An Evening at The Great Gatsby Musical with The Sororum

There are certain events where I know I'm going to say yes before I even know all the details.

The Sororum telling me we were going to see The Great Gatsby was definitely one of them.

I have been photographing events for The Sororum for a while now. The first event I photographed with them was at the University Club of Toronto, and since then I've had the chance to photograph so many of their gatherings and experiences around the city.

And honestly, I really love what Aurea and Rima are creating.

The Sororum is a women's community built around connection, curiosity, culture and actually doing interesting things together.

Not just networking for the sake of networking.

Their events bring women together through art, history, conversations, beautiful spaces and experiences around Toronto that you might not necessarily think to do on your own.

So every time they tell me what we're doing next, I'm curious.

This time?

The Roaring Twenties.

Jazz.

A historic theatre.

Dinner.

And The Great Gatsby.

Obviously, I was going.

I Have Always Had a Thing for the Roaring Twenties

I studied English Literature at university, translated books, and have basically spent a ridiculous amount of my life surrounded by stories.

And The Great Gatsby has always been one of those books for me.

I love the imagery of it.

The parties.

The fashion.

The excess.

The absolute mess underneath all that glamour.

The green light.

And the whole idea of wanting something so badly that you've almost created an entirely different version of it in your head.

Also, don't even get me started on Zelda Fitzgerald because we will be here all day and I will get heated.

Anyway.

I also LOVE the Roaring Twenties as a period in general. I actually did an entire university presentation about the 1920s years ago, so apparently this obsession has been following me for quite some time.

Which made this particular Sororum event very, very much my thing.

Starting the Evening at CAA Ed Mirvish Theatre

We met at the CAA Ed Mirvish Theatre, where we were given a private behind-the-scenes tour before the performance.

And this ended up being one of my favourite parts of the entire experience.

I've been inside beautiful theatres before, but normally you walk in, find your seat, watch the show and leave.

You don't really stop to think about the building itself.

This time we actually got to.

Our guide took us through the theatre and told us about its history, previous productions, the architecture and all these little details I probably would have walked straight past otherwise.

And once someone starts explaining those details to you, you suddenly look at the whole building differently.

The ceilings.

The staircases.

The ornamentation.

The history of the stage.

All the people who have performed there.

There is something really special about standing inside an empty theatre and thinking about how many stories have been told in that same room.

Our guide was wonderful, and having the theatre opened up to our Sororum group like that made the whole evening feel much more intimate.

Dinner, Jazz & Very Appropriate Gatsby Energy

After our tour, we headed to Jazz Bistro for dinner.

Which, honestly, could not have been more appropriate before The Great Gatsby.

We had dinner while listening to live jazz from Alex Bird and Ewen Farncombe, and I loved it.

I'm already a jazz person, so give me dinner, live jazz and an evening at the theatre and I'm pretty happy.

It also created the perfect transition into the show because the whole evening started feeling a little bit like we were slowly stepping into Gatsby's world ourselves.

If you love live music and haven't been to Jazz Bistro yet, I definitely recommend adding it to your Toronto list.

Then it was time to go back to the theatre.

The Great Gatsby

I was really curious about how they were going to turn the novel into a musical.

Because adapting a book like The Great Gatsby is tricky.

People know these characters.

People have very specific images of Gatsby's parties, Daisy, the green light, and that entire world.

And obviously a stage production has to change things.

But I actually really liked the balance they found.

There were changes and moments that were adapted differently for the stage, but the story still felt recognizable. It didn't feel like they took Gatsby's name and created something completely unrelated around it.

And visually?

Beautiful.

The set was incredible.

The costumes.

The lighting.

The projections.

The movement.

Everything felt huge without losing the story underneath it.

One thing I especially loved was how the music and choreography weren't trying to pretend they had been frozen in 1925.

There is jazz running through it, obviously, but there are also modern influences. The choreography was probably one of my favourite parts.

There were moments when there was so much happening on stage that I genuinely didn't know where to look.

And as a photographer, that is basically heaven for me because my brain immediately starts framing everything like photographs.

The Cast

The entire cast was incredible.

And I mean that especially knowing these performers are doing this again and again, sometimes with two performances in one day.

I don't understand how musical theatre performers physically do it.

Singing.

Dancing.

Acting.

Costume changes.

Doing massive choreography and then somehow immediately singing like you weren't just moving across an entire stage.

Meanwhile I would need three business days to recover.

Senzel Ahmady plays Daisy Buchanan in the touring production, and she was wonderful.

After the performance, our Sororum group actually got another special experience: a private Q&A with Senzel and Shai Yammanee, who is part of the company and also understudies Meyer Wolfsheim and George Wilson.

Getting to hear directly from the performers after watching them onstage made me appreciate the production even more.

You watch something that polished from the audience and it's easy to forget how much work is happening behind it.

Then suddenly you're sitting there listening to the people who were just on that stage talk about their work and their lives as performers.

I loved that.

One of My Favourite Sororum Experiences So Far

The entire evening felt so thoughtfully put together.

The private theatre tour.

Dinner.

Live jazz.

The Great Gatsby.

And then getting to meet members of the cast afterward.

This is exactly what I've grown to love about photographing The Sororum.

I'm there to document the events, obviously, but I also get to experience Toronto differently through them.

I learn something.

I meet women I probably wouldn't have met otherwise.

I discover another place in the city.

And usually I leave wanting to research seventeen different things afterward.

This particular evening definitely made me want to go to the theatre more.

Now that I know more about the CAA Ed Mirvish Theatre itself, I feel like the next time I walk inside I'm going to notice everything differently.

And I already want to go back.

Go See It Before It Leaves Toronto

If you love The Great Gatsby, theatre, the Roaring Twenties, musicals, beautiful production design — or honestly if you just want a really fun night out in Toronto — go see it.

The Great Gatsby is playing at the CAA Ed Mirvish Theatre through August 23, 2026.

And after this experience, I have a feeling this won't be my last Mirvish show.

As for The Sororum...

I cannot wait to see what Aurea and Rima have planned next.

Whatever it is, I'll probably be somewhere nearby with a camera.