New York: first Full Day, Central Park and The Great GAtsby

5/6/2024

Central Park

I made instant oatmeal with cuties and hot chai for my in the room breakfast but I didn't have anything for creamer, so the tea was not good. Then we went downstairs to the cafe for a $15 quiche lorraine and a cafe Americano. Sylvan got orange juice and a breakfast sandwich that he only ate half of, saving the other half for later.

Central Park is beautiful but it was already so hot and muggy even first thing in the morning. NYC is only ten degrees further south in latitude than London but it's so much hotter here. The temp was in the 60s this morning but it felt more like the 80s. We saw the carousel that was in Stuart Little, and the fountain from Friends, as well as the Castle, which overlooks the Shakespeare in the Park stage. I was really surprised to find out that Central Park is completely man-made and that it was originally a big swamp. You can read about its history here. We did 12,000 steps before noon. We were so hot and tired that when we got back to the hotel, we had very cold showers first, then had a picnic lunch on our beds and took a nap!

After our naps, I went downstairs and got a $15 spinach and chicken salad from Fresh and Co for supper. Sylvan at the rest of his sandwich and OJ for supper. Then we headed out to take the Metro to the theatre. The metro is much harder to navigate than the Tube is in London. Also, it's dirtier, with more homeless people, and stinkier, and less musicians busking for dollars. The one nice thing over the Tube is that you don't have to tap out when you get to your stop.

The Great Gatsby, The Broadway Theatre

I had to read the book three times between HS and college, and I never liked it or understood it. This show was snubbed by the Tony awards and I totally understand why. This book doesn't translate well to a musical. However, this version turned all the nuance that I missed reading it, into songs, so for the first time I actually got the point of it. But the first time we meet Gatsby he sings a torch song that basically says, I did it all for Daisy! The songs were utterly forgettable. The chorus danced up a storm with two tap numbers during one scene and a seemingly endless amount of costume changes. Jeremy Jordan played Gatsby and Eva Noblezada (originated the role of Eurydice in Hadestown) played Daisy.

Costume Design by Linda Cho

Linda Cho won a Tony for her costume designs in Great Gatsby, this is her third Tony win. She previously won for Anastasia and Gentlemen's Guide to Love and Murder. You can read her credits here: She did her MFA at Yale School of Drama and graduated in 1998. Her BA is in Psychology and she has a certificate in Fashion from a school in Paris. Tony award winner Linda Cho talks about the costumes in Great Gatsby in the video below.

Scenery by Paul Tate DePoo IIi

You can check out Paul's website here.
He has a BFA in production design and engineering from Boston University. He is a Cuban-American.

The scenery was mostly projected. It was very art deco. The front of the stage going down into the pit was dressed and lit like an indoor swimming pool. There were two cars, Gatsby's yellow Rolls Royce and Tom's blue coupe. I wondered if they were really two different cars or just two "costumes" for one golf cart. I found out when I read this Interview with the scenic designer for Architectural Digest, Paul Tate dePoo III, that there are two cars and they did start out as golf carts.