Carly Rae Jepsen and Lena Dunham
(Photos: Jim Dyson/Redferns; Sebastian Reuter/Getty Images)
10 Things I Hate About You, the beloved 1999 teen romantic comedy written by Karen McCullah and Kirsten “Kiwi” Smith, is being adapted for the stage as a new musical.
The show is being developed for Broadway with a score by Grammy Award nominee Carly Rae Jepsen (“Call Me Maybe”) and Grammy Award winner Ethan Gruska, and a book by Golden Globe Award winner Lena Dunham (Girls) and award-winning playwright Jessica Huang. Direction and choreography are by two-time Tony Award winner Christopher Wheeldon (MJ), and music supervision, arrangements and orchestrations are by two-time Tony Award winner Tom Kitt.
Jepsen, best known as a pop singer-songwriter, made her Broadway performing debut in 2014 as Ella in Rodgers + Hammerstein’s Cinderella.
A retelling of Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew, 10 Things I Hate About You launched the careers of Heath Ledger and Julia Stiles, playing mysterious rebel Patrick Verona and subversive feminist Kat Stratford who find love amid the superficial world of Padua High School. The cast also featured Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Larisa Oleynik, David Krumholtz, Andrew Keegan, Gabrielle Union, Larry Miller and Allison Janney.
Production details have not yet been announced, but if the film’s existing musical number fails to make it to the stage, audiences will riot.
