Florence Welch Tapped to Write Music for New ‘Great Gatsby’ Musical
Florence and the Machine’s Florence Welch will write the music and lyrics for an upcoming musical adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby.
Welch will compose the music alongside Thomas Bartlett. Bartlett makes music under the name Doveman and previously earned an Oscar and Grammy nomination for his collaboration with Sufjan Stevens, “Mystery of Love,” from the Call Me By Your Name soundtrack.
“This book has haunted me for a large part of my life,” Welch said in a statement. “It contains some of my favorite lines in literature. Musicals were my first love, and I feel a deep connection to Fitzgerald’s broken romanticism. It is an honor to have been offered the chance to recreate this book in song.”
Two of the show’s producers, Amanda Ghost and Robert Fox, added, “Florence’s passion for Gatsby and exceptional musical storytelling will bring this iconic love story to life in ways we have never experienced before.”
The Great Gatsby musical will boast a book written by playwright Martyna Majok, who won a Pulitzer for her 2018 play, Cost of Living. Rebecca Frecknall will direct the show while Jeanie O’Hare will serve as the story consultant.
A production timeline for a pre-Broadway run will be announced shortly. An original cast recording will eventually be released on Warner Music as well.
This Great Gatsby musical will likely be one of many adaptations set to come over the next few years: On January 1st, Fitzgerald’s novel and other books, films, songs and copyrighted works released in 1925 officially entered the public domain. The top of the year saw an initial deluge, with The New York Times noting that several major publishing houses had all released their own editions of Gatsby. There was also an illustrated edition and a graphic novel version, plus independently published variations like The Gay Gatsby and a zombie crossover tale dubbed The Great Gatsby Undead.
