Northern Ballet/The Great Gatsby, Sadler's Wells - dance review

David Nixon's production moves at a pace but the feel is less raw and roaring decadence, more politely Poirot
The Great gatsby, NORTHERN BALLET:Jay Gatsby; TOBIAS BATLEY,Daisy Buchanan; MARTHA LEEBOLT, Myrtle Wilson; VICTORIA SIBSON, Tom Buchanan; KENNETH TINDALL,Nick Carraway; GIULIANO CONTADINI, Jodan Baker; HANNAH BATEMAN, George Wilson; BENJAMIN MITCHELL, Young Daisy; MICHELA PAOLACCI, Young Gatsby; JEREMY CURNIER,
Bill Cooper
Lyndsey Winship15 May 2013

Northern Ballet couldn't be any more on trend with their version of The Great Gatsby on stage in London the same week Baz Luhrmann's film opens. It's likely both will be accused of the same thing: not really getting to grips with the complex, bitter underbelly of F Scott Fitzgerald's cautionary tale of the American dream.

David Nixon's production moves at a pace but the feel is less raw and roaring decadence, more politely Poirot — the flapper look is elegantly understated and the soundtrack a patchwork of jazzy Richard Rodney Bennett. Nixon glides through scenes (read the book, or at least the synopsis, if you want to keep up), weaving in Gatsby’s memories of lost love with the party-centric here and now.

Martha Leebolt, as Daisy, wears the pasted-on smile of an unhappily married woman keeping up appearances; as her brutish husband, Kenneth Tindall is a compelling dancer with both clout and control; and Tobias Batley’s Gatsby remains a lone unknowable figure. Victoria Sibson brings the fizz as Myrtle and has a great scene with Benjamin Mitchell as her cuckolded husband, playing out his frustrations in heartfelt acrobatics.

There are poignant moments but dance just can’t deal with the subtle specifics of prose, leaving this show with a hollowness much like Gatsby’s "great" life.

Until Saturday (0844 413 4200, sadlerswells.com)

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