Great Gatsby musical scored by Florence Welch gets the green light

Florence Welch has confirmed that she is set to score a brand new stage musical based around F. Scott Fitzgerald’s glittering masterwork, The Great Gatsby.

The project will feature music and lyrics from Welch, known as the leading force behind Grammy-nominated outfit Florence + the Machine, as well contributions from Oscar and Grammy Award nominee Thomas Bartlett.

Bartlett previously carried out production work with Florence + The Machine on the track 'Jenny of Oldstones', and has released four albums as Doveman.

Pulitzer Prize-winner Martyna Majok, author of Cost of Living, will write the book, and the show will be directed by Olivier Award nominee Rebecca Frecknall (Summer and Smoke). Jeanie O’Hare serves as story consultant, while Len Blavatnik and Amanda Ghost will act as producers.

“This book has haunted me for a large part of my life,” Welch said in a statement. “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.”

First published in 1925, Fitzgerald’s story of Jay Gatsby, a shadowy businessman, and his obsession with socialite Daisy Buchanan utilises lyrical prose to take an incisive look at the American dream. The novel has inspired a wide range of movies, shows and ballets over the last 80 years. The most recent major take on The Great Gatsby came in 2013 from Baz Luhrmann starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Carey Mulligan.

Florence Welch previously contributed to the soundtrack of Baz Luhrmann’s version with the song 'Over the Love'. The singer, poet and artist is now journeying further into the Jazz Age for the lucrative project.

Florence Welch is writing a musical based on #TheGreatGatsby.

(https://t.co/6VKdPdDicv) pic.twitter.com/zG71aYpsK5

— Film Updates (@FilmUpdates) April 28, 2021

Photo credit: Noam Galai