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Adaptations

Image:James Rennie and Florence Eldridge in The Great Gatsby, 1926.jpg

One hundred years after its publication, The Great Gatsby has been adapted for nearly all media.{{sfn|Benedetti|2010}}{{sfn|Paskin|2010}} [...]

Mere days after reading the novel in the spring of 1925, theatre impresario William Brady acquired the rights to produce the first stage adaptation. Brady hired Pulitzer Prize-winning dramatist Owen Davis to pen the script.{{sfn|West|Daniel|2024|pp=xii–xiv}} Davis greatly altered the novel, rearranging the action in chronological order, eliminating key scenes such as the confrontation at the Plaza Hotel, and inventing minor characters.{{sfn|West|Daniel|2024|p=xxx}} Directed by George Cukor and starring James Rennie as Gatsby and Florence Eldridge as Daisy, the play opened on Broadway on February 2, 1926, and ran for 112 performances.{{sfn|West|Daniel|2024|pp=xvi–xviii, xxvii–xxviii}} The production moved to other cities and became a great success.{{sfn|West|Daniel|2024|pp=xxviii–xxix}}

Following the success of Owen Davis's Broadway play, Paramount Pictures bought the rights to the play and undertook the first film adaptation in 1926, directed by Herbert Brenon and starring Warner Baxter as Gatsby, Lois Wilson as Daisy, and Neil Hamilton as Nick. It is now a famous lost film. A trailer of the film at the National Archives is all that is known to exist.{{sfn|Dixon|2003}} Although Fitzgerald purportedly liked the 1926 film,{{sfn|Phillips|1986|pp=110-111}} his wife Zelda loathed the silent version. Zelda wrote that she exited the cinema midway through the film and declared it to be "rotten".{{harvnb|Howell|2013}}; {{harvnb|Hischak|2012|pp=85–86}}.

{{multiple image

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| image1 = Great Gatsby lobby card.jpg

| alt1 = A lobby card advertising the lost 1926 Gatsby film version

| caption1 = A lobby card for the lost 1926 film adaptation

| image2 = The Great Gatsby trailer (1926).webm

| alt2 = A trailer advertising the 1926 Gatsby film

| caption2 = The 1926 film trailer—the only extant footage

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With the advent of sound films, actor Clark Gable conversed with Fitzgerald about remaking The Great Gatsby as a star vehicle for himself in the early 1930s.{{sfn|Phillips|1986|p=111}} Gable pressed Paramount Pictures to hire John O'Hara to write the screenplay, but his efforts failed, and Fitzgerald died in 1940.{{sfn|Phillips|1986|p=111}} Soon after, the publication of the Armed Services Edition of the novel during World War II and the concurrent promotional efforts by the author's friend Edmund Wilson led to a Fitzgerald revival.{{sfn|Bruccoli|2002|p=492}} Capitalizing upon this revival, Paramount Pictures undertook a second film adaptation in 1949, directed by Elliott Nugent and starring Alan Ladd, Betty Field and Macdonald Carey.{{harvnb|Dixon|2003}}; {{harvnb|Hischak|2012|pp=85–86}}. Although disliked by Fitzgerald's friends such as Edmund Wilson, the film proved a commercial success.

Amid the Fitzgerald revival, the first television and musical adaptations appeared. The first was in 1955 as an NBC episode for Robert Montgomery Presents starring Robert Montgomery, Phyllis Kirk, and Lee Bowman. The episode was directed by Alvin Sapinsley.{{sfn|Hyatt|2006|pp=49–50}} Soon after, the Yale Dramatic Association performed the first musical production of The Great Gatsby in the summer of 1956.{{harvnb|Tredell|2007|p=109}}: "It was adapted for a musical at Yale University in 1956".{{sfnm|The New York Times|1956|1p=21|Wilmington News-Journal|1956|2p=11|The Reporter Dispatch|1956|3p=6}} For the production, Aubrey L. Goodman adapted Fitzgerald's novel and wrote the lyrics for 14 songs by composer Robert E. Morgan. The show was performed in the University Theatre at Yale University to sold-out performances.{{sfnm|The Waco Times-Herald|1956|1p=24|The Boston Globe|1956|2p=127}} In 1958, CBS filmed another adaptation as an episode of Playhouse 90, also titled The Great Gatsby, which was directed by Franklin J. Schaffner and starred Robert Ryan, Jeanne Crain and Rod Taylor.{{sfn|Hischak|2012|pp=85–86}}

Twenty-five years later in 1974, Paramount remade The Great Gatsby again as a theatrical film. It was directed by Jack Clayton and starred Robert Redford as Gatsby, Mia Farrow as Daisy, and Sam Waterston as Nick Carraway. Most recently, The Great Gatsby was directed by Baz Luhrmann in 2013 and starred Leonardo DiCaprio as Gatsby, Carey Mulligan as Daisy, and Tobey Maguire as Nick. Most recently, the novel was adapted as an A&E movie in 2000. The Great Gatsby was directed by Robert Markowitz and starred Toby Stephens as Gatsby, Mira Sorvino as Daisy, and Paul Rudd as Nick.{{sfn|Howell|2013}}{{sfn|Hischak|2012|pp=85–86}}

The novel's entry into the public domain in January 2021 sparked renewed interest in the material, leading to a glut of new adaptations. In 2023, the third musical adaptation, with music and lyrics by Jason Howland and Nathan Tysen and a book by Kait Kerrigan began a one-month limited engagement at the Paper Mill Playhouse.{{sfn|Heckmann|2023}} The production transferred to Broadway for previews on March 29, 2024, and opened officially on April 25th, 2024.{{sfn|Leavitt|2024}}{{sfn|Hall|2024}} Jeremy Jordan and Eva Noblezada starred as the leading roles of Jay Gatsby and Daisy Buchanan.{{sfn|Gordon|Stewart|2023}} In Spring 2024, Gatsby: An American Myth, a fourth musical adaptation with music and lyrics by Florence Welch and Thomas Bartlett and a book by Martyna Majok premiered at the American Repertory Theater. The production starred Isaac Cole Powell as Jay Gatsby and Ben Levi Ross as Nick Carraway.{{sfn|American Repertory Theater|2023}}

Since entering the public domain in 2021, retellings and expansions of The Great Gatsby have become legal to publish. Nick by Michael Farris Smith (2021) imagines the backstory of Nick Carraway.{{sfn|Flood|2020}} That same year saw the publication of The Chosen and the Beautiful by Nghi Vo, a retelling with elements of the fantasy genre while tackling issues of race and sexuality,{{sfn|Wick|2021}} and The Pursued and the Pursuing by AJ Odasso, a queer partial retelling and sequel in which Jay Gatsby survives.{{sfn|Grossman|2021}} Anna-Marie McLemore's own queer retelling, Self-Made Boys: A Great Gatsby Remix, was released in 2022 and was longlisted for the National Book Award for Young People's Literature.{{sfn|Cerézo|2022}}