Florence and the Machine’s Florence Welch and Thomas Bartlett have been announced as composers for an upcoming Broadway-musical version of The Great Gatsby. F. Scott Fitzgerald’s 1925 novel will be adapted for the stage by Martyna Majok, who won the Pulitzer Prize for her 2016 drama Cost of Living, with original music and lyrics by Welch and music from Bartlet (aka Doveman). The adaptation will be directed by Rebecca Frecknall and produced by Len Blavatnik and Amanda Ghost for Unigram in association with Robert Fox.
“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.”
The cast for the musical has not been announced. According to a press release, “the timeline for a pre-Broadway engagement will be announced shortly.”
Florence and the Machine’s most recent album, High as Hope, came out in 2018. The group previously contributed a song called ‘Over the Love’ to Baz Luhrmann’s 2013 film adaptation of The Great Gatsby.
