The Met Lyrics – Great Gatsby, The

Song Overview

Review and Highlights

Quick summary

1. Track 8 on the Broadway cast album for The Great Gatsby - A New Musical (Masterworks Broadway), released June 28, 2024.
2. Performed from Nick Carraway’s point of view at Myrtle’s Sugar Hill apartment - he longs to be "at the Met" while the party curdles.
3. Music by Jason Howland, lyrics by Nathan Tysen; book by Kait Kerrigan. Album features Jeremy Jordan, Eva Noblezada, and company.
4. Studio audio clocks ~4:29; mid-tempo pop-theatre groove around 115 bpm in C major.
5. Connects plotwise to Gatsby’s request that Nick arrange tea with Daisy, reframing Nick’s agency vs. the novel’s passivity.

Review

On record, "The Met" rides a crisp, clocking pulse that splits the difference between sly music-hall patter and contemporary Broadway pop. Nick - a classic observer character - finally gets the spotlight and it suits him: Noah J. Ricketts threads wry commentary with mounting dread as the room spins, the booze flows, and Tom’s cruelty erupts. The hook line - wishing they had dropped him "at the Met" - works as a pressure-valve joke and a character sketch. He wants refuge in culture and clarity, not another round or another bad decision.

The arrangement keeps verses nimble - lightly strummed rhythm section, syncopated piano figures, reeds and brass for comic sting - then blooms on the refrain with tight ensemble echoes. It’s less torch, more tumble: a scene-song that propels the plot while showing Nick’s moral center wobbling but intact.

Creation History

The track appears on the Original Broadway Cast Recording of The Great Gatsby - A New Musical, issued digitally on June 28, 2024, with physical CD on August 2, 2024, via Masterworks Broadway/Sony. The Broadway production opened at The Broadway Theatre on April 25, 2024; the creative team pairs composer Jason Howland with lyricist Nathan Tysen and bookwriter Kait Kerrigan. The official YouTube uploads include the album track and a performance-clip montage highlighting the number.

Song Meaning and Annotations

Plot

Nick lands at Myrtle and Tom’s uptown fling pad after being promised a civilized outing. Instead, he’s trapped in a chaotic salon of drinking, innuendo, and passive-aggressive sparring. He tries to maintain manners, keeps counting drinks, and mentally checks out - toward Daisy - until Tom’s violence fractures the scene. By the tag, Nick chooses action: call Gatsby and set the tea that will upend everyone’s summer.

Song Meaning

The piece maps discomfort to conscience. "At the Met" stands in for escape - a museum’s quiet, rules, and cool air - versus a party that rewards status and cruelty. The subtext is the moral negotiation of a bystander: how long do you observe before you intervene? The arrangement’s brisk, almost comic surface lets the darker turn hit harder when Tom strikes Myrtle and Nick’s internal monologue hardens into intent.

Annotations

“Okay, Nick you’re now inside a secret small apartment up in Sugarhill.”

Wry stage direction within the lyric places us at Myrtle’s hideaway; in the book, Tom detours Nick under the pretense of culture before the real destination reveals itself. It’s a bait-and-switch gag that mirrors Nick’s naivete early on.

“So I’m stuck makin’ small talk while they **** a few feet away.”

The elision is the joke; the meaning is not. The staging keeps Nick as witness to performative decadence, aligning with the novel’s voyeur threads.

“I close my eyes but all I see is the glowing face of Daisy Fay.”

Nick’s fixation on Daisy here reads as disgust with Tom’s betrayal and a tug toward Gatsby’s request. It folds romance and revulsion into one clean couplet.

“Oh, they really should’ve dropped me at the Met.”

The Met - shorthand for the Metropolitan Museum of Art - becomes a retro chorus button: a cultural haven, a moral compass, and a punchline. It also sketches Nick as the guy who craves order when rooms get messy.

“All that I can think of is that ill-considered favor Gatsby asked of me.”

The favor is the Daisy tea. Musical Nick frames the choice as payback to Tom, a bolder justification than the novel’s softer, go-along impulse.

“There’s a flash and a crash… and all of this is captured by the greedy-eyed photographer.”

Mr. McKee’s camera is both prop and symbol - appetite, documentation, and in some readings, a wink at the book’s implied Nick-McKee interlude.

“You broke my nose! You broke my nose!”

The moment the comedy drops out. The line tracks straight from Fitzgerald, and on stage it lands like a gavel.

Style and instrumentation

Genre-wise it’s pop-theatre with period garnish: foxtrot ghosts in the harmony, modern rhythm-section snap in the groove. You hear pit-orchestra colors - reeds for sly commentary, brass for comic punches, strings to warm the bridge - and a piano motor that keeps Nick’s patter airborne.

Emotional arc

Start: bemused outsider. Middle: tipsy, cornered, trying to keep etiquette. End: shaken but decisive. The song rides that arc without soapboxing, so when he picks up the phone, it feels earned.

Cultural touchpoint

When the party belts "Ain’t We Got Fun?" it’s not just a period needle-drop - it’s a satirical knife, reminding us the Jazz Age cheer often papered over rot.

Key Facts

• Artist: Noah J. Ricketts; Original Broadway Cast of The Great Gatsby - A New Musical
• Featured: Broadway company voices appear in crowd moments
• Composer: Jason Howland
• Producer: Jason Howland
• Lyricist: Nathan Tysen
• Release Date: June 28, 2024
• Genre: Pop theatre; Broadway
• Instruments: Piano, guitars, bass, drum kit, reeds/woodwinds, brass, strings
• Label: Masterworks Broadway (Sony Music Entertainment)
• Mood: Wry, anxious, finally resolute
• Length: 4:29
• Track #: 8 on the album
• Language: English
• Album: The Great Gatsby - A New Musical (Original Broadway Cast Recording)
• Music style: Narrative scene-song with period pop touches
• Poetic meter: Mixed stress with patter sections; conversational iambs in refrains

Canonical Entities & Relations

Questions and Answers

Where does the scene take place within the story?

At Myrtle’s secret apartment in uptown Manhattan, where Tom, Myrtle, and friends spiral into a booze-soaked mess while Nick narrates his discomfort.

Why does Nick keep repeating the line about the Met?

It’s a character tic and a credo: he craves a civilized refuge - a museum’s order - as the party breaks bad. The refrain lands as both punchline and escape hatch.

How does this lyric treat Nick differently than the novel?

He shows more agency. After Tom hits Myrtle, stage-Nick frames agreeing to Gatsby’s tea as a way to get back at Tom, a sharper motive than the novel’s passive assent.

What musical ingredients drive the number?

A mid-tempo backbeat, patter-friendly piano, and pit-orchestra color (reeds, brass, strings). It’s built for forward motion and comic sting, not balladry.

Is the "Ain’t We Got Fun?" reference important?

Yes. It’s a period signpost turned barb. The cheerful tune rubs against the scene’s ugliness, underlining the show’s satire of Jazz Age glamour.

How fast and in what key is the track recorded?

About 115 bpm in C major on the cast album cut, running roughly 4 minutes and 29 seconds.

Does the album connect to any notable label or release milestones?

It’s issued by Masterworks Broadway, Sony’s theatre imprint; the digital drop hit June 28, 2024, with a CD following on August 2, 2024.

Where in the album sequence does it sit?

Eighth track, right before "Only Tea" and the Act I closer.

Any live or promo videos worth checking?

Yes - the official audio upload and a performance-clip video highlight the song’s staging beats and Ricketts’s delivery.

How to Sing The Met

This is a character patter-song with bite. Think conversational clarity first, then pulse. The goal: ride the groove without crowding the consonants.

• Tempo & key: ~115 bpm; album in C major.
• Suggested vocal range: comfortable baritone/baritenor lane (low C3 to A4 is a practical working target for most performers; adjust to taste).
• Common issues: rushing the patter, losing diction on sibilants, over-belting the refrain, flattening on the spoken-sung pivots.

1. Tempo: Practice with a metronome at 108, then 115. Speak the lyric in rhythm before singing.
2. Diction: Over-articulate T and K in the verses; keep vowels narrow on "Met" so the pitch stays centered.
3. Breath: Map silent sniffs before each new thought. Treat each "at the Met" as the end of a unit, not a cliff.
4. Flow/rhythm: Let the piano’s eighth-note motor carry you; sit slightly behind the beat on jokes, on top for the break-to-rage turn.
5. Accents: Lean into action verbs ("dropped," "broke," "connect") to underline shifts from observer to actor.
6. Ensemble/doubles: If company echoes are present, keep your line dry and centered; let the ensemble supply width.
7. Mic craft: Pull back a touch on the chorus to avoid compression crunch; closer placement for patter keeps intimacy.
8. Pitfalls: Don’t turn the bridge into a belt-off. The heat should arrive when Tom explodes - save the dynamic peak.

Additional Info

The album’s rollout arrived in step with the Broadway run at The Broadway Theatre; the label billed it as a major summer cast release. Press around the production often singled out the Act I closer "My Green Light" and Nick’s material for sharpening the story’s stakes. As stated in a 2024 Rolling Stone’s study of Broadway cast-album streaming habits, mid-tempo narrative tracks with clear character voice tend to play well beyond theatre circles - "The Met" fits that lane. And for context: according to Playbill’s coverage, the digital album hit June 28, 2024, with the physical disc close behind.

Sources

Masterworks Broadway; Playbill; Apple Music; Spotify; YouTube; Musicstax/Tunebat; People magazine.