New Money (Reprise) Lyrics – Great Gatsby, The

Song Overview

Review and Highlights

Quick summary

1. A short, caustic curtain of gossip after the shooting at Gatsby’s estate - partygoers flip from adoration to schadenfreude.
2. Functions as a dark mirror to the earlier showstopper “New Money,” trading swagger for cold commentary.
3. Appears late in Act II onstage and as track 21 on the cast album.
4. Arrangement favors tight ensemble shouts and crisp rhythm hits - a newsreel set to a dance-band snap.

Creation History

The reprise distills the crowd’s moral vacancy into a brisk tableau. Where “New Money” rides champagne sparkle, this one moves like a headline ticker: short lines, black humor, and a final, chilling “See you at the funeral.” The album was issued by Masterworks Broadway in summer 2024, part of a full recording that captured the Broadway charts with their sleek pit-orchestra sheen. Onstage, the staging usually keeps revelers at a remove from the tragedy - a choice that underlines how quickly a social scene repackages disaster as anecdote.

Song Meaning and Annotations

Plot

Word of Gatsby’s death ripples through the city’s hangers-on. They trade rumors - a mechanic from Queens, mob ties, a macabre pool - and grade it all for entertainment value. No grief, just gossip and a parting joke about the funeral.

Song Meaning

The number is a verdict on status culture: when the music stops, “friends” become spectators. It weaponizes party chatter to show how easily wealth erases empathy - or invites cruelty. The earlier anthem sold the thrill of sudden fortune; this tag line sells the come-down, with the hook “new money” turning into a punchline over a corpse.

Annotations

“I heard the killer runs a filler-up shop out in Queens”

A nod toward the Queens setting and the valley-of-ashes world, where Wilson keeps a garage under the unblinking eyes of the billboard. The rumor mill gets the geography right even when the motives are wrong.

“I heard that Gatsby was done in by the mob”

That’s the city’s favorite shortcut - everything looks like an underworld hit when a bootlegger is nearby. The reprise lets hearsay overrun facts because spectacle sells faster than truth.

“Poor fool who has to clean that pool”

The callous joke does double duty - a splash of gallows humor and a tell about these speakers. They collect parties, not people.

“Buyer beware”

Even the aftermath is reduced to real estate patter. The line twists tragedy into a sales tag, which is exactly the point.

Style & instrumentation

Brisk ensemble stabs, percussion that clicks like camera shutters, and a bass pulse that keeps the quips marching. It’s a revue-size bite with the bite turned all the way up.

Emotional arc

Start: rumor. Middle: one-upmanship. End: the partygoers’ exit line - “See you at the funeral” - lands like a shrug. The cruelty is casual, which is why it stings.

Key Facts

• Artist: Original Broadway Cast of The Great Gatsby - A New Musical
• Featured: Company ensemble voices as partygoers
• Composer: Jason Howland
• Lyricist: Nathan Tysen
• Producer: Masterworks Broadway release
• Release Date: June 28, 2024
• Genre: Broadway pop, satiric vignette
• Instruments: Pit rhythm section with brass/reeds accents
• Label: Masterworks Broadway
• Mood: Cynical, gossipy, cold
• Length: approx. 1:10
• Track #: 21 on the cast album
• Language: English
• Album: The Great Gatsby - A New Musical (Original Broadway Cast Recording)
• Music style: Patter-chorus with tight ensemble hits
• Poetic meter: Mixed syllabics with clipped stresses

Canonical Entities & Relations

Questions and Answers

Where does this reprise land in the show?

Late Act II, after the shooting, as the social circle processes the news with gossip instead of grief.

How does it relate to the earlier number “New Money”?

It inverts the celebration. The first track glamorizes wealth; the reprise treats the same phrase as an epitaph.

Why are the lines so short and punchy?

To mimic rumor cadence - fast, confident, and often wrong.

Is the mob line accurate to the plot?

No. It reflects how scandal spreads around bootlegging circles, not the truth of the act.

What musical colors sell the satire?

Snare clicks like camera shutters, ensemble shots on downbeats, and a bass thrum that moves the whispers along.

How does the pool imagery function?

It anchors the scene in a single macabre picture while the crowd treats it like a party anecdote.

What does the final “See you at the funeral” tell us?

That status spectatorship survives even death. They still want a show.

Awards and Chart Positions

This specific track was not a singles-chart entry. The production around it, however, scored a major design prize: Linda Cho won the 2024 Tony Award for Best Costume Design of a Musical for this show. According to the Tony Awards database and Playbill’s coverage, it was the production’s headline trophy that season.

How to Sing New Money (Reprise)

Tempo & key: about 95 BPM in F minor. Style: tight ensemble patter with clipped attacks and clean cutoffs. Length: roughly seventy seconds - precision matters more than power.

1. Tempo: Practice at 88, then 95. Keep entrances metronomic so the jokes land.
2. Diction: Consonants do the storytelling. Release final consonants together on every unison.
3. Breath: Mark quiet, shared breaths between the two-beat quips to avoid stepping on the groove.
4. Flow & rhythm: Think newsreel - each line is a headline, no rubato.
5. Accents: Pop the morbid nouns - “killer,” “mob,” “pool,” “funeral” - with tiny dynamic hinges, then reset to mezzo.
6. Ensemble balance: Blend above bass and drums; clarity beats volume. Let the hook sit slightly back to keep the sarcasm dry.
7. Mic craft: Stay close for whispers, step off a hair for the stacked “new money” hits.
8. Pitfalls: Overplaying the punchlines. Deadpan sells the cruelty better than camp.

Additional Info

On the commercial release, the album credits read Gatsby Broadway LLC under exclusive license to Masterworks Broadway. Apple Music lists twenty three tracks with this reprise at position twenty one. According to Playbill, the production’s design vision - almost three hundred looks - helped shape how these crowd scenes land visually, which is the runway this reprise sprints down.

Sources (plain names): Apple Music; YouTube; Spotify; Tunebat; Musicstax; Tony Awards; Playbill; Masterworks Broadway.