The sky, a marbled midnight blue and green, hangs heavy over the water. A green light shines across the bay; the glow of it dancing over the waves in a shimmering triangle. It’s a magical night, except that I’m not standing on a sea shore. I’m sitting in Row 3 inside the London Coliseum in inebriated admiration of the screen on the stage; so close that it feels as though I could touch the water if I reached out. The Royal Boxes are above my head, and around me everyone is caught in the rapture of it all, trying to entrap the feeling on their smartphones before the curtains have even been raised; the ornate domed ceiling, green lights beaming upwards like lasers and the excitement of a perfect summer’s evening in London.
A group of us had walked to the theater from The Palm Court at the Sheraton Grand London Park Lane where we sipped non-alcoholic West Egg Sour cocktails and Champagne with the hotel’s The Great Gatsby: Only Afternoon Tea!. The themed afternoon tea, an official partnership with The Great Gatsby: A New Musical at The London Coliseum, is served in The Palm Court’s original 1927 setting at the heart of the Sheraton Grand London Park Lane.
Against a backdrop of marble floors, and Art Deco tapestries we enjoyed Rockefeller smoked salmon tart, Tom’s roast sirloin and michaud sauce sandwiches, East Egg truffle salad and Gatsby Club sandwiches. Next came Jazz-mine meringue pie, Daisy’s tropical choux which, incidentally, was finished with a passion fruit glaze, and the standout kirsch-soaked Gatsby Forest Gâteau; the grand finale before we headed out to the London Coliseum.
Now, the curtain finally raises to the Tony Award® winning adaptation of, what in my humble opinion, is one of the greatest works of literature in the English language: The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald. Since the novel’s copyright expired in 2021 there have been several prequels, sequels and adaptations of the story. It has enraged purists but conversely implies every writer’s wildest dream; a tale that endures.
Back at the London Coliseum Jamie Muscato as Jay Gatsby and Frances Mayli McCann as Daisy Buchanan depicts the ill-fated lovers. Amber Davies plays a lithe Jordan Baker to Corbin Bleu’s bookish Nick Carraway. The Art Deco sets and costumes dazzled, the choreography turned the heat up and all around me the audience was held captive by the high-octane energy of the production. The strong vocals of the entire cast brought the house down and earned them a justly-deserved standing ovation at the end. It was a monumental nod to the excesses and frivolities of America in the Roaring Twenties.
This period of history, whenever it’s revived, takes our thoughts to the New York skyline and Art Deco evoking a sense that is unmistakably American. It must however, always be acknowledged that this movement began in France. It was about rebuilding the world after the trauma of war. The Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes (International Exhibition of Modern Decorative and Industrial Arts), on the banks of the Seine and around the Grand Palais in April 1925, asserted France as the pinnacle of good taste. Across the pond, in the same month of the same year, a novel about a bootlegger, fervent with the most basic of human desires – the need to be chosen, which at the time was reviewed badly and even sold poorly, that the author himself delcalred, “Of all the reviews, even the most enthusiastic, not one had the slightest idea what the book was about,” became intrinsically linked to Art Deco. They both turned 100 years old in 2025. Now another two greats, Sheraton Grand London Park Lane and The Great Gatsby: A New Musical, have come together in celebration. And we are all invited to the party.
The Great Gatsy Musical, buy your tickets here
Book your afternoon tea here
