A “Great Gatsby” musical is coming to Broadway in March
“The Great Gatsby,” F. Scott Fitzgerald's 1925 novel about flashy glamor and dashed dreams, is coming to Broadway as a musical this spring.
The show — the latest in a long line of adaptations of this widely read story — had a pre-Broadway run last fall in the Paper Mill Playhouse in Millburn, NJ, where it opened to mixed reviews. (Coincidentally, the book also received mixed reviews and is now widely regarded as a great classic of American literature.)
The lavish production will join a Broadway season packed with new musicals, at a time when many industry leaders are concerned that there don't seem to be enough customers to keep most shows running.
This new 'Gatsby' musical is supported by Chunsoo Shin, a Korean producer hungry for a Broadway hit after a spate of failed ventures here. Most recently, he was part of the production team on “Once Upon a One More Time,” the short-lived show featuring songs by Britney Spears; previous efforts include a stage adaptation of “Doctor Zhivago” and a Tupac Shakur musical, “Holler if Ya Hear Me.”
The musical 'Great Gatsby' features songs by Nathan Tysen and Jason Howland, who collaborated on the 2022 musical 'Paradise Square', and a book by playwright Kait Kerrigan ('The Mad Ones'). (Tysen and Kerrigan are married to each other.) The director is Marc Bruni, whose previous Broadway outing, “Beautiful: The Carole King Musical,” which premiered in 2014, was a major hit.
The musical stars two Broadway fan favorites. Jeremy Jordan, a Tony nominee for “Newsies,” will play the nouveau riche title character Jay Gatsby, while Eva Noblezada, a two-time Tony nominee, for “Miss Saigon” and “Hadestown,” will play Daisy Buchanan, the young woman with old money that Gatsby has long longed for.
“The Great Gatsby” is expected to open on March 29 and open on April 25 at the Broadway Theater, one of Broadway's biggest houses.
The novel has been explored many times in other media, including in a glitzy 2013 Hollywood film directed by Baz Luhrmann and starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Carey Mulligan. A play “Great Gatsby” was performed on Broadway in 1926, the year after the novel's publication; Off-Broadway, there was a critically acclaimed seven-hour version called “Gatz,” developed by Elevator Repair Service and performed at the Public Theater in 2010.
The novel entered the public domain in 2021, opening the door for a host of adaptations. The most important thing, at least for theater audiences, is that another musical adaptation is in development. It's called “Gatsby” and the first performances are scheduled for May at the American Repertory Theater in Cambridge, Mass.
That production, which also has Broadway aspirations, includes a book by Pulitzer-winning playwright Martyna Majok (“Cost of Living”), songs by rock star Florence Welch (of Florence and the Machine) and Thomas Bartlett (aka Doveman ) , and direction by Rachel Chavkin (a Tony winner for “Hadestown”).