The Great Gatsby – from the page to ballet stage

So constant has been the appeal of Fitzgerald’s relatively short work of prose fiction that it has, since the 1920s forward, been the subject of an extraordinary array of adaptations for the stage, cinema, TV and, even, a number of video games.

In the 21st century, our culture’s love affair with the novel has continued with such high-profile adaptations as Baz Luhrmann’s 2013 movie (starring Leonardo DiCaprio as the reculsive multi-millionaire, and secret bootlegger, Jay Gatsby) and, in the same year, choreographer David Nixon’s staging of Gatsby for Leeds-based Northern Ballet. The latter – which has enjoyed critical acclaim and audience adulation during its numerous outings throughout the last decade – begins its latest revival at Edinburgh’s Festival Theatre on Thursday.

Fitzgerald’s tale presents both great challenges and fabulous opportunities for ballet. Told from the perspective of bond dealer Nick Carraway – who has recently moved into the well-to-do Long Island community where Gatsby lives in a palatial mansion – it has a complex narrative involving interconnected personal histories, illicit sexual affairs and a number of different locations. 

Those locations – which include Gatsby’s grand home and the much less salubrious New York City apartment where Long Island millionaire Tom Buchanan conducts his clandestine sexual trysts – present any stage designer with a welcome test of their visual imagination. In addition to that, the iconi c music and dance of the period is a gift for a ballet maker such as Nixon.

Fitzgerald’s novel “offers escapism”, says the Canadian choreographer, who has been artistic director of Northern Ballet since 2001. “We have such a fantasy about what the 1920s were, in terms of partying and the kind of freedom that people felt,” he continues. 

“It’s a hundred years ago, but it’s still very relevant in terms of how people behave. All the characters in the novel are very real people.”
This, perhaps, is the essence of The Great Gatsby’s success, from the moment it was first published in 1925 right up to the present day. The novel offers the best of both worlds. 

It has, on the one hand, the glamour, music, dance and partying we associate with the United States, and much of the Western world, in the 1920s. On the other, it depicts the criminality, deceit, violence and sexual peccadillos that are embedded in the human experience. 
Fitzgerald’s characters “aren’t sugary people”, Nixon says. “They all have these flaws. 

“I think that’s appealing as well, to sit there and watch people who aren’t perfect. [That’s especially true] in a world we have right now, where people are pretty imperfect.”

In terms of it resurfacing in our culture, the choreographer observes that The Great Gatsby “seems to arrive at times when we need that escapism. The world is pretty dark at the moment”.  

“I think going out to the theatre for two hours and going to a few parties that are on-stage, and seeing something of a love story, is still very appealing to the audience at large.”

Fitzgerald’s novel is inseparably connected with the concept of the “Roaring Twenties”. In cultural terms this evokes the distinctive visual aesthetics of Art Deco and, in music, the age of jazz.  

The period is also synonymous, as Nixon points out, with a very particular dance style.“A key element of the Twenties was the Charleston,” he says.
Whenever the choreographer is looking for a story for a new dance work, it is crucial, he says, that, “people have to be able to imagine it as a ballet. With The Great Gatsby, they can.” 

Audiences embrace Fitzgerald’s story, he comments, because it is, “something that can translate into dance,” They also embrace Northern Ballet’s staging because, “it can offer a different perspective on the novel.”

It’s hardly surprising, given the enduring appeal of Fitzgerald’s tale, that The Great Gatsby has turned up trumps for Northern Ballet. “It’s always been very successful with audiences,” Nixon says, “and we’ve always done very well at the box office.”  

Reviewing the show at the Lowry Centre in Salford back in 2019, I was impressed by how successfully Nixon and his company had navigated the narrative complexities of the novel. Like the book, it tells the story from the perspective of Carraway. It does so with a narrative economy that is essential to ballet.

Needless to say, Nixon’s choreography excels in its representation of the opulent and stylish parties that occur in Fitzgerald’s story. The sense of glamour and decadence is evoked brilliantly in the big dance scenes that involve the entire company of dancers.

The unadulterated escapism of those party scenes was a major factor in Northern Ballet’s decision to bring their Gatsby back when the theatres began to emerge from their period of Covid-enforced closure. 

“Coming back from the pandemic, we had to think about what audiences need,” says Nixon. “Some people talked about doing Covid ballets.
“We’ve been living with Covid,” he continues. “Personally, I don’t want to go to the theatre at the moment and see that. I want to go to the theatre and feel like I’m somewhere else.”

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Northern Ballet specialises in bold, new works in the grand tradition of narrative dance. From its evocation of the life of Casanova to George Orwell’s 1984, the company has succeeded in its quest to take audiences to brilliantly-imagined other worlds.

Its Gatsby stands entirely in that tradition. Nixon puts the success of the show down, in large part, to the sheer enthusiasm of his dancers for the piece.

“The company loves to perform it,” he says. “They love doing those party scenes and they love the characters. 

“That made me think, if our company is bringing to the stage something that they enjoy so much, that’s something that’s going to be conveyed across the orchestra pit to the audience. I feel, right now, that people need to be uplifted. 

“They need to feel that they can escape what we’re facing in the world at the moment. From that perspective,” he adds, Gatsby “feels like a really good choice” as a Northern Ballet revival. 

Nixon’s logic seems unarguable. It will, one suspects, be attested to by excellent ticket sales and appreciative audiences in Edinburgh next week.

For his part, the choreographer is delighted to be taking the show out on the road again, beginning in Edinburgh, and moving on to Milton Keynes and Cardiff. Starting the mini-tour in Scotland’s capital is particularly pleasing for him.

“I’m most happy that we’re opening it at the Festival Theatre in Edinburgh,” Nixon says. “It’s such a great theatre, I love the audiences there, and it’s a big stage, a flat stage. For us, it’s going to be a wonderful place to start the tour.”

There is something special for the Canadian about bringing back a successful ballet. “What’s wonderful about revivals is that the piece itself matures through time,” he observes.

“New dancers build upon the experience of the dancers before them,” he continues. This is particularly true, he says, of Joseph Taylor, who will dance the role of Gatsby on opening night in Edinburgh. 

The dancer’s elevation to the lead in this ballet has been a major talking point in the rehearsal studio. 

“It felt like such a big deal in the run-through the other day,” Nixon remembers. “Joe started off as Daisy’s butler in this ballet. He’s seen the casts of Gatsbys, and he’s played [car mechanic and husband of Tom Buchanan’s lover, Myrtle] George Wilson, and Tom, and I think he was, at one point, learning Nick. 

“Now he’s finally doing Gatsby. He’s been on that journey.” 
It’s almost a decade since Nixon’s Gatsby first took to the stage, and he has never been happier with it. Dancers, such as Taylor, who played minor roles in the ballet earlier in their career, have now graduated to dancing the major parts. 

Earlier generations of dancers who have, Nixon says, “performed this ballet beautifully”, have now become permanent members of the company. Consequently, he adds, “now the performances are even richer. I’m really thrilled with how we’re performing it.”

The Great Gatsby is at the Festival Theatre, Edinburgh from Thursday until Saturday. For further information and tickets, visit: northernballet.com