Exclusive: How Kait Kerrigan & Nathan Tysen Worked Together to Create THE GREAT GATSBY

Hello, I'm Richard Ridge for Broadway World

The hit musical The Great Gatsby continues to dazzle audiences here at the Broadway theater

where I caught up with two of the show's creators, husband and wife, Kate Kerrigan, who wrote the book

and Nathan Tyson, who wrote the lyrics. So first of all, I'm thrilled to be talking

and sitting with both of you here at your theater, the Broadway theater

right before a matinee. What a journey the two of you have been on with this show

So just take me back to the beginning. How did you come about to get this gig to write it

Well, it all came through Jason Howland. Jason Holland is the composer

And I worked on Paradise Square with Jason. And although we were put together on that project

this is kind of like dating. You know what I mean? Just me were like

maybe these two could write a score together. and becoming very fast friends and very good collaborators

I just really liked how he worked. And of course, Kate and I are married

And Kate was, of course, part of the process. We're always part of each other's processes

And Jason kind of fell in love with Kate. Kate always had great dramaturgical notes with Paradise Square

And Jason does... Oh, go ahead. There were some late nights in Berkeley

where we had our daughter who was... She was about three at the time, our older daughter

and I would be back at the little apartment complex and they would come back after hours

and try to figure out what they were going to fix next, how are they going to solve a problem? And I was just there

and the three of us started realizing that we had a real shared connection

with what we cared about in dramaturgy. So it was really, so Jason actually had the idea

that we could all work together on a project. And initially we were writing

we were asked to write The Great Gadsby for our producer is from Korea

Mr. Shin, and he asked us to do it for Korea. We were not bringing it to the United States at all

but because we were, because of the pandemic, because of the timing, we were doing some of the development here

And then slowly but surely, we started to gain momentum here, and we started to talk some theaters

and we said, well, maybe we'll just do it out of town first, and we develop it a little bit more here And then we got some really great actors and we developed these really great relationships and suddenly there were all these new opportunities that started to present itself

So we have whiplash. Totally. But this came together when you started writing it came together pretty fast, didn't it

Yeah, I mean, we were approached, Jason was approached first by Mr. Shin to do this adaptation

and he said, can I do it with American writers? This is an American novel. Mr. Shin said yes

We wrote a treatment in December of 2019, and then, you know, COVID happened, and everything shut down

and it wasn't until basically a year later that we started, a contract was signed, and we started to think about writing it

Then Paradise Square happened. So it was after that opened, finally the three of us got in a room together

We now had a six-month-old baby. We went to Jason's house in Connecticut, which no longer exists, very sad

I mean, the house still exists, but it's not his. And we started writing our first song

so that was June of 21. So these songs are just like a little over three years old

Yeah. So I was going to ask you about collaborations. They're really, really special

and I'd love to ask creators. Of course, you two are married. So I want to know about that dynamic

Like, because are you sitting in bed and be like, oh my gosh, I think I have an idea for a scene

Well, I do think that during the pandemic, it was especially nice to actually be able to work in person with somebody

which is something that we hadn't been doing very much with anybody else

And so we actually, we got, during the pandemic, while we were waiting to do this show

we weren't sure if it was going to happen. We didn't know if theater was ever coming back. We did like a little trial project with Jason called a killer party

It was like all digital. And we had all these stars in lockdown filming themselves, including Jeremy Jordan

And so we had this really nice little test period where we sort of learned about our collaboration

together, but we got to work together in person, which was so nice

And I think that we had watched each other collaborate with so many different people

and we had talked about those collaborations and learned so much about how we collaborate

outside of our own marriage with other people, and we're both kind of obsessed with that idea

of collaboration, how it works, and how you can do better. So it was really fun to jump in with each other and figure that out together And by and large it was just it was only fun And Jason was such an incredible third partner for us

And there were times where the two of you were off on your own, you were doing your own thing. There were times where Jason and I were working on something

And it really, it really was very symbiotic and it didn't feel, it didn't feel like there was

it felt like there was so much room to have ideas. throw things out there, and it felt very safe, and it was just one of the best collaborations

of my life. I haven't worked with a lot of playwrights that also write lyrics, so it was very, very nice

to be able to talk to Kate that she kind of understands song structure and what we would need

in order to set up a song. So much of the creation of the score was done with all three of us, sitting around kind

of brainstorming where do we think the great song moments are, possible hooks, kind of what

the arc of the story of the character's journey of each song was. So we all were on the same page

before anyone kind of split up and started kind of really getting into the nitty-gritty of creating it

Yeah, that first week that we spent at Jason's house was when they wrote some of the first songs

We wrote Roaring On started that week. There was another one too. I think new money, but we changed

a lot of it. But the idea of new money, yeah, the Met started that week. We came up with a lot of

amazing ideas, but one of the things that I love to do when I'm writing a musical, especially

if I'm writing the book, if I can, is to outline the entire show as a group and to figure out

what the song moments are as a group and come up with fake hooks as a group, and so that everybody

kind of knows what you're trying to do, and that it's not the book writer saying, well, this

is what the story is, or the composer and lyrics is going away and deciding on what the songs

are. It's all one thing that this group of people put onto a table, and it's not

one person's idea. What I love about this run is, I mean, it's running and running and running

Fans fly in from all over the world to see the Great Gatsby on Broadway

What does it mean to the two of you as creators and artists to see the joy this musical

is giving audiences? Well, we talked a little bit about how because the initial assignment was to write it for

Korea automatically we were approaching the adaptation we wanted it to feel universal And because of that I think it is I think it hitting and connecting to a lot of people that aren just Americans

And that's been very rewarding. And I mean, we have the best fans on Broadway

It's unbelievable. They have to keep adding more barriers because it just keeps wrapping around the theater

which is so exciting and people return trips. And we also love our social media team

the way that, you know, my, I grew up in a very small town in Kansas

There are people who will never make it to New York to see the show, but they feel like they know these, not only do they know the show

but they know the performers, the kind of like unbelievable backstage access

that you get here, you feel like it's a bit of a family. Yeah, I think there's something, I came up in theater when Off-Broadway kind of fell apart

for a little while, and Nathan did too. He both started at the same time, and my, one of them

my, one of my biggest collaborators is Bree Lauder Milk and the two of us found YouTube and found

these fandoms online and that was where, that was where I lived. That was my bread and butter

That's, I sold cheap music to young performers. And so being able to be in a show like this

that has the energy and the machine and the title and all of those things, but then also has this

kind of bespoke fandom and this relationship with its fans is, it is the most

perfect fit for me. I feel so grateful every day to be able to watch our social media team do

like massively more than I could ever imagine doing, but I can appreciate what they do because

I did it on a smaller scale and being able to watch that happen and then grow and grow and

become international is, it's just the best feeling. And speaking of growing internationally

I was going to very excited. Where are you going next? to talk about

Yes. Great Cats be opening on the West End this spring. It's going to run

April through September at the Coliseum. It's going to be absolutely beautiful

We are very, very excited. Heading to London in a month or so

to do some auditions. Find a cast. Off we go. Well, I love the two of you

I'm thrilled. I'm thrilled. I'm going to open your house. The 20s music has started here. Great to see you

and have the best time in London. Thank you