Finale: Roaring On Lyrics – Great Gatsby, The

Song Overview

Review and Highlights

Quick summary

1. Closing tableau for Nick and ensemble - the shore, the city, and the stubborn pull of a green light.
2. Music by Jason Howland, lyrics by Nathan Tysen; on The Great Gatsby - A New Musical (Original Broadway Cast Recording), released June 28, 2024.
3. Lead vocal on the album by Noah J. Ricketts as Nick; the cut runs about 2:49 at roughly 120 BPM.
4. Text folds in the novel’s famous final lines, then lets the chorus answer with a party that refuses to die.
5. According to Playbill, the digital album landed late June 2024, with CDs following in early August - neat timing for summer crowds.

Creation History

The finale knits the show’s two registers - party and reckoning. Howland writes in even, unfussy phrases that feel like waves; Tysen’s lyric gives space for Nick’s spoken reflection before the chorus surges. The score’s pop-jazz sheen stays restrained here: a steady 4/4, grounded drums, and a modest lift into the refrain where the company sings of parties that keep roaring on. It is the musical’s answer to the novel’s last paragraph - not to explain it, but to stage the ache and the loop.

Song Meaning and Annotations

Plot

On his last New York night, Nick walks to the water and unspools the summer. He names the wreckage - Tom and Daisy’s carelessness, Jordan’s tangle with him, the Wilsons, the rumor mill - and fixes on the image that started it all: Gatsby reaching toward a distant pinprick of green. The company then counters with a refrain about parties that keep coming, bribes paid, consequences dodged. Curtain.

Song Meaning

This finale argues that aspiration is a treadmill. The green light is a lure that always sits a touch beyond fingertip range, yet the body still leans toward it. The ensemble’s coda reframes that longing as a civic habit - the party machine that eats every lesson. The mood is clear-eyed, not bitter. The music is modest on purpose: a measured pulse that lets the words - and the image of that shoreline - land.

Annotations

“All of us holding on to the foul dust of our dreams so tightly, we couldn’t see straight”

Main thesis, boiled down. Everyone is blinded by their own chase. The finale lets Nick say it plainly before the crowd drowns him out again.

“I still can see Gatsby - Standing in silhouette - His arm stretched to the sky”

A mirror to the opener. Early in the show Nick spots a figure by the water, arm raised. Here he understands the reach for what it was: faith with a fuse.

“That light across the water - Is always out of reach”

The symbol that launched a thousand term papers. The song keeps it literal and metaphorical at once: a dock lamp and a dream you can’t quite close your hand around.

“So why do we - Keep reaching?”

Nick turns to us, then answers with the novel’s famous last words. It lands like a thesis defense and an elegy in one.

“Where’s the party and can you take me there?”

The ensemble’s kicker. After death and fallout, the system shrugs and orders more ice. The tune doesn’t cheer this; it documents it.

Style and instrumentation

G minor center, 4/4, about 120 BPM; drums and piano carry, with strings adding glow under the spoken passage. The arrangement favors breath and space so the prose can sit without a fight.

Emotional arc

Recollection - recognition - resignation. Nick’s solitude holds for a beat, then the crowd surges and swallows the lesson. The point is the dissonance.

Key Facts

• Artist: Original Broadway Cast of The Great Gatsby - A New Musical
• Featured lead: Noah J. Ricketts as Nick Carraway
• Composer: Jason Howland
• Lyricist: Nathan Tysen
• Producer: album production team led by Billy Jay Stein for Strike Audio, with the show’s producers credited on the release
• Release Date: June 28, 2024
• Genre: show tune with pop phrasing
• Instruments: rhythm section, keys, strings, ensemble vocals
• Label: Masterworks Broadway
• Mood: reflective, steady, unsentimental
• Length: 2:49
• Track #: 23 on the cast album
• Language: English
• Album: The Great Gatsby - A New Musical (Original Broadway Cast Recording)
• Music style: narrative finale, spoken text over pulse leading to ensemble refrain
• Poetic meter: prose quotation over isochronous accompaniment; sung sections in mixed iambic stresses

Canonical Entities & Relations

Jason Howland - composed - the finale. Nathan Tysen - wrote lyrics for - the finale. Noah J. Ricketts - performed - Nick’s lead vocal on the album. Masterworks Broadway - released - the cast recording. Kait Kerrigan - wrote - the musical’s book. Marc Bruni - directed - the Broadway production. Dominique Kelley - choreographed - the Broadway production. Linda Cho - designed - costumes for the show. Paul Tate dePoo III - designed - scenery and projections. F. Scott Fitzgerald - authored - the source novel.

Questions and Answers

Where does the finale sit in the show’s architecture?

Dead last, as a reflective coda. It pairs Nick’s shoreline monologue with the company’s party refrain.

Does it quote the novel?

Yes. Nick speaks the closing lines from the book - a rare case where prose slips into a Broadway finale with no translation needed.

Why a restrained groove instead of a power anthem?

Because quiet makes the argument louder. A measured beat lets the words breathe; the ensemble’s entry feels earned.

How does it dialogue with the opening number?

“Roaring On” introduces the silhouette at the water. The finale returns to that frame with comprehension rather than awe.

What problem is the song solving in story terms?

It reconciles the show’s spectacle with the novel’s skepticism. The party motif returns, and the lyric admits that change is cosmetic.

Any notable performance credits on the track?

Conductor Daniel Edmonds and associate conductor Nicholas Cheng are credited across the album; the cut’s polish reflects that pit precision.

Did the album land during the Broadway run?

Yes - late June 2024 digitally, early August on CD, which helped ride word of mouth, according to Playbill’s coverage.

What single image defines the track?

Gatsby’s reach for a tiny light and a future that stays just out of frame.

Awards and Chart Positions

Tony Awards 2024: Best Costume Design of a Musical - Linda Cho - winner. As stated on the Tony Awards site.

Drama Desk 2024: Outstanding Scenic Design of a Musical - Paul Tate dePoo III - winner.

Outer Critics Circle 2024: Outstanding Costume Design - Linda Cho - winner; Outstanding Scenic Design - Paul Tate dePoo III - winner (tie).

How to Sing Finale: Roaring On

Essentials: Approx. key G minor; tempo near 120 BPM; time signature 4/4; duration about 2:49. Written for a lyric baritenor/tenor lead with ensemble; sit in speech-like placement for the monologue and a supported mix for the sung lines.

1. Tempo: Lock a steady 120 BPM click. Resist rubato during the spoken paragraph; let the band be your metronome.
2. Diction: Consonants carry the prose. Land T and K cleanly; avoid chewing the famous closing lines.
3. Breathing: Map quiet, low breaths between sentences. Save a fuller tank for the climb into “Why do we keep reaching?”
4. Flow & rhythm: Speak on the grid. For sung bars, think 2-bar swells that crest on title words.
5. Accents: Lift “boats,” “current,” and “past.” Those are the thesis beats.
6. Ensemble: On the reprise, unify sibilants and cutoffs; the choir’s blend should feel like one narrator with many throats.
7. Mic craft: Cardioid at 6-8 inches; step in for the prose and back off for the ensemble overlay.
8. Pitfalls: Over-sentiment. Keep it even. Let the lyric sting by staying level.

Practice materials: Loop the chorus vamp at 120; rehearse the prose into click, then add strings to find the breath shape.

Additional Info

Album release arrived digitally in late June 2024 via Masterworks Broadway; the CD hit shelves at the start of August. According to Playbill, the timing aligned with the show’s early summer audience surge. And yes - the design team’s hardware matters here: Linda Cho’s costume win and Paul Tate dePoo III’s scenic honors shape how this finale reads. The last image - a man, a dock, a light - sits inside a world built to glitter. The party makes sure it keeps doing so.

Sources

Playbill; Masterworks Broadway; Apple Music; Spotify; YouTube; Tunebat; Volt.fm; Tony Awards; Drama Desk; Outer Critics Circle; Shazam