Valley of Ashes Lyrics – Great Gatsby, The

Song Overview

Review and Highlights

Quick summary

1. Track 5 on the Original Broadway Cast Recording, released late June 2024.
2. Performed by Paul Whitty as George Wilson, with featured dialogue from Wolfsheim and Myrtle.
3. Ties directly to Fitzgerald’s valley setting and the watchful billboard of Doctor T. J. Eckleburg.
4. Music by Jason Howland and lyrics by Nathan Tysen; book by Kait Kerrigan for the stage work.
5. Studio single distributed via Masterworks Broadway with a concise 2:12 runtime.

Creation History

The cast album arrived as part of the Broadway production’s 2024 season, recorded under Masterworks Broadway after an initial Paper Mill run. The score leans pop-theatre with period color, but this cut stays spare: plucked pulse, muted brass hints, and a workman’s melody that fits Wilson’s grit. According to Apple Music’s listing, the track clocks in at a brisk two minutes and change, nestled early in the album’s first act. Press around the album’s announcement placed composer Jason Howland and lyricist Nathan Tysen at the center of a faithful-but-modern adaptation, while Paul Whitty’s Wilson carries this number like a monologue set to a ticking engine.

Song Meaning and Annotations

Plot

George Wilson opens his garage, greets the looming eyes of the optometrist ad, and talks himself into hope. He shows off a small gift for Myrtle, imagines an escape west, then collides with reality: Wolfsheim’s coded talk about deliveries and the wife who is always elsewhere. The scene sketches a morning in the ash heaps - commerce in whispers, love going threadbare, faith outsourced to a billboard. By the tag, Wilson insists those eyes see everything, which nudges the story toward what is coming.

Song Meaning

This is the working man’s prayer in a landscape of waste. The valley is moral fallout and industrial dust. Wilson’s optimism is fragile, almost performative, as if saying it out loud might conjure better weather. The billboard stands in for judgment and surveillance, an American god with a sales pitch. Musically, the number uses a steady midtempo gait and plainspoken rhyme to keep focus on character: he is earnest, outmatched, and trying to bargain with the world.

Annotations

“Good mornin, Doc”

Doc is Doctor T. J. Eckleburg, whose giant spectacles watch over the road. The lyric literalizes a habit from the novel - talking to the eyes as if they were divine or at least a referee.

“Keep those spectacles clean”

Glasses double as symbol and sales copy. The line winks at the ad while asking for clarity or mercy. Spectacles as a term dates back centuries; here they’re part of the era’s texture.

“Keep those eyes wide, cause I’m seeing green”

Green can be cash, envy, or that dream of a new start. Wilson grabs at all three.

“Talkin to the creepy billboard again?”

Wolfsheim’s aside sets the power dynamic: he moves shipments at night, Wilson keeps his head down and his shop useful.

“To Manhattan to see my sister”

Myrtle’s dodge underlines the affair offstage. The lyric trusts the audience to connect the dots.

Style and production

Call it pop-theatre with noir edges. The rhythm sits around a mid 80s BPM pocket, the arrangement gives Whitty dry space to phrase like a conversation, and the vocal line keeps to a modest range. The emotional arc starts chipper, then frays as Wolfsheim and Myrtle deflate Wilson’s plan. The cultural touchpoint is simple and sharp: the ash heaps of Long Island, industry’s byproduct, people turning gray with it.

Key Facts

• Artist: Original Broadway Cast of The Great Gatsby - A New Musical
• Featured: Paul Whitty as George Wilson; spoken lines by Wolfsheim and Myrtle
• Composer: Jason Howland
• Producer: Masterworks Broadway release for the album
• Release Date: June 28, 2024
• Genre: Pop theatre
• Instruments: Piano, light rhythm section, reeds or muted brass textures
• Label: Masterworks Broadway
• Mood: Hopeful on the surface, anxious underneath
• Length: 2:12
• Track #: 5
• Language: English
• Album: The Great Gatsby - A New Musical (Original Broadway Cast Recording)
• Music style: Character song with conversational phrasing
• Poetic meter: Mixed, speech-driven iambs over 4/4

Canonical Entities & Relations

People

• Jason Howland - composes the score for the stage musical.
• Nathan Tysen - writes lyrics for the stage musical.
• Kait Kerrigan - writes the book for the stage musical.
• Paul Whitty - portrays George Wilson and leads this song.
• Marc Bruni - directs the Broadway production.

Organizations

• Masterworks Broadway - distributes the cast album.
• Broadway Theatre - venue for the 2024 production.
• Paper Mill Playhouse - premiere venue in 2023.

Works

• Valley of Ashes - cast album track centered on George Wilson.
• The Great Gatsby - A New Musical - stage work from which the song originates.
• The Great Gatsby - novel by F. Scott Fitzgerald that supplies the setting and symbolism.

Venues/Locations

• Queens and Long Island - implied setting for the ash heaps and garage.
• Manhattan - the lure that pulls Myrtle away.

Questions and Answers

Who leads the vocal on this number?

Paul Whitty as George Wilson. His voice carries the scene like a morning check-in with the billboard.

Why center a song on the billboard?

Because those eyes stand for watchfulness and judgment. The number makes the metaphor literal and personal.

How does this track shape the show’s pacing?

It’s a breath between party pieces. The groove slows, the lights dim, and we feel the cost that glamour extracts.

What do Wolfsheim’s “tomatoes” imply?

It’s coded talk for contraband. The exchange sketches the offstage economy that keeps the valley alive.

Where does the track sit on the album?

Early in the sequence at position five, right as the story widens beyond mansions and docks.

Is there a specific musical era being quoted?

Rather than pastiche hot jazz, the cut uses modern theatre-pop language with a dusting of 20s ambience.

How does Myrtle’s line change the mood?

Her dismissal punctures Wilson’s optimism and hints at the collision path that defines act two.

What do we learn about Wilson here that the novel only implies?

His habit of self-pep-talks. Set to music, it reads as tender delusion and makes his later actions more tragic.

Awards and Chart Positions

The song itself has no standalone awards, but the production surrounding it drew major attention in 2024. The Broadway staging won a Tony for Costume Design and captured multiple Outer Critics Circle honors, with additional nominations across the season. Press features from the show’s opening months highlighted album tracks such as “For Her” and “My Green Light” alongside Wilson’s valley scene.

How to Sing Valley of Ashes

This is character-first. Keep the tone plain and unvarnished, like a mechanic talking to a friend before the day starts.

• Tempo/BPM: approx. mid 80s.
• Key: C major reported by third-party analyzers.
• Vocal range: low baritone comfort zone with conversational phrasing.
• Style: speech-song, minimal vibrato, slight gravel allowed.

1. Tempo: Rehearse at 85 BPM. Keep the pulse steady, not bouncy.
2. Diction: Enunciate consonants cleanly on shop talk words like “spectacles,” “icebox,” “shipment.”
3. Breathing: Plan quick nasal breaths at line ends to preserve the muttered quality.
4. Flow and rhythm: Sit a hair behind the beat to sound weary but hopeful.
5. Accents: Lean into “Doc,” “green,” and “eyes of God” to spotlight the motif.
6. Ensemble/doubles: Keep doubles sparse or skip them; the intimacy sells the scene.
7. Mic: Dynamic mic, close but slightly off-axis; light compression to keep speech-level detail.
8. Pitfalls: Do not oversing. If it sounds heroically polished, you have missed Wilson.

Additional Info

Playbill and PEOPLE chronicled the show’s path from a sold-out Paper Mill run to Broadway, where the album landed under Sony’s Masterworks Broadway umbrella. Entertainment Weekly premiered performance clips during opening month. For the source symbolism, classroom mainstays point to the valley as moral fallout and the eyes as secular judgment - the song simply lets Wilson say it out loud. As stated in Masterworks Broadway’s own blog, the recording campaign tracked with the production’s high profile spring window.

Sources: Apple Music; Spotify; Masterworks Broadway; Playbill; PEOPLE; Entertainment Weekly; Wikipedia; Litcharts; Tunebat; Musicstax.