MUSICALS
Presented by Jake Dennis
The Laneway Lounge
Review by James Burnside
Combining elements of night club style jazz and theatre, Perth local Jake Dennis’s performance Gatsby’s Cabaret is a feast for the ears – even if it is sometimes bogged down by slow pacing and the occasional bit of wooden dialogue. In essence this show is a combination of jazz numbers held together by a connecting storyline. Moments between musical numbers are about five minutes long at most and tend to feel like an excuse for the lead singer to clear his throat.
The story, such as it is, is an adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby with a few minor alterations; most notably a racial component that was not present previously in the predominantly class-based tale. This ‘Jay Gatsby’ is a black man (Jake Dennis); which gives his pursuit of Daisy (Sjaan Lucas), a white woman, an extra level of tension when he’s competing with her not only rich but also racist husband Tom (Samuel Barbas). Meanwhile, Gatsby’s female confidant, fellow African American, Hattie (Fleur Pereira) constantly advises him to just stick with ‘our own kind’.
It certainly does mix up the formula of The Great Gatsby a bit. Yet, apart from some very harsh and slightly awkwardly delivered racial slurs from Tom and Hattie, who constantly try to get Gatsby to “just forget about the damned white girl”, not much is done with the subject matter. While the actors put some charm into it, with Sjaan Lucus playing a very entertaining version of Daisy and Fleur Pereira doing a good job being the sympathetic shoulder to cry on, ultimately the performances occasionally feel a bit rushed and stiff. Jake Dennis himself does a fair job at playing a poor soldier turned rich man trying to compete with men of ‘old money’ and being brought down each time he tries. His breakdowns, while occasionally melodramatic, flow very nicely with the tone of some of the more sombre songs in the piece and he captures Gatsby’s charm and the nobility and tragedy of a man determined to ‘win’ a woman who is so clearly not right for him rather well.
At the end of the day however, ‘Gatsby’s Cabaret’ is about the music – and fortunately the music is amazing. Jake Dennis is a charismatic figure on stage when he starts to sing. He has a smooth voice that balances itself perfectly with every musical style he chooses, conveying cool smooth jazz numbers with grace and quickly picking up the pace into energetic and exciting old time numbers before settling back into a darker and more sombre tone. His voice is exceptional and his song selection, which is a mixture of old music and jazz adaptions of more recent ‘pop songs,’ is inspired. Each song hits its mark and right from the beginning Jake Dennis and the Mint Jazz Band that backs him have the audience completely hooked and don’t let go until the show ends. Despite having only one singer the whole time it is remarkable how varied the production feels as we go from tone to tone and style to style. It makes the flaws of the production feel so minor as to be barely worth noting, and if you are a fan of jazz you owe it to yourself to check it out.
Gatsby’s Cabaret has its final Fringe World 2016 performance tonight at The Laneway Lounge in Northbridge. Tickets available here.
