INTERVIEW: Austin Colby on portraying Tom in Broadway’s ‘The Great Gatsby’
Photo: Austin Colby and Aisha Jackson star in The Great Gatsby. Photo courtesy of Evan Zimmerman for MurphyMade / Provided by Vivacity Media Group with permission.
Austin Colby is currently starring on Broadway as the character of Tom Buchanan in the hit musical The Great Gatsby. The accomplished actor, who also performed off-Broadway in Jersey Boys, has been with the show since its run at the Paper Mill Playhouse in New Jersey, and it’s been a long journey to portraying Tom on stage.
“We’re thrilled to be here,” Colby said in a recent phone interview. “We’re one happy family and love that audiences keep coming out and watching our show.”
A few years back, Colby was subletting a friend’s apartment, and his roommate at the time was preparing for a workshop of The Great Gatsby. Colby was already busy with another workshop of his own, but The Great Gatsby’s music by Jason Howland and the lyrics by Nathan Tysen won him over.
“He would come home and talk about the production and was playing me some of the music,” Colby said of his roommate. “I was listening to it. Wow, this is really wonderful, and so when I found out it was going to Paper Mill, I was looking for a job. I wrote my agency and said, ‘Do you think they need an understudy for Jeremy Jordan? I’ve heard some of the music, and I think it’s potentially in my wheelhouse.’ What was wild was the next day I had an appointment for the show, so it happened very quickly.”
Back then, Jordan played Gatsby in the show and has recently returned to the musical. Colby, in the beginning, won a part in the ensemble, and he also understudied the role of Gatsby at the Paper Mill.
“That happened in the fall of 2023, and then we closed not sure if we would be making it to Broadway that season,” he said. “We had heard rumors that it might be happening, so it was around the holidays, around this time, actually that I found out that I was getting an offer to make my Broadway debut in the ensemble, understudying Gatsby.”
Colby was in the Broadway production for one year when the role of Tom opened up, so he asked his agents again if they could set up an audition.
“I knew at the moment that it would be a tricky thing for me to leave the position I was in because I was not only in the ensemble doing my ensemble track, but I also was understudying Gatsby and Tom,” the actor said. “So I went into the audition hopeful but understanding that part of the reason why I wouldn’t get it would be because I was too valuable where I was back then, but I walked into the room, knew everybody behind the table and did the audition. And they were generous enough to offer me the part.”
This March, Colby will have portrayed Tom full time for one year. It has been quite the journey from those early days when he heard the music thanks to his roommate. For the actor, the chance to explore the character of Tom has been a rewarding one; in the show, he is husband to Daisy Buchanan.
“I think that Tom represents old money, and I think there’s a dated nature of the traditional idea around Tom,” he said. “I sink my teeth into representing the privilege that he holds on to and the status and the ease in which he goes through life being born into a wealthy family, being a white straight man in America. A lot of these things are still true today. … I’m telling the story that I want to be told, if that makes sense. I want people to see my character and be like, oh yeah, I know some Toms in my life, and we need to hopefully get them to change their ways a little bit because it’s dated.”
By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com
The Great Gatsby, featuring Austin Colby, continues at the Broadway Theatre on Broadway. Click here for more information and tickets.
