Everything you need to know about 'The Great Gatsby' on Broadway

Step back into the 1920s at the first Broadway musical adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald's classic American novel, starring Jeremy Jordan and Eva Noblezada.

Pop the bottles, put on your flapper dresses and pinstripe suits, and get ready to party like it's 1920! The Great Gatsby on Broadway, the Tony Award-winning musical adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald's Jazz Age novel, tells a story of love, class, obsession, and unfulfilled dreams, all set to jazz-pop music that brings the Roaring Twenties into the 2020s.

Tony Award-nominated Broadway favorites Jeremy Jordan and Eva Noblezada star as Jay Gatsby and his out-of-reach love, Daisy Buchanan. Surrounding them in this romantic drama is an ensemble of more powerhouse performers, glitzy period costumes and sets, high-stepping choreography, and more. The Great Gatsby is nothing short of a spectacle, capturing the glamour and excess of a bygone New York.

Want to join the party? Learn more about the show, its source material, and history below, and then get tickets soon, old sport.

Get The Great Gatsby tickets now.

What is The Great Gatsby about?

The Great Gatsby, adapted from F. Scott Fitzgerald's 1925 novel of the same name, follows mysterious millionaire Jay Gatsby and his obsessive attempts to rekindle a romance with socialite Daisy Buchanan. The two had a relationship years prior when he was poor. Although she has since married another rich man, Gatsby buys a house across from hers and throws lavish parties, hoping she'll attend.

The story is narrated by Nick Carraway, a middle-class cousin of Daisy's who moves into a small house next to Gatsby and befriends him. The story's main themes are love and obsession, memory, materialism and class differences, and the American Dream, which is out of reach for many of the characters.

Where is The Great Gatsby playing?

The Great Gatsby is playing at the Broadway Theatre. One of only three Broadway venues actually located on the same-named street, the massive theatre sports 1,763 seats and was built in 1924.

Well-known recent productions at the Broadway Theatre include Here Lies Love, Miss Saigon, King Kong, and West Side Story.

How long is The Great Gatsby?

The Great Gatsby runs approximately 2 hours and 30 minutes, including one 15-minute intermission. This is a typical running time for a Broadway musical.

What days is The Great Gatsby playing?

The Great Gatsby plays Wednesday through Monday, with two performances on Thursdays and Saturdays and no performances on Tuesdays. Check The Great Gatsby's page for the most up-to-date schedule, including one-off changes to performance dates and times.

When did The Great Gatsby musical premiere?

The Great Gatsby on Broadway began performances in 2024, but the story's history stretches back all the way to the original Roaring Twenties. Check out a timeline of The Great Gatsby on Broadway and beyond.

• 1925: F. Scott Fitzgerald publishes The Great Gatsby novel. Surprisingly, upon its release, it received mixed reviews and sold poorly as compared to his previous books, but it's since become a beloved American classic.
• 1926: The first stage adaptation of The Great Gatsby, a play by Owen Davis, premiered on Broadway. That show is unaffiliated with the Broadway musical.
• 2021: The Great Gatsby novel enters the public domain, spawning a wave of new adaptations of the work now that the rights to it are free.
• 2023: The Great Gatsby musical has its world premiere at the Paper Mill Playhouse in Millburn, New Jersey, starring Jeremy Jordan and Eva Noblezada.
• 2024: The Great Gatsby premieres on Broadway. All but one of the principal cast members from the New Jersey run reprised their roles.

Who wrote The Great Gatsby?

F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote the original Great Gatsby novel in 1925. It remains his best-known work and is widely regarded as a "Great American Novel," one of the most famous literary classics of all time.

Kait Kerrigan adapted Fitzgerald's novel into the script for The Great Gatsby musical. Nathan Tysen and Jason Howland, known for co-writing the 2022 Broadway musical Paradise Square, wrote the songs.

The Great Gatsby characters

The Great Gatsby features a variety of characters from all classes of New York society. Here are all the major players in the book and musical.

• Jay Gatsby: A young millionaire whose past and means of getting his wealth are shrouded in mystery. He is obsessed with his former flame, Daisy Buchanan, and determines to win her back.
• Nick Carraway: Gatsby's neighbor and friend who narrates the story. He meets him after freshly arriving to the East Coast from the Midwest. Via Gatsby and Daisy, he quickly gets a taste of high society — and just as quickly becomes disillusioned with it.
• Daisy Buchanan: A socialite and Gatsby's former lover. She is materialistic, more concerned with status than anything else.
• Tom Buchanan: Daisy's snobbish, millionaire husband.
• Jordan Baker: Daisy's friend and a pro golfer. She develops a romantic relationship with Nick though, in the musical, she is against traditional marriage and values her independence.
• Myrtle Wilson: Tom's mistress, a woman who is desperate for an escape from her lower-class life and unfulfilling marriage.
• George Wilson: Myrtle's working-class husband. He is a mechanic and owns a garage.
• Meyer Wolfsheim: A shady businessman with whom Gatsby engages in bootlegging. He is a minor character in the book but expanded for the musical, in part because Wolfsheim originally relied on anti-Semitic stereotypes.

Who is in the cast of The Great Gatsby musical?

Two Broadway favorites play the central couple in The Great Gatsby. Tony Award nominee Jeremy Jordan (Newsies, Waitress, Bonnie and Clyde) stars as Jay Gatsby opposite Tony nominee Eva Noblezada (Hadestown, Miss Saigon) as Daisy Buchanan.

The main cast also includes Noah J. Ricketts as Nick Carraway, Samantha Pauly as Jordan Baker, Sara Chase as Myrtle Wilson, John Zdrojeski as Tom Buchanan, Paul Whitty as George Wilson, Eric Anderson as Wolfsheim.

Anderson is the only cast member who joined for the Broadway run, replacing Stanley Wayne Mathis. All others performed in both the show's New Jersey world premiere and Broadway transfer.

The Great Gatsby songs

The Great Gatsby's jazz-pop score had 25 songs during the pre-Broadway production, but the Broadway version got pared down to 22. Many songs' titles are borrowed from famous phrases in Fitzgerald's novel, such as "Beautiful Little Fool" and "My Green Light." Here are all the songs in The Great Gatsby musical.

Act 1

• "Roaring On"
• "Absolute Rose"
• "New Money"
• "For Her"
• "Valley of Ashes"
• "Second-Hand Suit"
• "For Better or Worse"
• "The Met"
• "Only Tea"
• "My Green Light"

Act 2

• "Shady"
• "Better Hold Tight"
• "Past Is Catching Up to Me"
• "La Dee Dah With You"
• "Go"
• "Made to Last"
• "One-Way Road"
• "God Sees Everything"
• "For Her (Reprise)"
• "New Money (Reprise)"
• "Beautiful Little Fool"
• "Finale: Roaring On"

What awards has The Great Gatsby musical won?

The Great Gatsby won the 2024 Tony Award for Best Costume Design of a Musical (for designer Linda Cho). Also in 2024, the show was nominated for four Outer Critics Circle Awards, including Outstanding New Broadway Musical; it won for Paul Tate DePoo III's set design. Eva Noblezada, as Daisy Buchanan, was nominated for the 2024 Drama League Award for Distinguished Performance.

Major productions of The Great Gatsby musical

The Great Gatsby musical has only had two major productions: its 2023 pre-Broadway run at the Paper Mill Playhouse in Millburn, New Jersey, and the 2024 Broadway production at the Broadway Theatre. Its dazzling glamour, energy, and familiar source material, though, mean more productions are likely to follow around the U.S. and the world.

This musical is not to be confused with Gatsby: An American Myth, another musical inspired by Fitzgerald's novel. That show had its pre-Broadway run in summer 2024 at the American Repertory Theatre in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Onscreen adaptations of The Great Gatsby

The Great Gatsby musical has not had a film adaptation, but multiple film adaptations of the novel came out before the Broadway show did. Robert Redford played the title character on screen in 1974 opposite Mia Farrow as Daisy and Sam Waterston as Nick.

Leonardo DiCaprio, Carey Mulligan, and Tobey Maguire took on those respective parts in a lavish 2013 film directed by Baz Luhrmann.

Fun facts about The Great Gatsby on Broadway

Learn even more about The Great Gatsby's great history on the page and stage.

• A non-musical play adaptation of The Great Gatsby premiered on Broadway in 1926. The script, by Owen Davis, was used as the basis for a Great Gatsby screenplay later that year, but that film is now lost.
• Another musical adaptation of Fitzgerald's book, Gatsby: An American Myth, premiered in the same theatre season as this Great Gatsby musical. Gatsby: An American Myth is co-created by Florence Welch (of Florence + The Machine), Thomas Bartlett, and Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Martyna Majok.
• A famous scene in the book and musical takes place in NYC's Plaza Hotel. Fitzgerald famously used to frequent the hotel's bar, and a suite there is now named for him.
• Costume designer Linda Cho described the show's outfits as "Cheater '20s" to New York Theatre Guide. For example, she replaced the loose, drop-waist flapper dresses popular at the time with more form-fitting dresses. "The only people that look good in that particular silhouette are teenage boys," Cho joked in a separate interview.
• Gatsby's famous yellow car appears in the show — it's a functional, life-sized, old-fashioned car that actually rolls around the stage!

Get tickets to The Great Gatsby on Broadway

The Great Gatsby is Broadway's biggest party, old sport. Step back into the Roaring Twenties and get in on the fun.

Get The Great Gatsby tickets now.

Photo credit: The Great Gatsby on Broadway. (Photos by Matthew Murphy)