The 1999 teen film 10 Things I Hate About You is being turned into a stage musical. It will feature a score by recording artist and Broadway alum Carly Rae Jepsen and Grammy winner Ethan Gruska, and a book by Golden Globe winner Lena Dunham (Girls) and Jessica Huang. Christopher Wheeldon (MJ) will direct and choreograph, with music supervision, arrangements, and orchestrations by Tom Kitt (Next to Normal).
Written for the screen by Karen McCullah and Kirsten "Kiwi" Smith," 10 Things I Hate About You modernizes Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew. The film has attained cult status, mostly thanks to iconic career-launching performances from Heath Ledger, Julia Stiles, and Joseph Gordon-Levitt. Casting for the stage musical is to be announced.
Jepsen is best known for her 2012 hit song "Call Me Maybe," but has been no stranger to the world of musical theatre. She made her Broadway debut in 2014 in the title role of Rodgers and Hammerstein's Cinderella, and played Frenchie in the 2016 live TV production of Grease. Jepsen's songwriting collaborator Gruska has worked with such artists as Phoebe Bridgers, Ryan Beatty, Bon Iver, Remi Wolf, Conan Gray, and John Legend.
The show would bring screenwriter and actor Dunham her first major stage credit. She's currently writing and directing Too Much for Netflix; she created and starred in Girls on HBO. Huang is a playwright whose body of work includes Mother of Exiles, The Paper Dreams of Harry Chin, and Transmissions in Advance of the Second Great Dying.
Mike Bosner is producing the project by special arrangement with Buena Vista Theatrical. A production timeline has not yet been shared.
