Florence Welch, lead singer of Florence and the Machine, has revealed that she is working on a stage musical adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby.
The Brit Award-winning artist will work with the Grammy-nominated Thomas Bartlett, also known as Doveman, on the new show’s musical numbers and composition. The production has a current working title of The Great Gatsby, A New Musical.
Welch has previously contributed to the soundtrack of Baz Luhrmann’s 2013 film adaptation of the novel with ‘Over the Love.’
Citing her love for the novel, Welch told Variety that “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.”
Bartlett has previously been nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Song for ‘Mystery of Love,’ a collaboration with Sufjan Stevens for the soundtrack to the Oscar-winning film Call Me By Your Name. Bartlett and Welch previously collaborated on ‘Jenny of Oldstones,’ which was featured in the soundtrack for the final season of Game of Thrones.
Len Blavatnik and Amanda Ghost of Unigram will produce the musical with Robert Fox. Pulitzer Prize winner Martyna Majok will write the script, with Oliver Award nominee Rebecca Frecknall directing. Warner Music will distribute the original cast recording.
The Great Gatsby entered the public domain at the beginning of this year, meaning that new adaptations of the original novel can be produced and performed across any medium free from copyright restrictions.
Words by Olivia Gacka.
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