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Jeremy Jordan and Eva Noblezada crackle with chemistry, even from on opposite coasts of the country. The two will soon share a Broadway stage in The Great Gatsby, a new musical based on F. Scott Fitzgerald’s 1925 novel about obsession and indulgence in Jazz Age New York; he’s playing eternal striver Jay Gatsby, and she’s the unattainable Daisy Buchanan. But Jordan recently had to take a work trip to San Francisco while his co-star continued rehearsing in NYC, and as they reunite on Zoom for this interview, Noblezada is excited to share what he was missing. “We’re making so many changes. In the first scene, you come in on a camel!” she jokes. “Great,” Jordan deadpans back. “I approve of that.”
Fitzgerald’s masterpiece entered the public domain in 2021, and many have rushed to theatricalize it since. Multiple musical versions are dancing around; one debuted in Massachusetts last year and another, Gatsby, will be at the American Repertory Theater this summer. But Jordan and Nobelzada’s version—directed by Marc Bruni, with a book by Kait Kerrigan and songs by Nathan Tysen and Jason Howland—is the first to make it to Broadway. After a buzzy run last fall at New Jersey’s Paper Mill Playhouse, the production begins previews at the Broadway Theatre on March 29 and opens on April 25 (on the last day of Tony eligibility).
Jordan and Noblezada are Time Out New York’s cover stars for March and our spring preview of the Broadway season. Their photoshoot took place at The Plaza’s Palm Court and inside its Fitzgerald Suite—appropriate given this exact setting in the book.
“I know there are other Gatsbys around,” Noblezada says. “But it’s not a competition. Because the book itself is so grand, there’s not just one way to do The Great Gatsby.” Both actors know the source material well: Jordan raves about the audiobook narrated by Jake Gyllenhaal, and Noblezada admits to having watched the Baz Luhrmann movie adaptation “so many times.” This version takes a few creative liberties with the story; notably, it is no longer told solely from the viewpoint of Daisy’s cousin Nick Carraway (played by Noah J. Ricketts), which allows the other characters to share their own firsthand perspectives.
Because the book itself is so grand, there’s not just one way to do The Great Gatsby.
“There’s that old adage that musicals happen when characters are feeling such strong emotions that they can’t be put into words, so they have to sing,” Jordan says. “That lends itself to the epic quality of this story. We’re being handed the keys to these iconic characters and then saying, ‘Let’s take them to another level.’ And even though they’re classic literary characters, there’s so much mystery. We get to fill in the blanks.”
Jordan and Noblezada are veterans of bad romance on Broadway: He was shot to death in Bonnie and Clyde and West Side Story; she committed suicide in Miss Saigon and was consigned to the underworld in Hadestown. Perhaps because their real-life relationships are so stable—Jordan and his longtime wife Ashley Spencer share a four-year-old daughter, and Noblezada has been dating her Hadestown costar Reeve Carney since 2019—they enjoy indulging in drama onstage. The Great Gatsby is certainly rife with it.
“Like most tragic love stories, it’s really toxic,” Jordan says. “I think if you look at it objectively, you’re like, this is not healthy. But that’s the thing that you’re drawn to the most: It’s people experiencing love in its raw form. When you experience love in its natural state, it is very irrational.”
And seductive, too. Gatsby and Daisy’s affair may be dysfunctional but it’s also swoon-worthy—as are Jordan and Noblezada when draped in costume designer Linda Cho’s Roaring Twenties finery—and the stars share a few steamy scenes together. That’s where chemistry comes in.
We’re being handed the keys to these iconic characters and then saying, ‘Let’s take them to another level.’
“I’ve seen people that don’t like each other on stage, and I can tell,” Jordan says. “You have to find some things that you really like about the other person, things that you ‘fall in love’ with.” Noblezada credits their easy intimacy to mutual trust. “I want to be able to feel like I’m safe onstage, and that I can play and be supported,” she explains. “Thankfully, I feel like that with Jeremy. We can also have a laugh, which is really nice.”
“Yeah,” Jordan says. “I like to whisper fart jokes into her ear.”
The stars understand that their roles come with baggage, and they’re steeling themselves to carry it. “Understandably, people are going to have expectations,” says Noblezada. “I kind of felt like this when I did Miss Saigon. A lot of people were like, ‘Oh my God, you’re in the shadow of Lea Salonga, how will you ever fill the shoes of this incredible superstar?’ It’s the same with this character: How can you do it?”
She hopes that audiences will be open to the excitement of a theatrical version of the story they love. “Just like Gatsby never throws the same party twice, it’s never the same show twice,” she says. “That’s part of the joy of live theater—just surrendering to the experience, because it really is a party and it really does tug at the heartstrings.”
“We are unabashedly trying to make a Broadway hit,” Jordan adds, sounding not unlike Jay Gatsby. “And I think we are on our way to doing that.”
The Great Gatsby starts previews on March 29 at the Broadway Theatre. You can buy tickets here.
