THE HANGOVER REPORT – Elevator Repair Service’s rightfully legendary GATZ returns to New York

Scott Shepherd leads Elevator Repair Service's "Gatz" at NYU Skirball. Photo by Mark Barton.

Scott Shepherd leads Elevator Repair Service’s “Gatz” at NYU Skirball. Photo by Mark Barton.

This weekend, I caught the rightfully legendary production of Gatz, Elevator Repair Service’s audacious, hugely theatrical (set in a drab, oppressive office space, of all places!) verbatim staging of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s classic American Jazz Age novel The Great Gatsby. The piece has become a signature piece for ERS, having toured the show extensively over the years. Indeed, after its handful of performances at NYU Skirball, the production is slated to move on to McCarter Theatre in Princeton, NJ.

I had perviously seen Gatz way back in 2008 – the production premiered in 2006 – when the show played Chicago’s Museum of Contemporary Art. As an impressionable younger theatergoer, I remember being staggered by the epic, durational aspect of the experience. In total, the production is an all-day affair, clocking in at approximately eight hours, with two intermissions and an extended dinner break. This time around, I marveled at the endless parade of delicious theatrical flourishes, particularly its sophisticated understanding of irony and honesty, as well as its meta-theatrical musings (e.g., when does storytelling become reality?).

Now as then, the central role of Nick Carraway (the novel is told from his perspective) is played by Scott Shepherd. It’s a truly astonishing performance that’s simultaneously unassuming and titanic. There’s a geniality and fleetness to his work that seductively, with quiet confidence, draws the audience into the intoxicating, unsustainable world that is the Roaring Twenties. He really is the ideal narrator and an inherently masterful storyteller. Although I’ve singled out Mr. Shepherd, the entire company, many of whom have been associated with the show for a while (like the absolutely terrific Jim Fletcher as Jay Gatsby), works at his level of rigor and commitment. Seeing them pull Gatz off again a decade on was a wonder.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

 

GATZ
Off-Broadway, Play
Elevator Repair Service at NYU Skirball
Approximately 8 hours (with two intermissions and an extended dinner break)
Through February 3

Categories: Off-Broadway, Theater

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