BAZ Luhrmann’s blockbuster version of The Great Gatsby has generated enough buzz to light up Broadway, but early reviews suggest it has left critics flat.

Strip back the streamers and drain the champagne, they say, and you find the Aussie auteur has sandblasted away much of the novel’s subtlety in his quest to replicate Jay Gatsby’s legendary parties in all their 3D glory.

If you’re after a more intimate take on F Scott Fitzgerald’s great American novel, you may want to check out the musical version which opened to considerably less fanfare this week at Hammersmith’s Riverside Studios.

Ruby in the Dust’s stage adaptation, directed by Linnie Reed and with original music by Joe Evans, had critics and audiences purring during last year’s run at the King’s Head Theatre, in Islington, earning three Off West Award nominations.

Notting Hill’s Matilda Sturridge (part of an acting dynasty to rival the Foxes) returns as Daisy Buchanan, the woman for whom Gatsby is prepared to sacrifice everything, after winning rave reviews at the King’s Head.

But there is a new main man, with Michael Lindall stepping in as the millionaire playboy who has it all except the one thing he wants.

The 30-year-old, who lives in Grove Park, Chiswick, and studied at Hammersmith’s Latymer Upper School, said it ‘couldn’t hurt’ opening at the same time as the big screen version, although this stage adaptation is a very different beast.

Luhrmann, for example, gets his party going with a booming hip-hop soundtrack, courtesy of Jay-Z, while Ruby in the Dust’s musical version stays true to the jazz beats of 1920s New York.

“Based on the trailers, the film’s a lavish, highly improvised version, which is what you’d expect from Luhrmann,” says Lindall. “Here you get to see Gatsby raw and in your face, with nowhere to hide, which is the beauty of theatre.”

Is Lindall daunted about going toe-to-toe with DiCaprio?

No, he insists. He doesn’t plan to watch the film until he’s hung up Gatsby’s tuxedo for good and is even steering clear of reviews.

He did watch the 1974 movie, starring Robert Redford, which left critics cold, but says he has only dim memories. As for getting to the heart of the enigma that is Jay Gatsby, he claims the man holds no riddles for him.

“He’s always going to be a mystery to other people but at the moment he’s not a mystery to me,” he says.

“I very much enjoy the fact he comes across as an enigma to others. He’s misunderstood by a lot of people because they buy into the stories they hear and love spreading those rumours and gossip.

“But he’s actually really simple. He’s stripped down to one thing and one thing only. He loves Daisy and he builds this dream world around him so he can have this one thing he wants, the true love of his life.”

Even before the anticipation began to build around the film, 20s music and fashion were beginning to make a comeback – fuelled in part by the epic prohibition-era TV drama Boardwalk Empire.

“There are speakeasies opening up across London and if you walk through Shoreditch you’ll see no shortage of people who look like they’ve just stepped out of the 20s,” says Lindall.

“I think there’s something about this underground world of wild parties and abandon which appeals to people today.”

It’s a long way from the glitz and glamour of 20s New York to a muddy battlefield, circa 871AD, but that is where Lindall will pop up next. He plays a Saxon leader in Hammer of the Gods, a brutal action epic about a Viking warrior’s quest to find his brother, his first major big screen release, due out this summer.

Lindall describes the six-week shoot as ‘a riot’, but warns film-goers the finished product does not pull any punches.

“There’s a lot of blood but it’s the kind of project you dream of as an actor. There’s an amazing cast, including James Cosmo, and it’s loosely based on Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness,” he says.

“Filming in Wales was amazing. The setting was amazing. It was like walking into a Tim Burton film, only everything was natural.

“Sometimes you’d get a sheep wandering into shot and trying to get involved a sword fight.”

n The Great Gatsby runs in repertory with the world premiere of Hutch, about the rise and fall of celebrated cabaret singer Leslie ‘Hutch’ Hutchinson, whose love affairs with Cole Porter and Edwina Mountbatten caused a high society scandal.

Both plays are at Hammersmith’s Riverside Studios until June 8. For tickets, priced £17.50, visit www.riversidestudios.co.uk or call 020 8237 1111.