#ALSO if you enjoy the met (or gatsby broadway) more power to you! i do not but if you do thats ok

[kaptain-pastel]

ok so I don't mind most of the mischaracterization in Gatsby Broadway because I can understand why they did it and how it helps the story that they are trying to tell, even if I don't agree with it. But I really, really don't like what they did to Catherine and the Mckees (and Nick but that's through the whole show) in The Met.

(to clarify, I have only listened to the cast recordings of Gatsby Broadway! I don’t know any of the acting in between songs or anything they are doing on stage because I have only listened)

This ended up being longer than I expected so I put it below the cut :D

The biggest problem for me is that The Met characterizes Catherine and the Mckees like they are evil lustful people set out to corrupt pure and innocent Nick. In the song, Nick sets up a predator-prey relationship with them, even calling Mr. Mckee a vulture. It sets up this divide between Nick, who is our protagonist and Can Do No Wrong, and the people who side with the antagonist that the show makes Tom. It is implied that Nick gets drunk unwillingly, is flirted with by ALL party members unwillingly, and is "on top of" Catherine while being photographed by Mr. Mckee unwillingly. He does not want to be there with these people that his precious pure midwestern morals call "wrong" in any way, shape, or form.

This is not only not supported in the original, but also is a gross way to treat these characters--especially since Mr. Mckee is often read as queer, and his interactions with Nick add to Nick's own queerness. The song itself states that Mr. and Mrs. Mckee have a consensual open relationship in the setting of the show, but it is painted as something that adds to their immoral status. In the year 2024 we are portraying two consenting adults as evil for communicating and agreeing to have an open relationship? Ok yeah sure, if you say so. Mr. Mckee's, and by extension Nick's, queerness is not openly stated in The Met, although some lines can be read as innuendos or implications to this ("[Mr. Mckee, to Nick or Tom] I'd love to do more work on long island, if I could gain entry" "[Mr. Mckee, to Nick] I want to capture your musk" "[Nick, about the party] everyone is flirting now / and they're all coming on too strong"). Again, I haven’t seen what is happening on stage so I can't speak to that or how it effects these lines. Something about turning a character often read as queer into a "vulture" trying to take advantage of Nick (who, according to some reviews, was stripped of most of his queerness) just doesn't sit very well with me.

Changing the nature of the appartment party is not a very new thing, so I wanted to take a moment to discuss what actually happens in the original that contradicts Broadway Gatsby's portrayal. Nick is drinking, and describes getting drunk that evening, before Catherine and the Mckees even arrived to the apartment. When they arrive the conversation is pleasant and not all that harsh, mostly covering Mr. Mckee's photography (which he HAS done on Long Island, though he tells Tom he would've to do more work there who suggests Myrtle sets him up to photograph Wilson) and Mrytle's dress. The only possible implication that Nick is uncomfortable is the fact that he mentions wanting to leave to take a walk but is stopped as he is drawn back into "some wild strident argument" every time. The text does not elaborate much on the nature of this, so I don't know if that was in an effort to trap him there or just Nick getting trapped by social convention as they continued to talk to him. Nick also has no explicitly stated romantic, sexual, or even physical interactions with Catherine--most of their time interacting was Catherine explaining to Nick that Tom and Mrytle both hate who they're married to. Finally, after Tom breaks Mrytle's nose, Nick leaves the party with Mr. Mckee completely of his own (albeit heavily intoxicated) volition.

All in all, I understand why these changes are often made to the appartment party, and specifically the purpose The Met in the show. The Met is what changes Nick's mind about helping Gatsby meet Daisy. The party is used to give a reason to why Nick chooses to help Gatsby because most modern audiences don't want to root for a character who helps his cousin cheat on her husband for no good reason. The audience wants to relate to Nick--which means that they want him to be a fundamentally good person. And therefore we must see that Tom is bad and awful so that we can be ok with Daisy leaving him for Good and Awesome Gatsby. The problem with The Met is that all of that could still happen without villianizing Catherine and the Mckees. Tom is still an asshole apart from their behavior--he still breaks Mrytle's nose for mentioning Daisy and is, you know, cheating on his wife. Nick's decision to organize tea with Daisy in Gatsby Broadway is based mostly on the way Tom treats Mrytle and Nick himself at the party, not particularly on how the other guests behaved. The Met could have come to the exact same conclusion without portraying Catherine and the Mckees as people trying to corrupt Nick's purity and moral standing, and I think that is what makes it so uncomfortable and off-putting for me.