Elevator Repair Service's GATZ Returns To The Public Theater In November

The Public Theater will present the final New York City encore presentation of Elevator Repair Service's critically acclaimed GATZ based on The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald. More than a decade after the last time the epic played at The Public, the production will once again bring this creative retelling of a classic to a new generation of audiences.

Performances for the strictly limited run will begin in the Newman Theater on Friday, November 1 and run through Sunday, December 1. This iteration of GATZ opens on Friday, November 8. 

Ahead of the centennial of The Great Gatsby's publication and more than a decade after its original Obie and Lortel Award-winning engagements, Elevator Repair Service's GATZ returns to The Public for a thrilling and final New York City encore of the acclaimed production. One morning in the office of a mysterious small business, an employee finds a copy of The Great Gatsby in the clutter of his desk. He starts to read it out loud and doesn't stop. At first his coworkers hardly notice. But after a series of strange coincidences, it's no longer clear whether he's reading the book, or the book is transforming him. Told over a single 6 1/2-hour production created by Elevator Repair Service and directed by Elevator Repair Service Artistic Director John Collins, GATZ is not a retelling of the Gatsby story but an enactment of the entire novel. Fitzgerald's American masterpiece is delivered word for word, startlingly brought to life by a low-rent office staff amid their inscrutable business operations. An event not to be missed and a last chance to see this theatrical and literary tour de force by one of the American theater's most exciting and inventive companies.

“The whole GATZ company is utterly thrilled to be returning to The Public Theater, a home for Elevator Repair Service and especially for GATZ for 14 years,” shares Artistic Director of ERS and director of GATZ John Collins. “This run is a celebration, not just of our most successful show, but of the most fruitful and welcoming partnership in our 33-year history.”

The cast of GATZ includes Laurena Allan, Frank Boyd, Jim Fletcher, Ross Fletcher, Maggie Hoffman, Mike Iveson, Vin Knight, Annie McNamara, Scott Shepherd, Pete Simpson, Susie Sokol, Tory Vazquez, and Ben Jalosa Williams.

The production will include original scenic design by Louisa Thompson, costume design by Colleen Werthmann, lighting design by Mark Barton, and sound design by Ben Jalosa Williams. Mo Lioce will be the production stage manager and Jack Ganguly will be the stage manager.

“GATZ is one of the most thrilling, beautiful and unique pieces of theater we have ever produced. After its initial run in 2010, we were forced to bring it back in a larger theater for a longer run, and it is now returning for an unprecedented third (and final!) time,” says Artistic Director Oskar Eustis. “After almost twenty years of performances, the Gatz ensemble will take its final bows in New York City, so this may be your last chance to see one of the defining theater pieces of this century. Don't miss it!”

The Public's 2024-2025 Season began with the North American premiere of COUNTING AND CRACKING, a Belvoir St Theatre and Kurinji co-production of the epic play written and associate directed by S. Shakthidharan and directed and associate written by Eamon Flack, which just completed its run at NYU Skirball. Currently running at The Public's home on Astor Place is the New York premiere of GOOD BONES, a sharp, funny new work about gentrification and the growing price of the American dream written by Pulitzer Prize winner James Ijames and directed by The Public's Associate Artistic Director/Resident Director Saheem Ali. Next, Australian playwright David Finnigan brings his play DEEP HISTORY, an urgent and personal retelling of how we've reached the brink of unthinkable climate disaster, to New York. 

Tied to the upcoming 2024 Election, The Public will also present a series of programming entitled THE POLITICS OF NOW, which will include week-long presentations of THE FORD/HILL PROJECT (a Waterwell production co-presented by The Public and Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company) and GUAC, written and performed by Manuel Oliver. There will also be a one-night-only free screening of Theater on Podil's production of Richard Nelson's CONVERSATIONS IN TUSCULUM in Kyiv, Ukraine.

With Ma-Yi Theater Company and La Jolla Playhouse, The Public kicks off 2025 with SUMO, a mesmerizing new drama set in the sacred world of Sumo wrestling by Lisa Sanaye Dring. The Astor Place season concludes with GLASS. KILL. WHAT IF IF ONLY. IMP., a quartet of inventive plays written by groundbreaking playwright Caryl Churchill and directed by James Macdonald. Finally, the season will conclude with the New York Premiere of GODDESS, a new musical and a rousing tale of romance, the supernatural, and the quest towards one's truest self. The production is conceived and directed by Associate Artistic Director/Resident Director Saheem Ali, features music and lyrics by Michael Thurber, a book by Tony Award nominee Jocelyn Bioh, and choreography by Darrell Grand Moultrie. The Public will also produce a world premiere audio play of LET'S KEEP DANCING: A Death Row Story by John Purugganan about two souls fighting to survive death row.

Following a significant revitalization, The Delacorte Theater, home of Free Shakespeare in the Park, will reopen in Summer 2025 with a production of Shakespeare's classic comedy TWELFTH NIGHT, also directed by The Public's Associate Artistic Director/Resident Director, Tony Award nominee Saheem Ali, and featuring an all-star cast of Public Theater alumni, including Peter Dinklage, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Lupita Nyong'o, Sandra Oh, and more to be announced soon. 

The Library serves food and drink beginning at 6:00 p.m. and closing at midnight. The Library is closed on Mondays. During the dinner break of GATZ, The Library will be offering a three-course meal for $45. For more information and to make a reservation, visit publictheater.org.