2023 - 2024 Broadway Musical Logos: The Great Gatsby

The first (and likely several more) Broadway musical version of The Great Gatsby began previews last week. Does the show's artwork live up to the promise of the classic novel upon which it is based?

2023 - 2024 Broadway Musical Logos:

The Great Gatsby

It is certainly fortuitous that this Roaring Twenties musical is playing the Broadway Theatre, with its art deco style facade. To that end, the chosen show art looks fantastic on the building. The gold and black of the logo works well with the theater's silver and black sign framing, and the green lit accents play into the novel's symbol of the green light - a siren of longing and desire, not to mention the color of money (as is gold and silver for that matter). To the ticket buyer in the neighborhood, this is certainly an eye-catcher.

The shiny, metallic gold color, with certain points glitter against black does look good on the Playbill, and, one assumes, will look good on t-shirts, magnets and window cards. The font evokes the elegance and class of a bygone era. And the meaningful addition of that green beacon of light on the "t" is a nice touch. The logo itself is perfectly fine, if not, well, obvious. 

As a fan of the book, I like it, though I can't help thinking that they could have been a touch more creative. Maybe they could have added some art deco style figures that represent more of the story? Maybe they could have added something, anything, that could portray that this is a musical, and therefore, not just the novel we all read in high school. (The small print tagline "A New Musical" is by now so typical it could go completely unnoticed.)

One hopes that the production works a little harder to differentiate itself from the source. Jay Gatsby and company deserve first class, thoughtful treatment. Serviceable may just not be enough.

Grade: C+