One of my all-time favorite movies from when I was younger is 10 Things I Hate About You. I actually rewatched it last year and it totally still holds up. There are so many great quotes and scenes from it! I still picture Heath Ledger on the bleachers whenever I hear “Can’t Take My Eyes Off Of You” and I will sometimes melodramatically tell Mr. Rosie, ”I hate the way you drive my car,” which is pulled from the 10 Things poem. (Fun fact: Kat wasn’t supposed to cry while reading the poem, but Julia Stiles got emotional because it was the end of filming and they left it in.) Anyway, I just love that movie. I refuse to acknowledge that it turns 26 this year!
Turning popular movies into musicals has long been all the rage, and now it’s 10 Things’ turn. Variety reports that a Broadway musical adaptation is currently in development. There’s no timeline on its debut yet, but the report confirms who will be working on the production: Lena Dunham and Carly Rae Jepsen! Lena is co-writing the book with playwright Jessica Huang, while Carly is serving as co-composer with Ethan Gruska, who produced her most recent album and has also worked with SZA and Phoebe Bridgers.
Lena Dunham and Carly Rae Jepsen are bringing a musical adaptation of the 1999 rom-com “10 Things I Hate About You” to Broadway, Variety has confirmed.
The Golden Globe-winning “Girls” creator and Grammy-nominated singer-songwriter have teamed up to adapt the beloved film starring Julia Stiles and Heath Ledger for the stage. Jepsen is co-writing the score with producer Ethan Gruska, with whom she worked on her most recent album “The Loveliest Time,” and Dunham is set to co-write the book with acclaimed playwright Jessica Huang.
The adaptation’s creative team also includes the two-time Tony-winning director and choreographer Christopher Wheeldon; music supervisor, arranger and orchestrator Tom Kitt, who is also a two-time Tony winner; and “Shucked” and “Beautiful — The Carole King Musical” producer Mike Bosner by special arrangement with Buena Vista Theatrical.
“’10 Things I Hate About You,’ a retelling of William Shakespeare’s 1594 play ‘The Taming of the Shrew,’ launched the careers of Heath Ledger, Julia Stiles and Joseph Gordon-Levitt and showcased a breakout performance by Alison Janney,” a press release reads. “The film was a box office hit and gained cult status thanks to its keen and witty examination of teenage life in a 1990s Seattle suburb and the nuanced portrayal of sisters Kat and Bianca Stratford.”
Besides the “10 Things I Hate About You” musical, Dunham is also set to launch her new Netflix series “Too Much” later this year, is writing a film about Sam Bankman-Fried for Apple and A24 and will write and direct the rom-com “Good Sex” starring Natalie Portman.
An opening date and theater for the “10 Things I Hate About You” musical has yet to be announced.
Along with being a huge fan of the movie, I’m also a big fan of musicals. I like that the other people involved are Broadway veterans. That said, I don’t know if we necessarily need a musical theatre version of 10 Things I Hate About You. Am I just being an old curmudgeon? I find Lena Dunham to be pretentious and exhausting, so having her name attached to it makes me weary. She abandoned the Polly Pocket movie, so who’s to say she won’t do the same thing here? That said, she’s laid pretty low since getting married in 2021, though, so perhaps I’m being unfair and she’ll surprise me.
Concerns aside, I think Carly Rae Jepsen is a great fit for this! She’s no stranger to musicals, having starred as Cinderella in the 2014 Broadway adaptation and as Frenchie in Fox’s live musical production back in 2016. I also think she’s a very talented pop musician. The music she writes is catchy and her lyrics are clever. I have no doubt that she’ll write some pretty fun music for this show. I can only imagine the fun she could have writing a song for the principal, Ms. Perky, as she tries to write about Reginald’s quivering member while simultaneously trying to keep her students in line. There is so much potential for some memorable show tunes here.
photos credit: Ray Tang/Cover Images, Justin Ng/Avalon, Getty and via Instagram
10 Things was based on the Shakespeare play “Taming of the Shrew” which was already turned into a brilliant musical called “Kiss Me Kate”.
Came here to say this! With songs by Cole Porter.
You mean “wary”, not “weary”
Both wary and weary work.
Lena Dunham finds herself so extraordinary. I can’t with her.
Lena can be cringey as all get out, but she co-wrote and directed one of my favorite movies of the last few years: “Catherine Called Birdy” with Bella Ramsey, Andrew Scott, Billie Piper. It came out in 2022 without much fanfare on Amazon Prime
Are you a white woman? Because Dunham goes waaaaaay beyond cringey, but I’d imagine white feminists everywhere are much kinder to her in their assessments….
We haven’t forgotten the racist crap she’s pulled endlessly over the years.
The amount of chances to make projects Lena Dunham gets despite everything she’s made post-Girls bombing is disgusting. So many talented female filmmakers out there but the boys club acts like Dunham/Fennell/Gerwig are the only ones worth financing and given mainstream rollout. And of course, they’re out of touch white women with questionable morals (and allergic to writing POC parts)
Why is Lena Dunham still allowed to do anything…?
I love 10 Things, but I cannot support anything Lena Dunham is connected to. She’s vile.
Lena is an automatic no for me. I like Carly though, hope she gets something good out of it.
Who made “girls” cohesive. It obviously wasn’t Durham because of all her other projects.
Girls was a world that was not mine. Just people being giving things because they are part of a group. Yet, I watched most episodes. Whoever made that show watchable should get this gig.