"The Great Gatsby" Ballet is a huge success!

 Billy was commissioned by The Washington (DC) Ballet to create a period score for their original production of The Great Gatsby. His collaboration with choreographer and company artistic director Septime Webre was a huge success, selling out 6 of 7 shows at the Eishower Theater at the Kennedy Center and it was the best-selling show in the history of the Washington Ballet.

The Washington Post review of the performance raved about the music:

" Bringing in Boston-based jazz expert Billy Novick and his band ... was a brilliant move.
The result is that for its musical splendors alone "Gatsby" is a remarkable event, an evening of explosive, ticklish and swooning live jazz (songs of the era, filled out with Novick's compositions), played with a verve to spark your thirst for hooch. Especially wonderful are the dark and cinematic early Ellington tunes ("East St. Louis Toodle-oo," "Saturday Night Function"), percolating jammers such as Tommy Dorsey's sly "It's Tight Like That," and Irving Berlin's ruminative "What'll I Do?" -- which echoes through the ballet as the theme for Jay Gatsby's romantic longings."