Great Gatsby musical with songs by Florence Welch sets world premiere

A brand new musical adaptation of The Great Gatsby has announced plans for its world premiere.

The piece, titled simply Gatsby, is set to feature lyrics from Grammy-nominated Florence + the Machine’s Florence Welch with music by Welch and Oscar and Grammy nominee Thomas Bartlett, also known as Doveman.

Running at American Repertory Theatre in Cambridge in 2024 (exact dates to be confirmed), Pulitzer Prize winner Martyna Majok is to write the book with Rachel Chavkin set to direct with Sonya Tayeh providing choreography.

Casting is to be revealed but a cast album has already been confirmed for release on Warner Music.

Published in 1925, F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby iconic Jazz Age novel tells the story of millionaire Jay Gatsby and his former lover Daisy Buchanan.

Welch said: “This book has haunted me for a large part of my life. It contains some of my favourite lines in literature. Musicals were my first love, and I feel a deep connection to Fitzgerald’s broken romanticism. It is an honour to have been offered the chance to recreate this book in song.”

Added Majok: “I’m thrilled, honoured, and inspired to work with this company of extraordinary artists, and to get to live in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s transcendent, gorgeous words.”

The show’s producers Amanda Ghost and Robert Fox said: “Florence’s passion for Gatsby and exceptional musical storytelling will bring this iconic love story to life in ways we have never experienced before…

“It’s been 100 years since The Great Gatsby was published and there could be no better time for a new musical adaptation of the greatest party America ever threw.”