorful pile of Gatsby’s shirts and they flow about the stage—which every production to date includes—it does seem, well, stagy and pointless, rather than an incisive insight into Daisy’s utterly vacuous and mercenary mind. By then we already know she’s an airhead with her eye firmly planted on the dollar, and I was simply looking forward to the end.

Public performances of “The Great Gatsby” will continue Thursday, November 15, through Saturday, November 17, and from Friday, November 23, to Sunday, November 25, at Bay Street Theater in Sag Harbor. Tickets range from $20 to $55. Call 631-725-9500 or visit baystreet.org.