This summer, The Great Gatsby has become the longest running immersive production in the UK. The Guild of Misrule’s extraordinary retelling of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s iconic novel continues to invite audiences into the decadent world of 1920s jazz and excess. It has now extended to run until the end of the year.
This unique immersive theatrical experience has proved immensely popular and, by public demand, has continually extended since it first opened Gatsby’s Drugstore on 1st June 2017. This longevity has seen the show encounter new challenges, maintaining a strong presence at the forefront of the development of immersive theatre, and becoming one of the industry leaders in finding ways to allow this ever-changing genre to continue to grow.
First conceived in 2015 when director Alexander Wright and producer Brian Hook were running The Fleeting Arms – a pop arts and community pub in an abandoned building in York – the journey of this production has been remarkable. The following year the show ran again in York with a parallel production in Sheffield in partnership with Theatre Deli.
The Great Gatsby first came to London as part of VAULT Festival in 2017 and sold out before the show opened. Since then the show has run in Wales in co-production with Theatr Clwyd, at Halifax’s Square Chapel, and the august surroundings of Castle Howard in North Yorkshire. All while the show has played night after night in London, inviting audiences in to the hedonistic world of F Scott Fitzgerald’s extraordinary tale.
With this long run has come some incredible facts. Since first opening its doors, The Great Gatsby cast and audiences have: said 11,076,000 scripted words in the drugstore, served 52,555 shots of gin, used 2114 meters of cable, said ‘Old Sport’ 9,088 times, drunk 2,176 bottles of champagne, held 284 performances in the drugstore and 525 performances worldwide, been watched by 38,000 plus people and 75,000 plus people worldwide, contributed £303,323.67 in taxes to the economy by London run, spent 598.5 hours of stage time at Gatsby’s Drugstore, been on stage for 1,102.5 hours in total, employed 64 people (32 female, 32 male).
The Great Gatsby allows audiences to fully immerse themselves into the world of Jay Gatsby and the glamour of the Roaring 20s. With cocktails, dancing and scandal, this heart-racing adaptation of this seminal jazz-age story puts the audience at the heart of the action.
