The party has already started as the audience arrives in the Sydney Opera House Studio, which has been converted into a pop-up speakeasy-style bar for Craig Ilott’s latest cabaret-circus-vaudeville show, Gatsby at The Green Light.

The music is pumping. Attired in a slinky black and green outfit, burlesque performer Bettie Bombshell wanders around greeting people, and is constantly asked to pose for photos. The barman juggles lemons in between mixing cocktails, and the waiters, who are serving canapés and drinks to the people sitting at tables, suddenly burst into dance routines. Then the bar transforms into a stage, and we’re off.

Oscar Kaufmann performing in Gatsby at The Green Light. Photo © Prudence Upton

Ilott is now a master when it comes to staging this kind of crowd-pleasing, variety entertainment, having directed productions such as L’Hôtel, La Clique Royal, the disco-spectacular Velvet Rewired and iOTA’s Smoke & Mirrors, among others.

Gatsby takes its inspiration from F. Scott Fitzgerald’s jazz age novel The Great Gatsby about the enigmatic, filthy-rich Jay Gatsby, his obsessive desire to be reunited with his former lover Daisy Buchanan, and the riotous, bohemian parties he throws...