The jazz-soaked glamour and heartbreak of F. Scott Fitzgerald's most famous novel are headed to downtown Tampa, as the touring production of the Tony Award-winning musical adaptation of The Great Gatsby is set to play six performances at the Straz Center's Carol Morsani Hall from January 19 through January 24, 2027. Tickets for the run go on sale this Friday, August 21.
The stop is part of the Straz Center's Broadway series, according to Tampa Bay 28, and lands in Morsani Hall, the largest of the Straz's five performance spaces, with a 2,610-seat capacity and a 60-foot proscenium stage suited to the production's full-scale sets and costumes, per the Straz Center. Patrons can find ticket and schedule details on the venue's website, strazcenter.org, or by calling the box office at 813-229-STAR.
The musical brings Fitzgerald's Jazz Age tragedy to the stage with a book by Kait Kerrigan and lyrics by Nathan Tysen, a married writing team who developed the adaptation together, alongside a score by composer Jason Howland. The production is directed by Marc Bruni and choreographed by Dominique Kelley, blending what Tampa Bay 28 describes as the story's glitzy, opulent party atmosphere with its underlying tragic element.
From a Sold-Out Tryout to Broadway Acclaim
The show's road to Tampa began with a sold-out world-premiere run at New Jersey's Paper Mill Playhouse in late 2023, a tryout that broke box-office records before the production transferred to Broadway's Broadway Theatre, where it officially opened on April 25, 2024, according to TodayTix. The Broadway staging went on to earn a single Tony Award during the 2023-2024 season, with costume designer Linda Cho winning Best Costume Design of a Musical for roughly 350 Roaring Twenties-era outfits featured throughout the show, as reported by Broadway Buzz.
Behind the production's global rollout is lead producer Shin Chun-soo of South Korea's OD Company, who made Broadway history in 2024 as the first Asian sole lead producer of a Broadway show, according to Arirang News. Shin went on to mount simultaneous productions of the musical in London and Seoul in 2025, working with American creative teams to adapt Fitzgerald's text for audiences well beyond New York.
A Touring Juggernaut Rolling Through More Than 50 Cities
The North American touring production launched on January 31, 2026, at the Hippodrome Theatre in Baltimore, kicking off a multi-year road tour that will visit more than 50 cities, according to Broadway In Austin. Tampa's engagement fits into that expanding national footprint, arriving alongside stops the tour has already made or announced in cities including Columbus, San Antonio and Cincinnati, based on prior Hoodline coverage of those regional season announcements.
The musical's arrival is also made possible by a legal quirk of copyright law. Fitzgerald's 1925 novel entered the U.S. public domain on January 1, 2021, after 95 years of copyright protection, freeing artists to adapt the story for stage and screen without needing permission from the author's estate, according to Duke University School of Law. That expiration triggered a wave of independent adaptations of the story across literature, film and theater, of which this musical is among the most commercially prominent.
Flexible Ticket Packages Amid a Bigger Straz Makeover
Tampa audiences looking to catch The Great Gatsby alongside other touring shows have new options this season. In July, the Straz Center introduced a customizable Build Your Own season package for its 2026-2027 Broadway series, letting patrons select five or more shows from a lineup of 12 visiting productions that also includes Wicked, Death Becomes Her and Disney's Beauty and the Beast, per the Straz Center.
The show's Tampa run also arrives as the venue undergoes a $100 million Boundless renovation and expansion project, reported by Hoodline in June, which is adding riverfront dining, outdoor staging and expanded conservatory space along the Tampa Riverwalk through early 2027. The Straz Center, a nine-acre complex that opened along the Hillsborough River in 1987, is the second-largest performing arts complex in the Southeastern United States, drawing an estimated 600,000 visitors and generating roughly $100 million in annual statewide economic impact, according to Wikipedia.
