They were young, glamorous and reckless, and they represented the American dream. Had they lived happily into their dotage, F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald might have become gracious old teetotalers — maybe featured in a 1970 Time magazine profile titled "Where Have They Gone?"
Instead, the legend of Scott and Zelda owes as much to their crash as it does to their ascent in Jazz Age iconography. We love success stories almost as much as we consume stories of loss and tragedy.
As a result, Fitzgerald has endured for decades as a source of endless fascination. In 2006, the Guthrie Theater opened its new building with an adaptation of "The Great Gatsby." In another month, Baz Luhrmann unveils his glitzy film take in "Gatsby." You can't turn around in a bookstore without bumping into a Fitzgerald biography, a collection of letters, a new appreciation of Zelda.
"It's very American," said singer/composer Nancy Harrow of the Fitzgerald legend. "I can't believe that almost every other day you see some mention of them."
Harrow is adding to the Fitzgerald canon with a jazz musical she created with writer/director Will Pomerantz. "This Side of Paradise" has its Midwest premiere Saturday at History Theatre in St. Paul — the hometown that Fitzgerald left at age 26 and to which he never returned to live.
The musical's title is taken from Fitzgerald's first novel, which he wrote at a furious pace in St. Paul.
Fitzgerald was driven to finish the book in 1919 because he wanted Zelda to think of him as a success. The two had broken off their engagement in large part because she wasn't wowed by his prospects as an advertising copywriter in New York. When the book was accepted and turned into a hit, young Fitzgerald returned to Zelda with a talisman of hope. So began a great love story steeped in gin, jazz and literary celebrity.
"Their lives played off each other," said Harrow, who wrote the music and lyrics for the new play. "They weren't really good for each other in some ways, but in other ways they were very lovable."