The Great Gatsby party is still raging on the West End

Even for a novel as consistently alive as The Great Gatsby, it’s been a big year for Fitzgerald’s classic. 2025 marks its 100th year, and there’s been a rush of new biographies and reissues and articles, and of course a London stage musical has been a triumph on the West End, a dazzling spectacle at the Coliseum which captures the Jazz Age-set story as a timeless tale of romance, money and the human yearning for something just out of reach.

The show is approaching the wee small hours of its run, but there’s still life in the party yet, with two of the leads – musical hot property Jamie Muscato who plays Gatsby and Corbin Bleu who plays Nick Carraway here after huge acclaim doing the same on Broadway – were in fine fettle when the Standard caught up with them. You can really only catch actors briefly when they’re deep – way deep – into a relentless run like this, Bleu on the go across the theatre in between rehearsals and Jamie nipping out to a coffee shop to get in his iced latte.

“The role is such that I can do something slightly different every day,” Muscato says, of playing the slippery Gatsby, “It always feels fresh. Everyone is having fun. I really enjoy working with all of these amazing actors on stage, because you never know what you're gonna receive from them. I think everyone's just really up for playing and making it new every day. I'm having a blast and 100 shows has gone incredibly quickly.”

Ah yes: 100 shows! But when you’re racking up show after show, day after day, it flies by. Presumably though, it does require absolute focus and dedication, with the personal hyper-vigilance of an athlete or a monk to protect voice and body...

“Er, I mean I probably should, but I’ve just got back from four days at Glastonbury,” laughs Muscato, “I came straight back to the show, which I thought might be quite tricky, but because it's built into my body now it was actually quite fun!”

Jamie Muscato & Frances Mayli McCann in The Great Gatsby (Johan Persson)

Bleu is similarly at ease with Gatsby life, “I have lived the journey of these 100 shows, I can tell you. But it goes by very quick and at this point it feels very settled. “Every night is different, yet what changes is within the confines of what we have built. I’m surrounded by a great cast and it can change according to a person’s intention that night. That’s really cool and makes it feel more like a play than a musical. I feel very lucky for this to be my West End debut.”

Bleu’s Carraway is of course the narrator of this tale, the wannabe New York bond dealer who moves into a cottage on Long Island next door to the mansion of Jay Gatsby, a flash but mysterious figure who throws wild parties - possibly funded by gangster dealings in this era of Prohibition. They’re on the new money side of the sound in West Egg, but across the water is East Egg, where Daisy Buchanan, Carraway’s cousin, lives with her husband Tom. Gatsby used to court Daisy before the war, and all the parties he throws are for her… and well, the rest is all intrigue, hilarity, romance, lust and tragedy.

The show brings the story to vivid life, with big numbers, spectacular sets and some staggeringly effective action, but for Bleu it all comes back to the text: “The show is very opulent, it's a feast for the eyes in terms of the sets and costumes and special effects, but all of that without actual storytelling is just dressing.”

Indeed, for all the twists and turns of the plot, it’s all character really, with the puzzle of Jay Gatsby never to be solved.

Muscato explains some of the character’s backstory: “He was a poor lad, from a not very nice family, he didn't get on with his parents, And when he was 17, he saved this rich guy, on his boat, and the rich guy took him under his wing. Jay saw this man who seemingly had everything that he had ever dreamed of in life, money, power, confidence. And he created a persona for himself, half-based on that man.

A little bit later on in his life, he was going to war and there was a big dance before they went off. He met this girl called Daisy and absolutely fell head over heels in love with her. He went off to war and 5 years passed. He comes back into her life as this enigmatic millionaire on the wrong side of the tracks. These huge parties are supposed to lure her over so he can bump into her very naturally, except it’s the most planned plan that anyone's ever planned.

Corbin Bleu, Rachel Tucker & Jon Robyns in The Great Gatsby West End (Johan Persson)

They fall in love and then things fall apart, as his backstory gets discovered by Daisy's husband. It's a really weird love story where nobody is entirely good, and nobody gets what they really want at the end.”

Bleu has been fascinated by this story since he was a kid, and remains one of his true passions.

“I think it was in middle school when I first read it, and I became obsessed with it,” he says, “So much so that I was actually given an original publication for my 18th birthday. I still have it. It's one of my prize possessions.

“It is a story about star-crossed lovers, but it's also about class and pursuing that which is impossible because of how you were born. While it doesn't necessarily end hopefully, I think ultimately it's a warning of money doesn't bring happiness, because even our villains who walk away without consequence, they ultimately walk away unhappy.

“And it's not about the destination, it's about the journey, and you cannot say that Gatsby's life has not been one fantastic journey.”

One of the innovations of the musical, is in bringing out the homo-erotic implications in the story, which feels like a vital new take.

Says Bleu, “Nick's relationship with Gatsby is one of the most talked about things: how does Nick actually feel about Gatsby? In the novel, there is an underlying semi-sexual obsession with him. It's just hinted at but it's something that, as we've continued the show, I've really tried to implement more and more. I wanted my Nick to definitely have a love and adoration for him.”

This is one of the most intriguing things about live theatre, how a production can evolve over time and new themes can emerge, so that an audience member might see a show at two different points in the run and be left with entirely different experiences and impressions.

No wonder the actors feel a continual rush over 100+ shows, when you’re wrestling a shape-shifting beast. For both Bleu and Muscato, the ‘Plaza scene’ in Act Two is their favourite to do, since it is the most combustible and unpredictable scene in there.

“It’s a scene towards the end, which is where Tom finally tells Gatsby in front of everybody that he knows that he is a bootlegger,” says Muscato, “I love the change in power through that scene. Jay goes into the scene with all of the power, he's got Daisy, they're about to tell Tom that they're about to elope and she's gonna leave him. So he comes in with this incredible amount of confidence. And then towards the end of the scene where Tom delivers that blow, Gatsby is completely defeated. It’s a really fun one to play from going from 100% confidence to my entire life falling apart, in one room, in one scene.”

“You have all of your major players in that scene,” says Bleu, “And every single night it is different, and it depends on how heated the argument can get. Some nights it gets to the point that you can tell it's almost about to get violent on that stage. Those are my favourite nights. On the edge of violence, where it needs to be!”

And with that, they both have to off back into the 1920s, back to Gatsby world, back to the immortal story which will always be read and discussed and puzzled over - but more than anything, will always move people with its existential tragedy.

Jamie Muscato in The Great Gatsby (Johan Persson)

Even Muscato says, “I don’t know who Gatsby is. I know what I think he is, but there's something about the story and about Jay Gatsby that's just endlessly intriguing, something you can't ever sort of solve.

“Has he rubbed off on me? Probably to a certain extent. I think being an actor, there is a certain amount of facade in what I do. And when I'm speaking to you, I'm trying to put on the best version of myself. So there is that kind of artifice that I think every person and definitely every actor shares. He’s just a man trying to make a dream come true, and I think we all can relate to that.”

The Great Gatsby is at the London Coliseum until 7 September