Jim Fletcher - about to take to the OtB stage in Lasagna - made his first appearance here as Jay Gatsby in Elevator Repair Service's Gatz. Unwinding with the company after each 7 1/2 hour show was always an experience, as evidenced by this photo from their final night of karaoke at Ozzie's.

Lane gets freaky with Gatsby, Myrtle and Jordan while singing and slummin' at Ozzie's in West Egg.

Posted by Tania

i saw the elevator repair service
perform the great gatsby tonight
at on the boards.
perform, perhaps, does not describe it.
they read.
the entire.
book.
from beginning to end.
starting at 5pm and reading that last
beautifully alliterate line about boats
and pasts and inevitability until 1:15
in the fucking morning.
hardcore.
and a whole big audience strapped
in for the ride, like we were about
to get on the plane that was going
to take us on vacation to that
island in the caribean (or however
you spell that goddam word) where
shitty theatre is against the law and
there is

Welcome to our patron reviews for Gatz. Read the reviews below or click on the Comments button to read the comments of others and post your own thoughts.

Why do this? The Great Gatsby in its entirety - set in some office that feels more like an excuse of place, than a necessary part of the storytelling. Does it provide me with some new understanding of office politics? Are human beings all searching for that elusive American Dream, especially those working in dingy offices? Are they screaming for a better life, or compromising with every breath and wondering why the Dream has slipped through their grasp? Why this place? Why now? How is the human condition illuminated by Elevator Repair Service’s Gatz?

(I should say a quick hello of introduction to the Blog the Boards devotees—long time/first time, as the kids say on the call-in radio shows. And I happen to be the new On the Boards development director. Is it trial by fire to have my first blog post be on the 7 hour+ show? Maybe. But I think I can hang.)

I’m going to work from the outside in—from what it feels like to have people converging on the theater at 4:30 on a Friday, each with a glint in his or her eye that said there’s something different happening here...

It sounds like a stunt -- and it is, but you soon join the spirit of it. You also fall out of it occasionally, but Gatz cajoles you back in with a sly gesture or a moment when Fitzgerald's novel is translated into surprising sideways theatricality. A few moments feel forced or jokey -- when a bit of razzle-dazzle seems to happen out of nervousness on the part of the actors or director -- but strikingly few. The vast majority of six hours plus unfolds as naturally and organically as a flower.

Download and have a listen to an mp3 audio interview with ERS's artistic director John Collins, as he talks about the creation and presentation of Gatz.