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Okay, many of us may be a little grumpy with America today, but remember we’re only disappointed with it because we love it – not least for its extraordinary way with musicals.
Oftentimes transfers from Broadway to the West End can take years – but in something of a surprise one of the biggest hits of the last season will be heading our way next summer, in the form of Jason Howland, Nathan Tysen and Kait Kerrigan’s adaptation of F Scott Fitzgerald’s Jazz Age masterpiece The Great Gatsby.
Hailed by Time Out New York for its ravishing visuals, the musical is a fairly faithful adaptation of Fitzgerald’s oft-adapted novella about Nick Carraway, a bond salesman who becomes such into the glittering orbit of the enigmatic millionaire Jay Gatsby, who is in love with Nick’s cousin Daisy Buchanan.
Rather than launch a full scale West End run, the production will take on the limited spring/summer slot at the huge London Coliseum (which is an opera house the rest of the year), though presumably if the demand is there it could always transfer to another theatre. It’s possible the lightning fast transatlantic transfer is to head off the second major Gatsby musical currently in the works – Florence Welch’s Gatsby: An American Myth is due to arrive on Broadway sometime soon, and presumably over here too (a slightly awks situation that has arisen due to the copyright on the book expiring in 2021).
As one of the most popular books of all time, there’s surely enough for both takes – and if you’re absolutely jonesing for a hit of musical Fitzgerald, London audiences can enjoy the folk opera adaptation of his short story The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, currently running in the West End.
The Great Gatsby will run at the London Coliseum Apr 11-Sep 7 2025. Tickets will go on sale November 28.
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