'The Great Gatsby''s Reeve Carney and Eva Noblezada are the ultimate '20s power couple

The newly married actors are leading their third production together after meeting in the cast of Hadestown and later starring in Cabaret in London's West End.

Summary

• Spouses Reeve Carney and Eva Noblezada star as Jay Gatsby and Daisy Buchanan in The Great Gatsby on Broadway
• The pair met while co-starring in Hadestown and have also performed together in Cabaret in London
• Carney and Noblezada discuss how their offstage dynamic informs their onstage one; their approaches to their Gatsby roles; and other projects they want to do together

On a typical morning, Eva Noblezada and Reeve Carney can be found catching up on emails and walking their dog, Petunia, before heading off to work. They'll pick up some fuel — chicken salad or sushi for Carney; ginger shots and a "large, large coffee" from Ground Central on 53rd Street for Noblezada — and, hours later, take time to relax once they're back home. It's a pretty normal schedule for a married couple, the unique part being that their work is co-starring as Jay Gatsby and Daisy Buchanan in The Great Gatsby at the Broadway Theatre.

It's the third show they've starred in together: The pair met while playing lovers Orpheus and Eurydice in Hadestown on Broadway and in the West End, becoming an offstage item in 2019. Within the last year, they returned to the show in London, where their performance alongside other original cast members was filmed for theatrical release (starting July 24 in North America), and went on to play the Emcee and Sally Bowles in the same city's production of Cabaret. In the middle of that stint, they married in New Orleans; New York Theatre Guide spoke with them just after their six-month anniversary.

Carney and Noblezada's affection is clear: They sat close in our interview and finished each other's thoughts. At one point, they locked pinkies and each kissed their intertwined hands, clearly a special gesture for the pair. When they disappear into their characters, though — they are currently playing F. Scott Fitzgerald's star-crossed lovers mysterious millionaire and married socialite in Gatsby — they leave their real-life relationship out of it. "The only thing we're lucky to have that we have on stage as a foundation is just the trust, which leads us to be able to play with each other," Noblezada said.

She starred in Gatsby's original pre-Broadway and Broadway productions opposite Jeremy Jordan. Carney is new to the cast, and the experience feels fresh for both of them in different ways. The couple spoke more about their on- and offstage dynamics with New York Theatre Guide below — as well as when they might take a break from their theatrical hot streak to finally go on their honeymoon.

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Why did you want to do Gatsby, in particular, together?

Reeve Carney: They asked us to do it. And I'd seen it 12 times [...] and then we saw it once in London.

Eva Noblezada: Just thankful this worked out. Anything Reeve does, he's just so amazing and excellent at it, so it's an honor for me to work together on, what, our fifth, sixth production, technically?

Carney: Third show, but [...] we've done three versions of Hadestown.

Noblezada: We're having a great time, and it's flying by, which sucks a little bit. We're just being as present as possible.

As you watch each other embodying your characters, are you learning anything new about each other?

Noblezada: I'm not learning this as a new thing, but I'm deepening my understanding of how classy Reeve is and how easy he makes things look. In his Gatsby, he has such a heartbreaking level of faith, which very much is like Reeve in real life. That's a really beautiful part of the show that invites everyone else to elevate their storytelling and their connection to the piece because Reeve's Gatsby pulls your heartstrings, and it makes you want to hope and reach out.

Carney: Thanks, baby. I've always wanted to do a film with Eva. We obviously had the opportunity to do the Hadestown live capture, which is amazing — but a film, maybe even potentially a non-musical film. I bring that up because this is our first time really doing, I would say, proper scene work together, and it's so enjoyable getting to watch the skill with which Eva can change things every night. Not that the goal is ever to change things, but to keep it alive and fresh.

Hadestown is so intricately constructed that the melodies and the duration of words you can say — it's all dictated for you to a large degree because it's an opera. Whereas with this, we have these actual scenes that have a looseness to them that we haven't had an opportunity to do together yet. And it is our most adult love story so far, which is really cool.

You do tend to play doomed lovers on stage, but thank goodness your relationship worked out in real life.

Carney: Acting, baby! I mean, tragedies are a little bit — I'm not going to say they're more fun to play on stage [...] than comedies. But there's something about it. It is a fantasy world.

We love horror films. I actually Googled [...] what makes people so psychologically drawn to horror, and it explained it in a way that made a lot of sense to me. It gives people a safe place to work out traumatic things and try to problem-solve and figure out. That's one reason people are so drawn to tragedies as well, because you're just like, "How would I deal with this?" The most common question I would always get in Hadestown is, "Why did you turn around?" I'd be like, "So you don't have to."

What elements of yourselves and your relationship do you bring to your characters when you perform together?

Noblezada: None. I would say the only thing we're lucky to have that we have on stage as a foundation is just the trust, which leads us to be able to play with each other. But my goal is to always disappear. I never want people to come buy an expensive ticket to see me on stage. I want them to see the character and the structure of what the creative team and [I] created together.

[Characters and actors are] mirrors to each other. There are aspects of that to playing characters like Eurydice or Sally. I don't really see any of myself in Daisy. I think that if I met Daisy, it'd be hands-on immediately. But it creates a good challenge to create an inner life that's so rich and so detailed, down to what I feel like her DNA is. I feel my blood change when I go on stage as Daisy, which is a helpful way for me psychologically to make that transition and to feel comfortable in Daisy's body and world.

Carney: I think of [characters] as audio frequencies. We all, as people, have pretty much the full breadth of, if you compare it to the auditory spectrum, all those sounds within us. As actors, it's our job to [ask,] which frequency is going to become my fundamental frequency as this character?

In some ways, Jay Gatsby's is closest to me [...] but there are a lot of differences. You just figure out like, "All right, let's turn these things up and turn these things down," and then that's how you create the character.

Eva, besides the fact that you're now doing Gatsby with Reeve, what is different about this time around?

Noblezada: I'm more angry, coming back as a woman looking at how the world is, and it's really difficult for me to not put that into Daisy's ether for the reasons I'm angry. What I try to do is put my anger into her sadness, into her confusion of being trapped in a life that was written for her.

I'm lucky enough that I get to go to the theatre and work in a place where I can breathe with my full diaphragm and I just feel safe in that space. Daisy, the first time she's able to breathe is when she sees Jay again. And I do feel like I can really go deep in those moments of being with him on stage, which then means when I'm not, or when that's taken away from me, and when it's flaunted in my face that Daisy's husband is having an open affair and she can't do anything about it [...] it allows me to play that very "Diary of a Lost Girl" energy in Daisy that helps my anger go somewhere.

That's what feels different. And thankfully, with Reeve's presence in the show, it's unlocked, like a video game, a whole different part of the map where I can frolic and play and discover new things.

Reeve, you said you saw Gatsby 12 times before you joined. When was the first time you saw Eva in it? What do you remember about your first impression of the show?

Carney: I saw the first preview at the Paper Mill Playhouse. [...] I don't remember everything that changed, but I was blown away — I mean, I'm always blown away by Eva's performance in everything she does, and every character she's played has been so different.

I was blown away by [...] the scenic design, thinking, "What on earth is happening? How do they put this together so quickly here?" That really is brilliant, too.

When I got the opportunity to join, I was thrilled and immediately was like, "Okay, I can see what I would naturally do here and there," but it wasn't really a thing I was thinking about before then.

So what did you see? Eva talked about her Daisy. Who is your Gatsby?

Carney: Eva could probably describe it better than I can because I'm doing it, but I don't know how it comes across. Just using the parts of myself that I feel most closely align with Jay Gatsby and trying to amplify those things and really thinking, "What would Jay do?"

That's the thing, really — you just put yourself in their position. We're in the Plaza scene; I could use some sort of weird substitutions because that's not our relationship at all, but I don't find that's even particularly useful. I'm Jay Gatsby; this is how he feels. I guess it's sometimes easier to go that direct route.

Performing with your spouse sounds like a dream, but are there any challenges you've had to work through?

Noblezada: I'll tell you this: I'm obsessed with this guy. We quite literally always have the best time.

Carney: We became best friends first. So that's one element that leads to answering your question. If you build something off of friendship, whether intentionally or unintentionally, then who doesn't want to spend all day with their best friend? And getting to work with them is great.

Noblezada: I just would really love some time off. We'd just love a little vacation. We haven't gone on our honeymoon yet —

Carney (at the same time): We're going to go on our honeymoon right after this, is our plan.

Where are you going?

Noblezada: Who knows!

Carney: We actually don't even know. We have, like, five places we want to go.

Noblezada: Honolulu! Kidding. No, I was just quoting the show.

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This interview has been condensed and edited for length and clarity.

Photo credit: Reeve Carney and Eva Noblezada in The Great Gatsby on Broadway. (Photos by Evan Zimmerman for MurphyMade)