News: Heathers star announced in Gatsby: The Musical playing at the Southwark Playhouse

Casting has been announced for Gatsby: The Musical Ruby in the Dust Theatre’s captivating
musical adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s classic novel. Alongside period glitz and glamour, a
smoky jazz score and a sprinkling of wry humour will be a strong cast of West End talent.

Leading on the stage as Daisy Buchanan will be Jodie Steele (Heathers; Six: The Musical) who tells the story through Daisy’s eyes. Jay Gatsby will be played by Ross William (Wild Spandau Ballet; Million Dollar Quartet) while Luke Bayer (Everybody’s Talking About Jamie; Rent) takes the role of Nick Carraway. They will be joined by Bradley Clarkson, Robert Grose, Julie Yammanee, Juan Lobo, Freddie Love, Oliver Mawdsley, Tristan Pegg and Ash Weir.

This original retelling is intertwined with the sophisticated harmony and yearning beat of jazz skilfully harnessed by Composer Joe Evans and Musical Director Victoria Calver. Arranged and Orchestrated by Henry Brennan, this quintessentially American art form perfectly parallels the novel’s themes of enchantment, heartbreak and optimism.

Writer and Director Linnie Reedman comments, “Gatsby has become, over the years, synonymous with glamour, glitz and parties. What a lot of people forget, however, is that the ‘Roaring Twenties’ came immediately after a World War. And a global pandemic. It was a period of upheaval and great change. I think the story of a crushed American dreamed, juxtaposed against individual hope and optimism is essentially pertinent today…”

This production is a fresh understanding of characters and a story made compellingly resonant with the Roaring Twenties we find ourselves in once again.

Wednesday 8th December 2021 – Saturday 8th January 2022 at the Southwark Playhouse, 77-84 Newington Causeway, London, SE1 6BD