The multi award-winning new musical The Great Gatsby, which premiered at New York’s Broadway Theatre in April 2024, successfully transferred to London’s West End at the London Coliseum in April 2025 for a limited summer run that lasted until September.
Produced by acclaimed Korean musical producer Chunsoo Shin and directed by Marc Bruni, The Great Gatsby is set in—and helped define—the American Jazz Age of the 1920s, with millionaire Jay Gatsby’s world filled with lavish opulence, dazzling parties, and extravagant excess.
The new musical features music by Jason Howland, choreography by Dominique Kelley, a book by Kait Kerrigan, and lyrics by Nathan Tysen. Scenic and projection design, as well as lighting, are masterfully handled by the decade-long collaboration between Paul Tate dePoo III and lighting designer Cory Pattak.
Pattak talks with PRG UK—the company responsible for lighting, control, and atmospheric effects for the London production—about his creative approach, his vision for the show, and PRG UK’s role in the transfer to the West End.
Everyone has their own idea of what Gatsby should be. In the United States in particular, audiences feel a strong connection to the story and arrive at the theater with clear expectations. But above all, they expect the opulence and luxury of Gatsby’s parties. We quickly realized it was impossible to please everyone, so we decided to create the version we ourselves wanted to see, and it seems to have met expectations, says Pattak.
Defying Broadway’s current trend toward minimalist sets, DePoo and Pattak chose a maximalist approach to deliver a large-scale production, ensuring the audience enjoys an experience worth the ticket price and filled with the opulence and extravagance expected from Gatsby. “There’s no subtlety here”, says Pattak. “This show does not hide in the shadows!”
The team is proud to present a full set of physical scenery, enhanced and extended with video and reinforced with cohesive lighting so that the audience can barely tell where one element ends and another begins. “One of our reviews proclaimed ‘Big Broadway is Back!’ and it has become our favorite mantra!”
On stage, The Great Gatsby is a glowing world lit in golds, warm tones, and tungsten, where Pattak and DePoo use lighting to extend the scenery and spill video content onto it, blending all the elements so that Gatsby’s world appears gold-encrusted and endlessly tall and wide, disappearing into the overhead rigging.
“On top of this, we play extensively with teals, blues, and greens, with numerous references to the Bay (on the opposite shore lives Gatsby’s unattainable love, Daisy Buchanan) and the swimming pool (whose cold light rises from the orchestra pit), both of which play a key role in the story. We enhance this with many refractions and reflections. As the teal and blue tones gradually invade Gatsby’s world of gold and tungsten, becoming more pronounced as the show progresses, they symbolize reality encroaching on his fantasy. As Gatsby gazes at the green light marking Daisy’s house across the bay, it becomes a manifestation of his obsession to win her back. This in turn reflects the pursuit of the American Dream—something unattainable that people nevertheless strive for. There is a dark side to ambition, and we reveal it by subtly playing with the green light”.
However, and somewhat controversially, the prevailing mood is that of a grand party or a romantic period piece in which only the most perceptive notice the underlying tensions. “As designers, it’s important not to get ahead of the characters, but to tell the story as they are experiencing it”, explains Pattak. “By the end of Act 1, with the song ‘My Green Light’, Gatsby still believes he’s living a great love story. Only later does he realize he’s in a tragedy. We therefore light that scene with the intensity and truthfulness that match Gatsby’s emotions at that moment. It’s as if Gatsby were lighting his own love story”.
Pattak and his team preserved all of this opulence in transferring the show to the West End. “There were no artistic sacrifices: we brought the full production and even upgraded it”, he says. “We were very lucky to find a venue, the London Coliseum, so perfectly suited to Gatsby”.
This begins with the architecture of the Coliseum itself: “The beautiful auditorium of the Coliseum is quite possibly the most stunning I have ever seen!” says Pattak, who first experienced it in November 2024.
I was amazed by the richness of the architectural details on the walls: golden sculptures, busts, medallions, angels, and golden chariot riders atop lions… it was, without a doubt, the most ‘Gatsby’ room one could imagine! We knew we had to make the most of it, because we would likely never have Gatsby in a space like this again. So we devoted great effort and resources to lighting every corner of the venue. We placed special fixtures on each detail and finally washed everything in a teal hue to match the show curtain. When the audience enters, accompanied by the sound of crashing waves, audible gasps can be heard. That first impression sets them up for an extraordinary night from the very start.
“I’m also very aware of the power of social media, so I wanted to give a strong visual impression of what the show looks like to those who haven’t seen it, encouraging others to come and experience it themselves. This is the one time the audience is allowed to take photos, and I want to ensure they can share something truly enticing: the first thing they see is a green light slowly pulsing on the show drop—it looks very exciting!”
Unusually, the London Coliseum’s stage is similar in size to the Broadway Theatre, so no downsizing was required, leaving room for refinements and upgrades to the original design. “We are always looking for ways to improve, and we made some changes and additions with PRG’s help in sourcing what we needed”, says Pattak. “Personally, I feel the London version is the best looking right now. We improved the way we control haze, fog, and mist by integrating them into the London deck in a way I’m very pleased with”, he continues; the atmosphere is now created by a mix of MDG ATM APS haze generators, Look Solutions Unique and Viper NT fog generators, and Cryo-Fogger low-pressure generators.
Because the Coliseum requires greater throw distances and higher light output to compete with the large video wall, the team upgraded their main Broadway fixture, the Vari-Lite VL2600, to the VL3600 for the London production. “I was happy with the change because the new unit is brighter and offers more features, but there were lighting positions where we couldn’t fit such a large fixture. So some of our side lighting was replaced with ETC Halcyon Gold Ultrabrights, and some of the balcony rail fixtures were swapped for Ayrton Rivale Profiles, which are smaller and lighter”, explains Pattak.
Similarly, the Coliseum’s follow spot positions are much farther away (between 125 and 140 feet), but the ceiling isn’t high enough for traditional followspots. Therefore, the team used three Robe iForte LTX long-throw units, an upgrade from the Robe iForte used on Broadway. “I believe these are among the brightest on the market”, says Pattak, “but at times they were barely bright enough against the video content, so we sometimes had to double or even triple them”.
Overall, however, Pattak explains that the brightness of a fixture is less important than its ability to match colors. “We spent a lot of time matching and creating custom colors, cue by cue, to blend the virtual scenery with the real set and trick the eye into seeing it as one seamless whole. Lighting is what makes that work. That’s why it was crucial in London to have fixtures capable of creating and matching all those colors to the video, especially when using different fixtures, video tiles, and paint treatments from the Broadway production".
In general, Pattak notes that the power of a light is less important than its capacity for color matching.
We devoted a great deal of time to adjusting and creating custom colors, scene by scene, so that the virtual scenery and the real set merge and the eye perceives them as one. Lighting is what makes that illusion possible. That’s why it was essential in London to have equipment capable of generating and matching all those tones to the video, especially when working with different fixtures, video panels, and paint treatments compared to the Broadway show.
“Local equipment availability and the unique conditions of a new venue always require some adjustments, and Ian Phillips of PRG UK was instrumental in sourcing the right replacement fixtures. He fully understood what we needed—why certain models were critical and what they had to deliver—and worked with us to ensure the replacements met our artistic goals. I greatly value the level of collaboration with PRG UK in finding the necessary equipment and supporting the production in the best possible way. I’ve had a long-standing relationship with PRG in the United States—the New York branch supplied The Great Gatsby on Broadway—since I was Ken Billington’s associate nearly 20 years ago,” says Pattak. “That’s why I was happy to ‘keep it in the family’ when transferring to London, and it was a pleasure to work with Ian Phillips and Peter Marshall, who couldn’t have been more delightful. It’s fantastic to extend my relationship with PRG to the UK and, by getting to know Ian and Peter, to strengthen that connection for the future”.
“It was a true pleasure to support Cory and the rest of the team on this stunning musical”, confirms Ian Phillips of PRG. “Every member of the creative and production teams we worked alongside made this show the success it is today, and we wish them the very best in whatever comes next. Continuing the excellent work begun on Broadway proves that PRG is truly a global supplier for any theatrical production”.
Peter Marshall, PRG UK’s Director of Theatre, agrees: “It was an absolute pleasure to work with Cory, Paul, and the entire design team on this prestigious production”.
Pattak also highlighted the contribution of his West End team:
I had an exceptional UK team supporting both me and my U.S. associate, Paul Vaillancourt. Tom Johnson and Oliver Thomas were outstanding West End production electricians; my excellent UK assistant lighting designer, Danny Vavrečka, had recently worked as assistant LD on Starlight Express, so he was used to a big maximalist show; and UK lighting programmer Dan Street was also fantastic. It was a true pleasure to work with all of them.
Currently, The Great Gatsby runs in three full productions across three countries, including the recent opening of a version in South Korea at the beginning of August. There are also plans for a U.S. tour starting in January 2026 and additional international productions scheduled for the coming years. “It’s very unusual and extremely exciting to grow the family globally!” says Pattak. “We recently calculated that, on a two-show day, there are hardly any hours when Gatsby isn’t playing somewhere in the world”.
The London production of The Great Gatsby concluded at the London Coliseum on September 7, 2025, though there is hope the show will continue its presence in the UK, either in another theater or as part of a national tour.
