From Chart Hooks to Curtain Calls
Carly Rae Jepsen’s move from pop star to Broadway songwriter with the 10 Things I Hate About You musical marks a deliberate shift from radio-friendly singles to full-blown theatrical storytelling, showing how pop star musical theatre can turn a singer’s knack for hooks and feelings into characters, plot, and an entire stage world audiences can live inside. Lena Dunham and Carly Rae Jepsen’s new musical adaptation of 10 Things I Hate About You is officially heading to Broadway in 2027, with previews set to begin on August 17th, 2027. The production teams Dunham and playwright Jessica Huang on the book, while Jepsen co-writes music and lyrics with Ethan Gruska, a Grammy-winning producer known for work with Phoebe Bridgers and boygenius. This is not a casual side project; it is Jepsen’s bid to be seen as an architect of Broadway content, not just a guest performer.
Why 10 Things I Hate About You Is a Smart Theatrical Bet
Choosing the 10 Things I Hate About You musical as her first full writing venture is a savvy move for Carly Rae Jepsen. The 1999 film, itself a teenage reworking of Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew, is already built on heightened emotion, witty banter and big romantic gestures — the same elements that fuel her pop songs about crushes, longing and bad timing. According to one report, the new musical is framed as a “rebellious” story of “growing up, discovering yourself, and refusing to live by others’ expectations”. That logline overlaps neatly with Jepsen’s lyrical world, making the project feel like an extension of her voice rather than a departure. By bringing Kat, Patrick, Bianca and Padua High back nearly three decades after the film first arrived, the show taps into nostalgia while letting a contemporary pop writer re-define teenage interior life for a live audience.
Carly Rae Jepsen Broadway: From Cinderella to Creator
Carly Rae Jepsen Broadway headlines used to be about her turn as Cinderella; now they are about authorship. She made her Broadway debut in 2014 as the title role in Rodgers + Hammerstein’s Cinderella, proving she could carry a traditional musical as a performer. But 10 Things I Hate About You will be Jepsen’s first musical as a writer, with music and lyrics credited to her and Ethan Gruska. That distinction matters. Pop star musical theatre is often framed as stunt casting, yet this production flips the dynamic: a pop artist is responsible for building the score from the ground up. With Tom Kitt overseeing music supervision, arrangements and orchestrations, Jepsen’s melodic instincts will be filtered through a seasoned Broadway ear, positioning her not as an outsider crashing the party but as a collaborator stepping into the long-running conversation about how modern musicals should sound.
Indie-Pop Credibility Meets Broadway Machinery
If Carly Rae Jepsen is supplying the heart, Ethan Gruska is supplying the edge. Gruska’s production and songwriting work with Phoebe Bridgers and boygenius gives this project an indie-pop undercurrent that could stop the 10 Things I Hate About You musical from feeling like a glossy nostalgia piece. The creative team around them is stacked: Christopher Wheeldon, a two-time Tony winner whose credits include MJ and An American in Paris, will direct and choreograph, while Tom Kitt, known for Next to Normal, handles music supervision and orchestrations. Broadway previews start on August 17, 2027, but the theater, opening night and casting are still to be announced. The mix of pop, indie and traditional Broadway talent suggests a score that respects the film’s iconic musical moments — including Heath Ledger’s bleacher serenade — while carving out new emotional peaks only a live stage can deliver.
What This Pivot Signals for Pop and Broadway
Carly Rae Jepsen’s step into Broadway songwriting feels less like an experiment and more like a preview of where pop and theater are headed. With her double album Day and Night due September 18 and a special set at All Things Go in New York City next month, she is not abandoning recording or touring; she is expanding the canvas. The 10 Things I Hate About You musical asserts that a pop artist can design narrative-driven scores, not just contribute a theme song. It repositions Carly Rae Jepsen Broadway work as part of her core creative identity, alongside her studio albums. As more pop musicians look for ways to tell longer, character-based stories, Broadway 2027 debut projects like this could become the norm: theater as the next frontier for artists who have outgrown three-minute confessions and want to build entire emotional ecosystems instead.
