10 Things I Hate About You, the beloved ’90s rom-com, is being adapted into a Broadway musical. Pop singer Carly Rae Jepsen and Girls creator and writer Lena Dunham are attached to write the show’s score and book, respectively, after long-circulating rumors.
Jepsen will co-write the score with Ethan Gruska, whom she’s worked with on her last project The Loveliest Time. Dunham will co-write the book with Jessica Huang (The Paper Dream of Harry Chin), reports Billboard. Mike Bosner is set to produce the show, having recently helmed the 2022 starchy musical Shucked! and 2014’s jukebox biographical show Beautiful — The Carole King Musical.
“I can tell you 10 things I’m excited about right now or just skip to number one which is working on this dream project with this dream team!” Jepsen wrote on her Instagram.
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Tom Kitt, who wrote the Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award-winning musical Next to Normal, will arrange and orchestrate the show. Former New York City Ballet resident artist Christopher Wheeldon will direct and choreograph, boasting Broadway credits in An American in Paris and MJ: The Musical, both of which won Tonys for Best Choreography. With original music by Jepsen and Gruska, it’s too soon to say if the screen-to-stage adaptation will clear rights to use “Can’t Take My Eyes Off of You,” but here’s to hoping.
10 Things I Hate About You was released in 1999 as a modern take on the Shakespearean comedy The Taming of the Shrew. Starring Heath Ledger, Julia Stiles, and Joseph Gordon-Levitt, it was an immediate success and catapulted the careers of the film’s three stars. Later, in 2009, 10 Things was adapted into a TV series for ABC Family but was canceled after one season.
Jepsen’s last album was 2023’s The Loveliest Time, her B-side collection to 2022’s The Loneliest Time. She’s also teased that her next record is on the way soon in a series of Instagram posts. Rumor has it that A.G. Cook, Danny L Harle, Casey MQ, Kyle Shearer, and many more are involved, though nothing is entirely confirmed as of April 2025.
Dunham’s new show, Too Much, is expected to premiere on Netflix later this year. It stars Hacks’ Megan Stalter and The White Lotus’ Will Sharpe. Shortly after the success of Greta Gerwig’s Barbie, Dunham was set to direct a Polly Pocket film, but dropped out in 2024. “I don’t think I have that in me. I feel like the next movie I make needs to feel like a movie that I absolutely have to make… And I did think other people could make Polly Pocket,” she told The New Yorker.
Revisit Consequence’s 2022 interview with Carly Rae Jepsen, where she discussed the inspirations and behind-the-scenes of The Loneliest Time.
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