Photo Flash: Inside Rehearsals for GATSBY: A NEW MUSICAL at NY Summerfest 2019

Rehearsals for GATSBY: A New Musical, a satirical musical adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby that will make its New York City premiere at the Hudson Guild Theater on September 10th, 14th, and 15th, are well under way at Shetler Studios.

The cast of 11 is lead by Linae' Bullock as Daisy, Matheus Ting as Nick, Steven Czajkowski as Gatsby, and Laura Hetherington as Jordan. Rounding out the company are Andreas Schmidt as Tom, Rhetta Mykeal as Myrtle, Marcia Becher as Wolfsheim, Patrick Clark as Wilson, Bill Wetherbee as Klipspringer/Henry Gatz, Shelley L. Mitchell as Adolfa/Catherine, and Bradley Lewis as Jethro. Directed by Danielle Moore, who was awarded the University of Pennsylvania Office of the Provost's Year of Innovation Grant to lead a student workshop of the project in 2018, GATSBY offers a fresh take on a story many of us know well - or, so we think."Gatsby is known as the 'Great American Novel,'" says Moore, who adapted and co-composed the piece with University of Michigan student Jacob Ryan Smith. "And in many respects, it is." But there are far more peculiarities of the classic tale of fatal romance on Long Island's golden coast, Moore contends, than we realize when encountering the story for the first time in school.

"For starters, it's this whiplash fusion of genres," she says, referring to the story's tonal influences, which jump from literary bildungsroman to film noir, "hardboiled" detective fiction, and even dime novels.

"And that's before you even begin to consider the parallels to what is going on in our country today, as well as the ludicrousness of the highly codified verbiage of the roaring '20s - an era that we, in retrospect, think of as being completely unhinged." A prime example of this coded language in Gatsby: "There are at least three extra-marital liaisons that take place over the course of the story, involving totally different couples, and yet the word 'sex' is not mentioned even once in the book."

Instead, Fitzgerald chose to pepper his writing with flowery metaphors - many of which, quite literally, involve flowers - a feature of the beloved novel that this production pokes fun at with a Gatsby-Daisy love duet that rhymes increasingly obscure plant names. It's the perfect example of the show's critical, yet affectionate, take on the work that it satirizes, as well as the way in which the musical theater form itself contributes to the commentary.

Other numbers in the musical, which features 14 original songs, include "Shrill Metallic Urgency" (an adult twist on "Telephone Hour") "Beautiful Fool," (a jazzy lament on the gendered double standards faced by the story's female characters) and "Old Sport" -a show-stopper that colors Gatsby's checkered past, and gambler associates, through a pastiche homage to the history of musical theater showmanship that tips its hat to everything from Gilbert & Sullivan to Bob Fosse.

GATSBY is produced by Mikey Miller in association with Green Light Group Productions, LLC. The show is music directed by Sara Linger and stage managed by Joe Heike, and will play at the New York Theater Festival's NY Summerfest at the Hudson Guild Theater on September 10th at 6:15 p.m., September 14th at 9 p.m., and September 15th at 1:30 p.m. Tickets are $23, and can be purchased via Brown Paper Tickets.

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