Arts The Soft Bigotry of Yuppie Expectations
posted by on November 15 at 11:27 AM
Stranger arts editor Christopher Frizzelle reviews the Seattle Rep’s production of the Great Gatsby in today’s edition of the Stranger .
I saw the play on the same night as Christopher, and we compared notes after the play (basically, nodding in agreement that the show was a flop). I cannot wait to read his review, which I imagine will be a much-deserved pan.
One observation I shared with Christopher was my reaction to Seattle Rep’s choice to cast a black sax player in a role modeled on jazz great, Lester Young. (The play featured a sort of omniscient black sax player who strolled around stage, commenting on the scene with knowing accompaniment on his horn.)
This Lester Young character opened the play (in silhouette, I believe) blowing a haunting melody as a prelude to the Gatsby tragedy.
At that, I immediately lost trust in this production. And felt a bit insulted too.
Gatsby is about the Jazz Age of the 1920s. It doesn’t take much research to know that the sultry, wailing sax has nothing whatsover to do with 1920s jazz. When you’re putting on a 20s set-piece like Gatsby, you certainly oughta get your 20s basics right.
Not only was their sexy sax an anachronism for the 20s (which is bad enough…sort of like watching a movie that’s supposed to take place in the ’70s and seeing a cell phone), but the Lester Young-style sax they conjured up is specifically evocative of the 1940s. (The sax didn’t emerge as a centerpiece of jazz combos until the late 30s and particularly the 1940s.)
However, I’m not just being a finicky music snob. The main reason their lazy fumble got my goat has to do with racism. To drop the trope of a black saxophonist just wailing his haunting sexy chops into this play was a sop to the Rep’s banal white yuppie audience that loves its comforting, nostalgic, romantic stereotypes of black Americans. (That the Rep got their specific racism wrong—it should have been Louie Armstrong on hot trumpet or maybe even a Jewish cornet player—is just sorta funny.)
To the Rep, I imagine, the 1920s=Jazz (with ’80s jazz hands). And for the Rep, Jazz=black people (haunting and sexy to boot). And so they plucked the black jazz Lester Young stereotype and dropped it into their production.
A few days after I saw the play, I griped to a friend (a sax player) about the discrepency and the racism, and he told me a funny anecdote. He said that earlier this year he was looking at musician wanted ads on-line and, in fact, saw the Rep’s Saxophonist Wanted ad for Gatsby. He was interested and so a week later he went looking for the ad again. He found it, but it had been tweaked to say African American Saxophonist wanted. Ugggh.
Update: I found the ad. It was posted on the Musician’s Union Referral list in early October. It didn’t say “African American.” It said “Person of Color.”
10-8 Tenor Sax player needed for a show at Seattle Repertory Theatre for a show run from Nov 3- Dec 10. There are 8 shows per week for 6 weeks. The play is “The Great Gatsby”. Character type: middle age male, with preference for a person of color.
I couldn't agree with every word of this more, except for "whaling". Whalers whale; saxophonists wail.
Is it racism, or cultural illiteracy?
Mr. FNARF,
Yes. Saxophone players like Lester Young wailed.
Thank you. Fixed it.
On the other hand, it's not like this was an operatic or musical, it was a play.
Plays get to muck around a lot more.
The saxophonist sticks out like a sore thumb, and is certainly not this production's only problem. But since he first appeared in the premiere of this production at the Guthrie this summer, the fault doesn't seem to be in "the Rep’s banal white yuppie audience," but rather in David Esbjornson's staging.
Feit, if you can get me a job at The Stranger, I'll let you write the liner notes for my first CD (death metal done on theremin - Clara Rockmore style), in Ebonics! What's your alias? DJ Gripe?
Hmm...according to someone doing a theater piece on KUOW, there has never been a decent adaptation of Gatsby neither by or film in recent memory. Everyone hates every Great Gatsby performance, apparently. Maybe it just doesn't translate into a performing art at all?
And that saxophone thing sounds totally phony.
24-Year-Old Artist,
Because you see the connection between death metal and Clara Rockmore's theramin hallucinations—please be assured that I will stop at nothing to get you a job at the Stranger.
I'm not sure Lester Young wailed; I think he moaned, and tootled occasionally. He might even have burbled a bit. He definitely sighed, and cried, and nuzzled.
What is "The horn rimmed glasses of Seattle Condominiums" even supposed to mean??
Closeted racism in mainstream theatre isn't that big a surprise given that most of these producers and directors are still living in the 40's, 50's and 60's.
The music and the staging should have been fast and loose instead of the drawn-out, almost ethereal, snoozefest that it was.
The only actor I enjoyed was the mechanic- everyone else took themselves way too seriously.
The rest of the folks should have had some appealing quality regardless of the fact that they're playing mostly shallow characters. Like some modern celebrities, even though you may despise them there should still be something that makes them fascinating, something that makes you want to be them or be with them. As played on the Rep stage however, they were appalingly mundane and exceedingly boring.
Ugh.
ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ!
Is there no limit to Josh's self-serving rants about how he loves Jazz, and is therefore a hipster?
Sorry, Josh, you're a short, balding white guy who fears dogs. Get over it! Or at least try this formula: 20 percent about you. 80 percent on the rest of the world.
Nice description of Lester Young, FNARF.
For the record, his first recording was 1936, I think the first recording under his name was 1940 or so. Well said Josh.
Dang, I wish I'd seen this! I am a person of color (that color being pink), and I can sort of play the saxophone. Man, those people from Pleasantville must have been bummed when they read this ad.
Hey there, Is There A Limit On Josh Preening Before The Mirror, you ought to kiss and make nice. Your lips are already puckered from all those sour grapes.
Gatsby is stupid to begin with
Never could get into it - and most of the Reps stuff for a decade has been banal - what is new - suspect most of their season ticket holders are from the East Side beige world, sprinkled with greens and green
NYC experimental theater group Elevator Repair Service adapted The Great Gastby brilliantly to a stage version called GATZ. The entire book is read on stage, in a performance that is set in a crappy office and runs about 6 1/2 hours. It's freakishly awesome. The Fitzgerald estate won't allow it to be performed anywhere this crappy Rep GG plays, or it'd most definitely be seen at On the Boards. Shame.
Theremin!! Someone mentioned the word ... theremin! ! in public! * swoon * You can not beleive how many times I heard "what's that" when I mentioned I was building one/learning to play it ... I started telling people it was a kitchen appliance. 24 year old artist, can I have your babies?
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