Florence Welch to create Great Gatsby musical, directed by Rebecca Frecknall
© Centre: Mike Marsland, left and right: Dan Wooller
Now that theatres are getting the "green light", it's fitting that big blockbuster new musicals are also unveiled!
Florence Welch, of Florence and the Machine fame, will be the co-composer and lyricist on a new version of The Great Gatsby, alongside Oscar and Grammy Award nominee Thomas Bartlett. Pulitzer Prize winner Martyna Majok (Cost of Living) will create the book, based on F Scott Fitzgerald's iconic 20th century novel, with timeline to be revealed.
Rebecca Frecknall (Summer and Smoke) will direct the piece, which has yet to reveal where it will play before it heads to Broadway. We're keeping all fingers crossed that it'll be this side of the Atlantic. Jeanie O'Hare serves as story consultant.
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."
Majok added: "I'm thrilled, honored, and inspired to work with this company of extraordinary artists, and to get to live in F Scott Fitzgerald's transcendent, gorgeous words. I'm also overjoyed to be reunited with Rebecca Frecknall, with whom I had the most wonderful experience working on my play, Sanctuary City."
The piece is produced by Len Blavatnik and Amanda Ghost for Unigram in association with Robert Fox.
An original cast recording will be released on Warner Music.
Welch previously appeared on the soundtrack for Baz Luhrmann's version of The Great Gatsby (starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Carey Mulligan), though it appears that these projects are in no way linked.
