Florence + the Machine's Florence Welch writing Great Gatsby musical
Based on F. Scott Fitzgerald’s 1925 novel
Eponymous Florence + the Machine star Florence Welch is writing a new musical based on F. Scott Fitzgerald’s 1925 novel The Great Gatsby.
The stage adaptation will feature lyrics written by Florence Welch together with music by Welch and Oscar and Grammy Award nominee Thomas Bartlett.
Welch and Bartlett – who goes by the stage name of Doveman – previously worked together on the track ‘Jenny of Oldstones’, which featured in the final season of Game of Thrones in April 2019.
The stage production is tentatively titled The Great Gatsby, A New Musical and Pulitzer Prize winner Martyna Majok (Cost of Living) will write the book, and the show will be directed by Rebecca Frecknall (Summer and Smoke). It will be produced by Len Blavatnik and Amanda Ghost for Unigram in association with Robert Fox.
The musical will open at a yet-to-be-revealed location before heading to Broadway at a later date.
Florence 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."
Martyna Majok adds: “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."
Florence + the Machine previously recorded the song ‘Over the Love’ for Baz Luhrmann’s 2013 movie adaptation The Great Gatsby. The stage production and movie are unrelated.
The band’s last studio album ‘High as Hope’ was released in June 2018 and it debuted at no.2 on the UK album chart.